In preparation for this workshop I made multiple mood boards of different typefaces for Bermondsey, consisting of artisan type, Sans Serif fonts and other fonts that are around Bermondsey. I come to the conclusion that sans serif dominated the area. The workshop started with a breakdown of a brand, consisting of the identity, values, language, system and visuals. Looking at Nike and Benugo as examples for understand the development of a brand.
Our first task was to imagine our area as a person and what would our boroughs personality be. We had to write down words to describe how our area would think, see, listen, act, feel and speak.
Once coming defining these adjectives we had to narrow them down to 5 keywords. The five keywords i chose were; Calm, Intelligent, Artisan, Hidden, Affluent. I then broke down my keywords to the most defining 3, which I believe where intelligent, artisan and hidden. I went on to creating some ideas, typefaces and discovering how I would represent Bermondsey as hidden.
I went from geometrical shapes, to lots of hidden concepts. I chose my main font to be similar to what Bermondsey mainly consisted of, sans serif, I also chose this to represent my area as sans serif history comes from the rebuild after WW2 and all of the rebuilds and factory takeovers in Bermondsey are a massive part of their heritage. I experimented with many hidden concepts using San Serif font. I worked on designing a logo for Bermondsey, using type and illustrations in many different forms of overlays and stacking.
I thought about the choice of colour I would use for my branding to see if that could be incorporated into my brand logo and identity, I used a photos of Bermondsey and the shard to make my colour palette. I incorporated some colour into my ideas and struggled to scrape together an identity I represented my area.
I spoke to Abi and we came to a conclusion that as i was already planning on using many illustrated symbols, that maybe i don't need type and I can represent the area through artisan illustrations and symbols using places in Bermondsey such as the arches to represent different aspects of the brand. I felt that idea could cover my brand values, being intelligent, artisan and hidden.
The whole process was enjoyable and hard work. I learned that every time I design and want to implement a new concept, i need to go back and refer to my brand values.
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