Yuno: Personal Branding
Branding is something I love from Graphic Design, and I think is very important as a Graphic Design to have one, and this can be very fun because there’s no better place to experiment than on our branding. Like any other project, it was important to me fix some goals.
First, has to work and for “work” I mean that it has to reflects what I am and I can do as a Multimedia Graphic Designer, through the screen or paper that I will use. Second, it has to show my story as a Designer and needs to show why I had all those ideas through the time and how I applied it to this project in order of justifying all the design, something I call “Perfect Randomness.”
Year:2017Tools:Illustrator, Photoshop, Cinema 4D, After Effects, Wordpress and Atom.
Perfect Randomness
Find new ideas is complicated, but the best way to do it is mixing the first ideas that came to your mind and mix it up with something unrelated, suddenly you will have something new. Some people call this juxtaposition. I call her "Perfect Randomness" which is no more than an unexpected idea that will shape all your project.
This is the case of my "nickname" which I have been using for more than 15 years, it all started when I was a child, and in all those video games I needed a nickname, so I started writing "Yuno" which is a character from one of those games. The next thing I know it's that I started using Yuno for everything. Until now, in fact, many of my friends call me Yuno, even my family. And that's how a random name, shapes this project.
This logotype is the result of one of those composing practices during the university. It was a simple exercise where I just had to fill the whole sheet with triangles suddenly I began to notice how I can give shape to something with the negative space, so I tried with my nickname, and this sketch was the result.
Then, I took this idea to illustrator, and I started to make some improvements applying some guidance lines, with this technique I gave her balance and readability. And this is the result, something simple, modern even rocker \m/ (I love rock) and unique, concepts that any designer want to demonstrate.
My first thought about designing this badge was to have a signature for all my designs, but then I realized that this badge could be used to categorize, for example, the sections on my portfolio or even identify my social networks. Also, gives to all the project this elegant touch that I loved.
I remember that time when a Profesor ones told me that you always need to test your design in Black & White (or Gray Scales) because in this way you can see the weight and the hierarchy of the colors that you choose, and even more important if your design looks great and works in black & white, in color will be stunning.
With the time I finished loving black and white. (I know it sounds as designer's cliche, but is true).
It sounds a cliche, but I really believe that choose the perfect typography for a project it’s something important for any designer, and in the beginning, it was for me too so I had to go back and set the primary goals for what I wanted. I wanted something elegant, simple and modern, so first I chose the font for paragraphs that had to be simple and modern, so a geometric font it was the best option when I found the “Galano Grotesque Family Font” it was perfect because it has a lot of weights.
Then, I had to choose a font for the header, this font had to be elegant and had to have contrast with the paragraph font. The simple answer for an elegant typography could have been a Serif font, but I was looking for something modern, in my point of view a font with a tall x-height could be the solution, so when I was searching and getting some inspiration I saw some typography who just use capital letters, idea that fits perfectly in order to get contrast with the paragraph. It was when I found the “Knockout” font, who made a perfect match with the Galano Grotesque typography.
Something important for a Graphic Designer is Mastering Typography, I've always thought that you become as a good Graphic Designer when you lose your fear to white spaces and when you start to apply good fundaments of typography. That’s why I had to have some guidance to my paragraphs and more important is because I believe even through the text, you can show your brand.
Like my degree says, I’m a Multimedia Graphic Designer, so for me, the most important place where I had to put more attention it was my website.
The goal of my site is basically to show what I can do, through my work to get a job in an agency, so basically I graphically used the storytelling technique. With the Header, I wanted to show you just a little bit of me, but not everything, to keep you interested and with the video catch your attention in order to keep you scrolling to my portfolio and see what else I can do.
The portfolio section is just to show you the final result of the project that I been working with a .gif o just the image, with the intention that you can click, and you can see all the process of each project.
After that, If I’m lucky enough and you still have interest I tell you more about me, for example, what I like, what I’m looking for… basically my background. And if you want to contact me, I made the last section with social networks and email.
Do you remember that American Psycho scene with the business cards? What kind of designer would not have business cards?.
It’s like the “Old School” for me it’s so elegant, and more important is a sneak-peak of what you can do. With all this technology around us, maybe the business cards had lost their importance, but like a said before, for a designer it’s a must to have.
For my business cards, I wanted to be a sneak-peak of my branding, so I just follow some of my guidelines and support textures, and I made this design.
Maintaining a visual consistency is the primary goal of the visual identity that’s why I know is important to have a style guides document because this will help you to understand the guides that you need to follow to keep this consistency.
Another thing I've been discovering from making the style guide document, it’s that it helps you to realize some visual problems that you can face once you have published the design, this is very important for me, because in this way you can fix it and also this gives you the chance to bring new ideas to the project.
