Pepperdog Live Briefs

During my time at Pepperdog I was given two briefs, both to be completed within my 2 days. The first a logo for a fashion retailer, specializing in Italian fashion aimed at 40-60year old women.

The company called Kit and Kaboodal (I voiced my concern at the name, however the client was adamant that it was good. I felt that it was far too dated and slang-like, Kaboodal sounding too childish for almost any serious market) was an online platform, and recently had their website redesigned in a simple geometric scroller. 

I began by researching existing logos that belonged to similar companies as it's target audience was alien to me. 

Except for boohoo, all of the logos are very relaxed, using bright colours and/or a handwritten font which gives the logos a playful but cliched aesthetic. I wanted to create a logo that didn't pander to the target audiences age group, with the feeling that this age bracket is becoming more and more technologically sophisticated and design aware. The client insisted that the logo does something 'clever with the K's', so I did what I could given the name and direction. 

I produced a large page of quick sketches revolving around the letter K, drawing it in different styles and ways to see what could be produced. 

I then went on to develop some of these digitally and produced some simple mockups to see how well the logo interacts with photography.

The ampersand of Sabon has a floral aesthetic so I decided to try a logo where that was the main focus of the design, with K's sitting in the negative space. 

Variations in floral colours and olive.

range of greys, seeing if the tone influnces the legibility of the design.

The logo needed the name and a tagline, which I felt the best way to apply this would be simply underneath, centred, using a combo of sabon for the title (continuing the logos use) with a capitalized sans serif (brandon grotesque), giving a contrast in line weight and style. 

Varients in CMYK

Grey Varients

I decided that the logo should have variants in the same colours as the website icons, which would give continuity when used in digital and print media giving a more in depth house style.

Tag mock-ups helped bring the designs to life and highlight any mistakes. I also believe that when showing the client a logo it'd help greatly having them mocked up when it comes to selling the idea.

 a teal variant representing the Mediterranean location of the clothes. 

Horizontal variants which can be used on the website, in garment tags or print media.

I put together some simple graphics showing how the different logos interact with photography to show how it would look in advertisements. 

I created a small presentation for the client that showcased the logo designs, as well as mocking up each logo in 2 different ways to show how it would look in context- this helped to bring the logo to life as clients like this can have a hard time visualizing graphics.



The second brief was to create mini-business cards for a specialist events upholsterer, a job I was unaware even existed. The client already had a logo made and didn't want to change it, which was frustrating as it was appalling in every sense. I produced 2 different outcomes which both Pepperdog and the client liked. My personal opinion is that not even the hand of god could create a design that looked good whilst using that logo, however the customer is always right.

The mini-business card costs more to produce than a standard business card, holds less information and is less user friendly, being awkwardly sized and not fitting properly in a wallet.

Front (displaying the 'logo')

The front hosts the logo that was created for her company, unfortunately with no explanation of what services she supplies, at her own request. This I believe to be a huge oversight. The logo is far too complex, with the use of gradients, intricate imagery and a cliche'd use of type. 

Back

I used the B as a decoration and set the type as large as possible given that the business card itself was so small - I wanted the information to be as accessible as possible to all people; anyone with bad vision would struggle reading anything smaller.

Front

Back

The 

These designs were very little to do with me, I was merely the person who put them together at the direction of the client. This experience is certainly not what I got into Graphic Design for, and hope that my future lies with a company with more creative freedom and self-expression. I tried to elevate the design somewhat by using a floral design which would be found on upholstery at high end events, and using a simple sans-serif to contrast against the script face on the front. Again the type is as large as possible for readability, with a translucent background to aid this. 

Working here was an eye-opening experience, and I learnt a lot about that side of the industry. Business was booming thanks to people with no design knowledge wanting cheap design work. I had always prioritised money, however after spending time producing work for real clients that I strongly disliked, I have realised that personal achievement and job satisfaction are far superior. 

I was very thankful for this opportunity as it has provided me with knowledge about the graphic design industry as well as myself that I could only have gotten by experiencing something like this.