BRIEF 03 - DBA / CAPITAL NORTH - DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT - VISUAL LANGUAGE AND LOGO MARK

As we were beginning to run out of time, we decided as a group to get together and spend a full couple of days working on it. 

Working on a big projector, with Sam in control, we tried a huge variety of logo ideas and possibilities for a visual language. Focusing one the four characteristics, we bounced ideas off of each other until we eventually landed on a visual realisation of our concept.

We originally started looking at the use of four lines to create a square and then developed that.

These either looked too basic or too corporate so we adapted them in an attempt to change this.

As we were not making any progress with a mark we decided to look at possible typefaces that could be used as a logotype.

After trying a few different fonts and different set ups, we decided on Helvetica Bold for the type used in the logo, without any additional boxes or lines as these began to look a bit like Cartoon Network.

We still wanted a language that could be used across all of the cities as well as a mark that could be used for Capital North as a unity.

We began by going back to the original concept of four lines creating a square. As we had already established, each city had a proportion of each characteristic that meant it could contribute to Capital North. Informed by our research, we decided to create a graph. The characteristic that was the strongest in each city would be the same length so that when they were put together they would create a square, showing Capital North as the full package. The lines of the other characteristics of each city would then be estimated from the research. The lines would then be joined together to create a unique shape for each city. 

With these unique shapes we began to think about how the language could be developed and adapted to fit different situations.

First of all we looked at connecting the shapes to show the connection but also possibly represent a journey or mode of transport.

This was quite effective with two shapes merging into each other, especially when the change was visualised in a number of stages.

When you added a third and fourth shape, however, it began to become a bit busy and over complicated.

We also looked at how the shapes could be used with text. The chosen text was taken from George Osbourne's original speech on the 'Northern Powerhouse'.

The decision to use both filled and outline text was made due to our shapes also being able to be used in both ways.

We tried various different methods of interaction between the text and the shapes. 

The concept of the shapes interacting with things is something we liked and wanted to take forward into the design and development of the campaign.

Although we had developed a visual language that we were happy with we still wanted a mark to represent Capital North.

A square was the perfect solution as it was made up of four lines of equal length that represented the four characteristics in full. On reflection, however, the square was not unique or identifiable enough for Capital North.

Still using a square we positioned the shapes at each corner and manipulated the lines to create a unique shape. Although this went against our idea of inclusivity rather than exclusivity of cities as we were using only four, we though is an acceptable exception as we thought of them as the foundation cities.

The shape was then combined with text in a variety of different layouts and colours to provide us with multiple options to use if we liked them.

Now that we had a visual language that we were happy with we set off individually combining the shapes with imagery of the cities that we had initially researched.