Open Circle
Brand & Graphic Design
The social club Open Circle approached me about their rebranding. They gave me a brief asking for a new logo plus an easily used template for their monthly posters. Their goals were to attract more members and gain a higher percentage of male members. They also wanted to keep the technology simple and easy to use. I agreed to keep all technology needed to the minimum and clearing write down what they need, plus walk them through it.
The solution was to redesign the logo entirely but keep the circler gesture, pulling inspiration from nature and the local countryside. In our catch-up meeting, I presented the four initial ideas to the client to get feedback and direction for the final design. In the next meeting, I showed several colour options for us to debate over when I created a black-and-white logo version. After we had set on a logo and discussed the easiest way for them to edit a poster template, I made one on Google Docs, balancing usability and design.
One of the challenges I encountered was the Mac font Apple Chancery, as the client was adamant that they wanted to keep it as part of the brand. To work around this font's lack of usability on non-Macs (especially Google), I looked through Google Fonts for a similar font to replace. There wasn't one similar, so I went to plan B and found a couple that complimented it for the client to decide on; in the end, we used Neuton. The other challenge was making an eye-catching poster on Google Docs; it gave me many limitations for the design.
The result was a logo of a circler tree with leaves blowing in the wind, using a shade of green and two shades of purple as the colour palette. The fonts used were Apple Chancery for the logo and Neutron for the body of the text on the poster. I exported the logo and an icon version of the design in multiple formats they might need in future (E.g. JPG, PNG & SVG). I explained which format is best for their records in an email and talked it through in person. I also did versions of all the formats in RBG & CMYK and explained the differen
After a few months, it was great to hear Open Circle has already started seeing its goals become a reality! The number of members has increased with the percentage of males rising.