SB3 - Initial Ideas

The first presentation was put together in order to bring together everyone’s ideas and see what kind of brand and identity we were aiming towards as a collective for the exhibition.

The research stages began looking into the branding of Sammlung at Design Museum by Bureau Borsche, this was bought to our attention because despite the alternate designs on the lower portion of the design, the type and colour were consistent. Showing us how there can be a strong element of brand identity no matter what the content of the exhibition may be.

OK RM – Under the same sun at south London Gallery was also looked into with our initial research stages, due to its bold geometric colourful nature; mixed with minimal imagery and a strong typeface. These elements mixed give a strong recognisable visual identity that captures the work in the exhibition without particularly displaying it. This is something we want to try and consider when designing the branding for our exhibition, as we won’t have seen some of the works before we have to produce it.

Name Idea Production:

To produce names as a group we start to consider the way the brief can be communicated in as little words as possible, yet also at the same time a way that incorporates the way that the work is produced.

Our selections came down to a shortlist consisting of: 

Imprint- the way in which ink leaves a mark on a page during particular traditional print methods.

Made you look- this is referencing the way which screen prints can be sometimes mistaken for digital and the way the process can create clean and precise printing.

Squeegee- reference to the equipment used when screen-printing.

Contact- the contact between ink and the page.

Coverage- both the coverage of the page and the coverage of LCA’s work is being referred to with this name.

Pulp- this is the process that all paper starts out as.

Before selecting the final name that we should continue to explore with, the idea of what the exhibition is and who for was analysed:

What is it: An exhibition celebrating the public spaces of Leeds through traditional printing methods.

Why should you visit: These are one-off prints by current LCA students - a chance to see individual and creative work that celebrates the history and culture of Leeds.

Unique Selling Point: Only traditional printing methods (screen printing, mono printing, letterpress and foil printing) mean each print has been physically made and is unique.

Audience: Creative Community in Leeds - students, teachers and designers (approx aged 18-40).

IMPRNT – this is the name that was chosen to continue on the development and present to peers to analyse the effectiveness of such.

• Communicates that it is a print exhibition with the name literally featuring the word “print”.
• Communicates that it is an important event - it will leave an imprint on the city and the viewers of the exhibition.
• Communicates that it is traditional methods, i.e. print, and not digital/moving image/etc. This is a PRNT exhibition!
• Appeals to target audience - removing vowels is trendy with young people and “cool” companies.

Concepts behind IMPRNT:

• Remove all vowels: IMPCT, IMPRSS, IMPSSBL, IMPRTNT.
• Stripped back aesthetic - we don’t need vowels, we don’t need modern equipment.
• Discover the imprints left by each student - their footprints on the city of Leeds via their prints celebrating it.
• IMPORTANT -> IMPRINT (IMPRNT>IMPRNT).
• I AM IMPRNT
• Stamps - imprinted
• They/we/he/she/IM PRNT

Our logo ideas were all simplistic and modern, following the use of Helvetica Neue manipulated, the most popular logotype from the selection below proved to be the centre upper logo. The N was changed to connect the r and t creating a ligature effect, tying together the extremely tight kern on the rest of the letters; giving the logotype a strong base, which is adaptable to many medias and colour.