The next stage of designing our bank brands was to start implementing the designs that we have created and start rolling them out as if they were real brands. We had to design some mockups using our brand, to see and test if it really works. I wanted to keep the colours very basic, only using light blue and black, which are the colours of my brand. This was quite exciting as all of the work that has been put into the brand development stage was being put to the test, so it was exciting to see how it will look.
The first mockup design that I made was a business card for my banking brand Access. I wanted to design this in a way that is as stripped down as possible, and I wanted to have as little information on it as possible. I also wanted to utilise both sides of the card, and done this by having the logo and word mark on one side, and the rest of the information on the other side. This way the card wasn’t clustered. I think that I done a good job at representing the brand in this business card, especially emphasising the simpleness of it with the stripped back design.
The next application design that I made was a key chain. I wanted to design a key chain as it is piece of merchandise that could be handed out to new customers, and I think that it ties in well with the name “Access”, as keys give you access to a house or car. I also wanted to keep the design stripped back here, highlighting accessibility as that is the unique selling point of the brand. I also added a slight gradient to make it look like it was shiny, since the key chain will mos likely be metal. I am pleased with how this turned out as I wasn’t sure how the brand would look on merchandise, but I think that the brand has a very memorable name, and having it on things like key chains help the brand to stick in peoples head, especially if it is on something that they use everyday like a key chain.
As an additional application design, I decided to try and put my brand on a piece of clothing. I wanted to see if the brand would work on a hat so I used a bucket hat and it came out looking quite nice. I think that this was cool to see as bucket hats aren’t commonly used for merchandise, especially not a bank brand, so this could potentially be something that the brand is known for. I wanted to make the design as big yet simple as possible, making the logo and word mark very large so that people can see it from far away and know that it is Access merchandise. This was a fun design to make and it came out better that I expected.
I then wanted to see if the design would work on an advertisement board. I think that it looks very good and the addition of the slogan and website name makes it look more professional while still being clear and accessible to look at. I think that the slogan reinforces what the brand is, and having “Accessible” in bold emphasises what the unique selling point of the brand is. Overall I think that it looks very clean and the light blue background stands out and grabs peoples attention.
The next process of application was creating a style guide for Access. I wanted the style tile to include a range of different aspects showcasing the design of the brand from the word mark, typography, mockups and so on. I also wanted to ensure that the style tile followed the design system so I used the two main colours for the brand, light blue and black. I made sure that the first things that are seen were the logo and the word mark, as they are the key designs within the brand which everything else stems from. I really like how this turned out and think that it looks very visually appealing while also showcasing the brand and conveying all the information that I wanted, and it was also quite fun to make.
Creating these application designs and style tile were both really enjoyable tasks. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to fit my designs on mockups such as hats and cards, and I think that they came out looking pretty good. All of this was new to me, so it took me a little while to get the hang of using photoshop, but once I got used to it I was fine.