OUGD502: Logo - Developing my identity

Self branding

Some initial ideas for my personal branding development differed enormously from what I originally produced towards the end of last year.  I feel that this represents my preference in modern, minimalist design and in turn reflects my style of work using just vertical and horizontal lines to create a shape symbolic of my initials 'EH'.  

I worked within the boundaries of a square as I felt this was most appropriate and versatile for use on social media websites, as well as reinforcing further the straight-edged structure of the image.

After months of contemplation and dissatisfaction with this design, I decided to go back to sketching to come up with something more suitable for my practice and personality.  Through developing my skills in hand lettering and drawing, it was obvious that I should represent myself through an image of the same medium so I began hand drawing more loose forms to portray this. 

       

I also looked at the logos and branding of some lettering artists who's work I have been looking at recently.  They generally write their name or initials in a hand lettered style, which fits with the context of their work.  Taking this into account I feel that the new sketches and ideas for my own branding are more suitable than my original choice - although it was an appropriate composition to demonstrate my interest in print and editorial design, more recently I have been working on lettering and typography.

My brand will no doubt change again at some point, as John has spoken to us about before.  As interests change so will your branding; constantly developing and learning new skills will encourage this.

After deliberation over minor elements of the composition, I have decided on the last version which shows the initials of my name surrounded only about 70% of the curve, with the start of the loop crossing through the centre horizontally.  This forms a reflected distortion of an ampersand sign (when ignoring the letterforms) representative of the various disciplines within design that I involve in my work.  These include graphic design, photography, and lettering.  Having letters within the symbol rather than just an icon is more relevant to me because my main focus is typography and lettering.  My current practice involves primarily lettering work which is why I've chosen this style to illustrate my design.