2010 / Ogilvy / Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA). Designing a program logo for a branding masters class was a little bit of a frightening idea at first. Having the ICA brand itself to play within gave mea good sandbox to play within as far as fonts and colours.
MCBC’s main objective is to transform a senior communication practitioner into a visionary, business leader. This program is not about starting over, it’s about building upon the skills and experience the student already has and focusing on bringing creative thinking into business. MCBC could be thought of as an incubator where this creative process takes place and where the student is transformed into a leader.
The process itself was really very interesting, and I was able to be a bit more conceptual given the audience. Branding is such a subjective thing and it’s very hard to please everyone for sure. In the research we did around the program and the ICA, some key words for me came to the forefront: Aspirational, Growth, Focus, Incubator, Take the leap and Evolve.
The wordmark and visual concept needed to embody this idea of transformation. It also need to balance the business world with the artist aspect of advertising.
A few of the thoughts that went into the logo.
• The egg represents the transformation of the student – quite literally the incubator.
• It feels hand drawn which reflects the creativity of advertising and it’s not a perfect circle which represents how and idea or brand changes and adapts. The lines also give some motion and energy.
• Each line and colour is representative of different thoughts and experiences. All the lines are continuous and linked together which represents the bringing together of thoughts, ideas, experiences and focusing them all into one goal.
Creating the website was also quite a good experience, completely coded from scratch with the RedWorks interactive team and art directed/designed by me. We built a trim and clean site with very slick expanding charts to keep info neatly tucked away.
