FMP Evaluation
The final outcomes for my final major project consist of:
–branding for Purbeck including typography, colour choice, a logo, photography, pictograms and tone of voice –a prototype website –an Instagram page –set of five posters –a promotional leaflet
At the start of the project I was finding it difficult to choose a subject. I eventually chose to look at Purbeck. Due to my dissertation being on place branding, I already had an understanding of the subject and thought Purbeck would be a good place to brand due to it being somewhere I love and visit quite often. I felt Purbeck did not make the most of it’s tourism opportunities and I decided a new identity would bring the place up to date and would encourage an adventurous, younger audience to visit.
Some key research in my project was the branding for the 1972 Munich Olympics and Otl Aicher’s design for this. His simple pictogram design inspired me to make my own for Purbeck to represent the different activities you can do in Purbeck. Another branding example was for Porto in Portugal which took visual inspiration from the tiles found around the city. I liked how one aspect of the city informed the whole design of the brand.
This led me to think about what a key part of Purbeck would be that could influence my brand. After quite a few trips to Purbeck and trials of various logo ideas, I decided that Purbeck stone was a huge part of the peninsula’s identity. From this, I developed a logo inspired by dry stone walls with soft edged type for the word ‘purbeck’ and a square block surrounding this. With this I looked at the colours found in Purbeck stone and the landscape to provide me with my colour palette. The natural beauty of Purbeck is one of its main features and brings in a lot of tourism therefore I wanted this to come across in the brand. Photography was a big part of the brand and was used to show the beauty of the landscape, I wanted this photography to entice people in without being too obvious and unauthentic like some tourism photography. A main part of the brand was the idea of exploring. This idea started with ‘unhelpful’ wayfinding that just encouraged people to make their own paths and explore new places and did not tell people where to go specifically.
I have used these ‘go explore’ and ‘go wander’ quotes on my set of promotional posters. I am happy with how these posters turned out as I think the photography makes you want to visit the place but does not tell them specifically where the place is, the website link is displayed at the bottom of the poster which is where you can find out more information. The promotional leaflet is similar as it is mainly photography based to draw the person in, I wanted the photography to speak for itself therefore I did not include too much text- only a small piece about Purbeck and the web links.
The website was quite challenging in terms of trying to get a sense of exploration across but I think I have managed this with the four way navigation. I used Xd to create the prototype website but this did have some limitations as it doesn’t allow rollovers or GIFs and also I couldn’t create carousel style images on the landing page like I wanted but I think the simplicity of the landing page makes it stand out and encourages the user to look further.
I believe my branding would encourage a younger audience to Purbeck but would also be appealing to residents and frequent visitors. My branding is centred around exploring and discovering which I think encompasses Purbeck as a place and allows visitors to experience Purbeck in their own way. Although this project had a slow start, my time management has been good due to getting my primary and secondary research and content sorted quite early. This project has also allowed me to use my photography and illustration skills and to develop my branding abilities. Using quite an unusual subject of a place for branding has encouraged me to think differently about what branding is. I set out in this project to create something I was passionate about and proud of, which I have achieved in my branding of a place that is important to me. Branding is a practice I would love to pursue in my future career, therefore this will be an important project in my portfolio that I will be confident to talk about.