#fogm

Making Photoshop mock-ups has really helped me consider how the brand is applied in different circumstances. In this Facebook page mock-up I initially tried the letter mark as the the social media icon but felt this was too cluttered so simplified it to the letter A in my wordmark/ the gable entrance elevation of the Burrell Collection. It has also made me think about how the wordmark and icon could be used over photography. In these mock-up examples I have used stock images but I believe as part of the group rebrand they have commissioned their own photography.

Again thinking about another application made me look at applying my design principles to different aspects. In this mock-up I have used the social media icon as a template for the different Instagram story templates using the initial letter of the site as an icon. Also, don’t know why the yellow background on the two mock-ups looks different I’m sure I set them to be the same colour - gah!

By thinking about how my branding might be incorporated into a poster I was thinking about how Michael Johnson of Johnson Banks talked about the ‘Thumb Test’ in many of his talks that I have watched on YouTube. Rather than the logo be a tiny mark in the corner that could get lost in among sponsors logos there is an opportunity for the brand to establish itself front and centre. I chose this photograph of a tartan coat from Glasgow Museum Collection and tried experimenting by laying my ‘dots’ icon over the top. In theory this template could be applied regardless of the image behind. Sponsors logos could be applied and even if the ‘Friends of Glasgow Museums’ wordmark had to be reduced in size hopefully over time the dots themselves would establish the brand behind the advertisement.

Initially I started by adjusting the wordmark which is based on Emre Parlak’s Major Mono Display font. I felt that the M already reflected the shape of Glasgow’s Riverside Museum so I looked to the architecture of some of the other museums for inspiration that would tie in with the existing geometry of the type. Immediately I thought of the gable entrance elevation of The Burrell Collection and sketched this up to replace the A in the type. Although not a building I knew well I found the windows of The St Mungo Museum Of Religious Life a good shape to replace the U (upside down). I felt that in the original font there was a little bit too much weight in the second half of the word FRIENDS so I created an outline for the letter D which allowed for a bit more negative space. I also repeated this step for the letter S but I think that left the word mark unbalanced.

After a group branding exercise at college one of the taglines we came up with was ‘Putting Glasgow on the map for its world class museums collection’. I took the idea of plotting the points of the museums on a map and joining the dots, almost like a constellation (I was thinking of the ceiling of the great hall at the Portrait museum in Edinburgh) and so have introduced a dark blue colour to compliment the red and mustard already identified in the Lord Mungo Murray tartan. Combining these colours reminds me of the Dutch DeStijl art movement in the early 20th Century.

Some initial sketches exploring ideas from my mood board. First attempt at using Adobe Fresco to create some painted backgrounds and exploring monospace types. I can’t remember the source now but I read about how monospace type works better in capitals due to their more geometric nature. I feel this comes through above in the word mark on the red background which looks badly spaced. Also not being able to reduce the leading because of the ascender of the ‘l’ in Glasgow and the descender of the ‘f’ in of conflicting.

BRIEF

FOGM wishes to hold a competition to create a NEW LOGO that reflect the ethos of the society, our membership and activities, and our relationship with Glasgow’s Museums and Art Galleries. We are looking for refined, fresh, modern and attractive image that would be eye-catching and give a strong identity for our society. It would be the first image on our new website and be used in all aspects of correspondence to our members and beyond. Ideally the image would easily transfer to branding merchandise should we wish to do so.

My initial Mood Board clockwise from top left:

1. I was drawn to the oil paint effect behind the ‘Patron’ text, I felt that the ‘Art’ element was emphasised more than Human History, Transport & Technology and Natural History of the museums during the briefing

2. Logo for Coronet Theatre by North I read on the opinion site Brand New that  

“ The new logo, as the quoted text mentions, was a gift from the character-count heavens where “CORONET” and “THEATRE” have the same number of characters and “THE” can be spaced out evenly with two characters in between, yielding an abstract coronet, which is the minor league of crowns.”                   

(UnderConsideration, 2020)

Given that Friends Museums and Glasgow all have 7 letters I think it is worth exploring a monospace type

3. Portrait of Lord Mungo Murray was a recent acquisition for Kelvingrove museum part funded by the group. It is significant as it is described as being 

“The 1683 work is the earliest major portrait to depict a sitter full-length in Highland dress.” (BBC, 2020)

4. Lord Mungo Murray Tartan recorded in the portrait prior to the launch of ‘The Scottish Register of Tartans’ It could be worth exploring colours from this in my designs

5. Painting by Bernat Klein a Serbian textile designed based in Scotland. His paintings closely reflect the colours and design in his tweed fabric. It would be interesting to explore a similar idea using the colours and pattern from the Lord Mungo Murray Tartan. 

6. Hiroshi Yoshimura branding - I like this typeface

7. Coco X Timorous Beastie collaboration again similar to the ‘Patron’ looking at the ‘Art’ element