WANKEN - The blog of Shelby White » Showcased Work

Process: Branding Ian Matteson

Shelby White — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:27:05 +0000

This project, brand and identity development, was for long time friend and photographer Ian Matteson. Ian is an action and commercial based photographer out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Along with Ian’s action and commercial work, he shoots a lot of film/fine art photographs. As the project progressed, I realized just how great it would be to incorporate these other areas into core components of his brand. We both have put in endless hours working on this project and really are excited to have this portion of it completed.

Objectives & Goals

Our first main objective was to develop an identity for Ian that really complimented his style of photography also keeping his long and short-term goals in mind, while at the same time, enabling him to stand out among others in the photography industry. After talking about these goals we came to recognize that simplicity was key in this case. We needed people to remember his name through his work and needed to be unique in the way that we were doing it. A brand that was cohesive would in itself set Ian apart from his competition.

Logo Development

Round one sketches

Before diving into headfirst into the design, Ian and I sat down (mostly via iChat) and researched current and past photographer logo trends. Based upon our research, we saw a pattern. It showed that generally the more successful photographers opt to utilize their name as their logo. In some cases, Ian’s competition also did this, but completely lacked the visual stability throughout their brand and the uniqueness of the logotype.

The few sketches above show alleys that were explored. Although my initial icon sketches didn’t make the cut, they still provided a point in which I could look at how an icon could assist or take away from the main logo. This was the point where we really questioned tradition and steered away from using an icon. There would be no case where Ian would need to use one and going back to our original goal: We want people to remember his name–not an icon.

Round two sketches

Once the direction was established for the logo, I began to use tracing paper over my round two sketches. Have you ever used tracing paper for logos? I find it to be a huge time saver when repeating sketches over and over. After hashing out several versions of the original sketch, I visited the personality of each letterform. The biggest issue I saw with using just logotype as the main logo was that we really needed it to sing. Ian is such a character that we really needed it to do him justice. The beautiful hand drawn type and driving idea of simplicity fit perfectly into the recipe that both Ian and I were envisioning.

Color

Selecting color was a no brainer for this project. The use of a highlight color deemed inappropriate for this logo considering there was no icon to utilize a seconary color. Also, to add a secondary color to the logo would ultimately take away from our main goal and lastly, it would cause problems when using the logo as a watermark directly over color images. The solution for the color scheme was to bring in Ian’s film and fine art look to enhance the brand. We focused on what imagery would be where and on what application (print or web). In the case of printed materials, the type and logo will be black on white with the exception of the business card (black on black).

The website however, will use white text on dark imagery. This is where we really bring in Ian’s work. All of the images that require a substantial amount of text overlaying them, are greyscale like in the above diagram. The other imagery are portfolio works that have no overlaying text. To create the base colors I blurred out images until they only viewable as splotches of color. Another way to do this is to select your image and use the mosaic filter in Photoshop. I hadn’t used this method prior to this project, but it really helped narrow down the amount of greys, whites and blacks.

Typography

Typefaces used in both print & web applications

The typefaces used throughout the collateral pieces absolutely enhanced this project. Interstate was used in the printed material as it bonded beautifully with the final logo; the angular design of each letterform also complimented Ian’s action photography. For online collateral, we utilized Klavika. Once again the type reflected the work by both the angular and rounded letterforms.

Business Papers

Even though there is becoming less and less of a need for a printed business cabinet, we still felt like it was absolutely necessary. Ian still needs to present himself to clients whom aren’t fully immersed in the digital age. In addition to the traditional business papers, I designed templates of Ian’s business papers as an extension of the identity: Invoice, Contract, Model and Property Releases.

Conclusion

This project has been awesome to work on and the end result is something we’re proud of and thrilled to have it out on the table for viewing. The whole visual aesthetic and logo fit exactly to who Ian is as a photographer. Not to mention Ian is in love with his new look. I hope you enjoyed this post and feel free to chime in if you have something to say.

Showcased Work: Shwood Website Design

Shelby White — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:57:19 +0000

These are just a few of the web designs done late last year for Shwood Eyewear out of Portland, Oregon. The website itself was to be built in HTML/CSS with jquery components and a full-browser Flash video player. This project is one of many more to be included in the new portfolio the next few weeks.

FRAME BY FRAME: The Helly Hansen Annual Report

Shelby White — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:04:06 +0000

Note: This project was completed as a class assignment at the Art Institute of Seattle. This was not done directly for Helly Hansen (though it would be very rad if HH took a liking to it). I hope that in some way the sharing of my process may be of inspiration to you.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been showing sneak peeks of projects that I’m working on via Twit-pics and now its here. If you’re just tuning into the blog, you can follow on twitter to see things that don’t make the blog.

The Objective

Before diving into the process, let me define the project. The goal of the project was to choose an existing company and create a minimum of 28 pages, bound, and at least 6 x 7″ or larger publication. The publication was to be an annual report about the company; presenting who they were in the industry and their financial success. The financial section of the project was required to have at least 6 to 7 pages of tabled financial data.

The company I chose was Helly Hansen and there were several reasons why. Every project that I do for an assignment (if I have the opportunity to choose), I like to choose companies that are easy to work with based on their branding. I also like to consider what options I have when working with their logo as well as the photography of the project.

The Concept

The most important thing to me was to portray the report close enough alongside their branding, that it would fit within. If you look closely at the Helly Hansen logo, you’ll see that the two H’s are separated by an angle. Each spread uses that angle is echoed lightly throughout the entire report.

The second idea I used took the logo’s height and width to determine the size of the annual report. To do this I enlarged the logo roughly 600% until the width reached 8.5″. This idea alone drives the report.

The third most important idea of my concepts was to put a small change on the images that were shown throughout the report. For those who may not know, Helly Hansen’s product line was originally and still remains focused on performance gear for boating and heavy outdoor use.

The Photography

Since photography remains dear to me, it was only right that I go the extra mile (or 13.6 for that matter) to get the shots myself. Check out the photos from the shoots in this next, Frame by Frame clip (view in High Quality).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Instead of showing stock imagery or images gathered by HH themselves, I shot my own style with regards to what was appropriate for the report. Over 1,000 images were shot for the project (usually I’d shoot more) but only 15 were used in the publication. I felt like this is a pretty high percentage of keepers to tossers.

The Cover & Binding

To start the building of the cover, I purchased Gorilla glue (Home Depot), Vinyl/Fake Leather (JoAnn’s Fabrics) and Basswood (Utrecht). The following images show just how I made each piece.

I utilized a laser cutter to etch/carve the logo into the front cover. Once again you see the angled lines echoed both on the front and on the back covers along with “ANNUAL REPORT” on the front and “HELLYHANSEN.COM” on the back.

Having never worked with perfect-binding a book before, I did my research online on the materials needed, clamping it, gluing it and also attaching it to the covers. A lot of the process is very simple and straightforward if you have another book or pictures to reference while you build yours.

Conclusion

I would have to say, I am very satisfied with how the overall piece turned out and I can’t wait to try the whole process again. Lets turn it over to you since this post is for you. If you enjoy what I’ve done here, let me know–feedback is always welcomed.

Thank you to Greg & Brooke Miller and also to David Cole for helping out as the talent in some of the photos that were used.