Playback Record Store Logo:
For this project, I was tasked with creating a brand and logo for a fictional company that would be located within Madison, WI. The fictional brand I came up with was an affordable record store for college students called Playback.
First step: Conducting and Compiling Research
To begin this project, I conducted research on popular national and local record stores. To do this, I needed to create a mock stakeholder interview, a competitive analysis of the product space that my fictional business is a part of, and plot my competition onto a Brand Matrix.
Second step: Defining My Strategy
After conducting research, I needed to create a document that will serve to anchor my branding project with focus and intention. This document needed to include a brand brief and a positioning statement.
Third step: 100 Logo Variations
During this step, I was tasked with generating as many logo ideas as possible without any judgement or attachment to any particular design direction. In addition, I had to make sure to utilize ideation techniques and symbol meaning frameworks, like semiotics, rhetorical devices, gestalt principles, and action verbs, that were covered throughout the course.
Fourth step: Black and White Logo Drafts
Drawing from my set of 100 logo ideas that I generated, I then had to select my top letterform idea, word mark idea and pictorial mark idea and build them out digitally in Illustrator, whilst keeping them black and white.
