Colours and Names...

Within my formative presentation, it was clear that the next step to take was to further develop the visual identity of my brand as I had thought about the general direction I wanted it to go down in relation to the values and personality of the brand but not the specifics of how this was going to be visually portrayed.

Colour Palette

In order to figure out a suitable colour palette, I have first looked into colour association to break down the meanings of various colours for a successful fit with who the brand is. By looking at the two pictures above, it is clear that each colour can present a different meaning in consumer's minds and cause them to form a subconscious opinion on a brand, which is why many brands use colour to their advantage to portray their values and personality, such as banks and gas companies using blue to convey loyalty and trust. Subsequently, I am going to lay out each value of my brand and think about the colour choices which sits strongly beside it.

Masculine:

• Navy/blue (authority, success, masculine, confidence)

• Red (bold, ambition, power, leader, confidence)

• Black (power, sophistication)

• Brown (practical, hard-work)

Minimal:

• White (cleanliness, purity, peace)

• Green (Freshness, balance)

Traditional:

• Brown (Rustic, vintage, practical)

Hand-Crafted:

• Brown (Practical, earthy, rustic)

• Green (Nature, freshness, stable)

By breaking down each value and placing the corresponding colour by it's side, I was able to clearly see the types of colours which work well for my brand and the associations I want to convey. This has led me on to make colour decisions based around this, choosing green, shades of brown, white and black because not only do these get across ideas of what the brand represents across all values but also comes together coherently as a scheme that doesn't look out of place, as I decided that colours like red are too bold whilst blue had potential but is too commonly seen across shaving brands like Gillette, and so it wouldn't help us stand out to use a similar scheme.

This image shows my colour scheme choices, which I believe works together well as it gets across ideas of nature whilst still being masculine. I also played around with the visuals by taking inspiration from Tim Rundle's lecture and ended up using the hand-crafted elements and materials used within the product to visually display the colour scheme. To do this I overlayed the colours onto and image of wood on Photoshop for a texture look which I think is quite effective and is another way I am getting across the brand identity by not just showing the colour scheme in a boring and cliche way that would fit any old brand, this way it is specific.

Naming the brand

Another essential point of the brand identity is the actual name of the brand, which up until now I have been struggling to come up with. I decided against using the designers name as I wanted to be more creative and have something that would immediately speak to the consumer for them to know exactly what the brand is, as in our personality we are straight to the point and direct so I didn't want there to be any confusion when hearing the brand name alone.

I went through many options of brand name which mostly revolved around the concept of shaving and the words associated with the act. Some of these included names such as 'A Cut Above', 'Close Cut', 'Close Shave Co.' and 'The Beard and Blade'. I asked around my friendship groups, family and course mates what they though of the names and the most popular was 'The Beard and Blade', however, I also got a lot of feedback suggesting to drop 'The' and have it just 'Beard and Blade'. I also agreed with this, and I think it reads a lot easier on the tongue and is more instant and identifiable, as well as this I have decided to alter it further by making it 'Beard & Blade' for further simplicity.

Overall, I think that this name fits the brand exceptionally well as it is straight to point, sums up what we do and also has an air of tradition, with old-school companies often using the format of '___ & ___', which is an element of the name I am fond of and think is appropriate for the brand. The alliteration of the words also brings this all together for an easy flowing name which is not difficult to remember.