DESN320 BRANDING PROJECT JACK CURTIS and BRIAN TONG DESN320 Branding Project Jack Curtis and Brian Tong

DESIGN BRIEF

The goals for this project were to create a cohesive branding for the Access 2011 conference. The conference is the largest librarians conference in Canada and on average attracts upwards of 200 people. Up until now, Access had not been branded and each year saw a different array of poorly considered websites. The conference caters pre- dominately to the ‘librarian geeks’ and range from early 30’s to late 50’s. The conference is primarily technology base and offers a platform for fellow librarians to ‘nerd’ out and to hone their skills all while discussing and ad- dressing problems pertaining to the library.

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PREVIOUS ACCESS BRANDING

From the get go, we started to look at previous Access branding (or lack there of) and their accompanying websites. We addressed the short comings and success- es (few) and began to develop an idea of what needed to be developed in terms of deliverables. We also began looking at other conference websites. Ranging from TED to BlizzCon, we began to paint a picture of the average branding for conferences. Ranging from technology to comics, each conference had a distinct brand that its attendants could get be- hind. We also looked at other logos and the brands they pertained to. This helped us decide what was necessary to create a concrete brand.

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INSPIRATION: CONFERENCE WEBSITES

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INSPIRATION: LOGOS

We looked at many vector-based logos for inspiration because we wanted to project this conference as a fun, contemporary event. We also looked at many modular logos that could be combined and recon- structed to create fresh forms.

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FIRST ITERATIONS

ACCESS ACCESS

Early iterations began to take shape early. We took what we were learning from the other brands and began to add our on voice and styles. Early iterations focused on a modular approach. We intended to create a logo that would be used cross platform and would thusly be used in subsequent years. We began by creating systems through binary. We had a grid laid out and subsequently would fill in certain points by looking at binary code. This generated logos based upon people names and offered a very personalized logo. Here, we began to further develop the idea of a personalized and modular logo.

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SECOND ITERATIONS

KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT VANCOUVER • OCTOBER 19-22, 2011

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: ANDREA REIMER OCTOBER 19-22, 2001 JER THORP VA NCOU VER • O CT OBER 1 9- 22 , 20 11 JON BEASLEY-MURRAY VANCOUVER, BC

HELLO, MY NAME IS

We toyed with the idea of offset bitmap because the conference was about breaking out of the grid and doing everything yourself. We tried variations of us- ing the character as the basis for posters, but we felt that the aesthetic was still too flat. We had to look for a new solution for “The Library is Open.”

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ACCESS BRANDING

Finally, after what seemed like endless amounts of type face that was created to reflect similar elements iterations, we reached a cohesive concept. Our origi- that had been developed in the logo. Finally, we cre- nal iterations were far too obtrusive and metaphorical ated a mascot for the campaign. The mascot embod- for anyone to really understand what it was we were ied the ethos of the campaign. With an emphasis on trying to do. We dialed back the techy approach and community and the generation of ideas determined began to look for a more humanistic approach. Here the visual elements for the mascot. The mascot was we developed the tag line “a new generation of ideas” maid modular so that it could be customized year and build a subsequent campaign off it. Tara had ex- after year depending on the key note speakers. This plained that the librarians and their conferences were thusly created a very well rounded concept that in a stage of flux as a new, younger generation was could be applied to subsequent conferences. coming into play and the old was on its way out. Here we developed what would become out log, typeface and mascot. For the logo we combined the idea of a book meets new technology by combining the silhou- ette of a book cover and the filament of a light bulb. We then developed a word mark made from a custom 8 DESN320 Branding Project Jack Curtis and Brian Tong

CUSTOM TYPEFACE

SECONDARY TYPEFACE

Tomato Round Condensed ITC Officina Serif Std Medium Book

abcdefghijklM abcdefghijklM nopqrstuvwxyz nopqrstuvwxyz

abcdefghijklmnopqrstu abcdefghijklmnopqrstu vwxyz vwxyz

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THE LIBRARY IS OPEN

We felt it was very important to address the project Here we pushed the hand written type to create in two halves. Firstly, we branded Access separately said feel. We create stickers that posed an open end- so that it could be used year after year to create ed question that the audience is expected to answer. brand longevity. This was key in creating a brand that These stickers were then placed on top of books to would last. Secondly, we needed to address this years visualize the metaphor of building off of old ideas to theme with the new branding we had just developed. create new ones. Subsequently, posters, button pins, The them ‘The Library is Open’ proved to be another promo cards and the website were created to reflect hurdle. We needed to keep the humanistic approach the same. To keep the conference within a realistic that we had pushed while still maintaining our brand realm, and to further emphasize the humanist ap- ethos. proach, we used photos for these deliverables.

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WEBSITE

We designed a single-page navigating website that runs on Wordpress. An open invitation to the user is presented on the website, hence the “The Library is open to FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! YOU.” Information is accessed through roll-

HOME over icons, and sub-headers pop out. There ABOUT is a Twitter feed on the right side of the HOTEL / TRAVEL main page that will constantly be refreshed PROGRAM as new posts are tweeted. The book in the REGISTRATION background shifts as more information is SPONSORS presented on sub-pages.

HOME

ABOUT Hackfest

Pre-Conference

HOTEL / TRAVEL Keynotes

Conference PROGRAM

REGISTRATION