31st August (Thu)

Description

To get started, I outlined the essential elements and processes of branding. My branding process started by identifying and analysing my brand's positionality, vision, and values. This is a process of reflection and reiteration of previous ideas. It allowed me to re-learn and understand my toolkit's purpose before I started creatively branding it.

-> From the Miro board, My positionality and Project Partners' Positionality (1), (2)

Along with positionality, I also listed the values of the toolkit. I've analysed the values of previous projects, but this time, I analysed the values of the toolkit itself and the values I wanted the users of the toolkit to feel.

-> From the Miro board,

The first stage of branding was to "name" the toolkit. Based on the positionality and values of the project and the toolkit, I came up with a list of inspired words, combining them in different ways or coming up with new ones, and finally settling on a brand name.

Kairanger

The name of my toolkit, Kairanger, is a combination of the Maori words for food, Kai, and arrange. The literal meaning of Kairanger is "to organise food", but another meaning is "to protect food". I took advantage of the fact that ~ranger is often attached to many superheroes' names to imply that I wanted my toolkit to be a food protector. It also fits the value of my toolkit because it's a word that is easily pronounceable and accessible to people of all ages and nationalities.

The second stage of branding was to choose a colour to represent the brand. I stuck with the colour theme that I had previously chosen in my research in Week 3. This is because a variety of colours will attract the attention of users, especially my target audience of intermediate and college students.

The third piece of branding is the font style, which reflects the style of the toolkit. While exploring different fonts, I chose a game-like pixel style, which is good for targeting teens. By choosing a pixelated font for the main font, I could unify all the styles with a pixelated feel to make the brand more cohesive and showcase the playful nature of the toolkit.

-> From the Miro board, colour theme and typography

Fourth, I created a tagline for the brand. Some might not think a tagline is important, but it can be used as many elements of my toolkit and brand. I wanted to come up with a simple and easy tagline for people to remember. I also wanted to include the parts of the name of the brand so that users could easily reach the brand name from the tagline.

Keep your Kai. Keep it kind.

The tagline, which translates to 'store your food with kindness', is a reminder to protect your food with the toolkit and also harkens back to my project's kawa, Manaakitanga, kindness. I also included Kai in the tagline as a reminder of the toolkit's name.

The final stage is Logo design. After going through many designs, I chose two final designs. Both designs are pixel art style and use five colours from the colour theme.

-> Kairanger logo, 2 types

Feelings

I always find the branding process enjoyable because it gives me the opportunity to explore and research different designs. In particular, the colour theme and font research process before creating the logo was my favourite part of branding. I love being creative because it's something that can easily cause me stress, but it's also something that allows me to express myself at my best. I think I love the creative process because every time I create a new design, it's stressful because I'm not sure what I want, but I'm happy when I reach a point where I have the design I want after many struggles.

Evaluation

Project process 5/5 - I researched how branding works first, so I knew what to expect.

Time management 1/5 - I should have taken into account that a task requiring creativity can go far beyond the planned time, and I spent a lot of time working on the logo in particular, which delayed my plans.

Project result 5/5 - I now have a clear direction for my brand and am able to present a clear branding.

Analysis

I did some research on branding before I started. Therefore, I could create the essentials I needed to design my brand. My toolkit, The collective action toolkit, didn't have a tool for creating a brand, so researching what branding consists of was essential. Through my research, I learnt that if you prioritise analysing your project before creating a brand, you'll have a better chance of creating a brand name and logo. This allowed me to generate a variety of brand name ideas and challenge myself with different logo designs.

However, it took me a long time to decide on a logo design because I was so caught up in researching and comparing different logos that I lost sight of my own brand.

Conclusion

Working on my solo project, I learnt about the process of branding - a simplified version of the process, but one that is absolutely essential.

As I mentioned before, I needed a lot of time to decide on a logo design, and I think this is because I was researching a lot of logos and lost sight of what made me unique, so I think it's important to have a solid design direction so that you don't lose sight of your own design after research.

Action Plan

If I were to do it again, I would start by defining the style of my brand using a detailed branding process, as this will give me a clear design style for the project when deciding on a logo design.

I would also create a design mood board of the direction I want to go in before creating the logo so I have a base to work from.

Next Plan

For the rest of Break 1, I'll finally finalise the toolkit idea and contents.

Research materials and plan for an initial paper prototype

Reference

(1) Plant and Food Research. (2023). Our strategy. Plant and Food Research. https://www.plantandfood.com/en-nz/our-strategy