Week 3 Part B: Developing a Brand

    The business that I'm developing is a print shop for my art work. I am currently working on a re-brand for my art accounts. I have a logo that I was using but it doesn't really match the subject matter of most of my pieces and there wasn't too much coherence in colors when I was posting on social media;  this was especially apparent on my own Instagram feed where the pictures are on a grid gallery style. Right now, my goal is to develop myself as a recognizable artist by having consistent branding and developing a more consistent posting schedule.

    I'm comfortable developing logos but its always 10x harder to make one for myself and I've experimented with both having a logo and just using a signature to add to my posted work; I've always gone by a pseudonym and my artist handle so I would prefer to keep my name and initials away from my branding. Something that I've noticed from most artist's accounts is that they tend not to have a logo used as their profile photos but instead opt to use some of their favorite art pieces they've made. Since I am looking to open a print shop I think it would be best to stick with a logo for the website and for watermarking but keep profile icons that have my own art in them. The plans for my logo is to make it a combination mark that uses my artist handle as well as imagery that is associated with my brand; using this kind of logo allows for me to drop either elements if I needed to simplify it.

    My color scheme for my art revolves around saturated colors-mainly pinks, purples, and blues so I should stick to this as much as I can for posts that will be displayed in a gallery view like Instagram. I gravitated towards these colors because they have a higher energy that reflect my subjects of pretty/monster girls and punk-y aesthetic. My colors are already so punchy and in your face that I like to keep surrounding elements solid colors in black, white, or lighter tones of my palette. For the purpose of a website, I'd like to keep the background a light tone or white to make it the online store more inviting and keep it from looking cluttered; I want to keep away from the same saturated colors that I normally use to not overwhelm the senses of the visitor and not cause eye strain when viewing my website.

    Most of my business is visual but I still have to consider my typography namely the fonts that I use. I always stick to sans-serif fonts because they're more visually appealing to me and because serif fonts seem to "bookish" for my brand. I've used the font Lemon Milk for most of my typography for my branding in the past and will most likely continue to use it; I may consider using a handmade lettermark for my logo rather than using Lemon Milk but I think that I'd switch my normal text out for Lemon Milk. The font for most of most of my normal/body text is either Champagne & Limousines if I'm able to use my own or Verdana (regular or Light if available) if I have to use a common font. I tested using these fonts on my old business cards and even though C&L and Verdana Light are very skinny fonts they printed very well even on a dark background.

    I think that because I already have some groundwork made for my own brand and identity and have worked on making promotional materials that I just need to work on further refining my brand to be more cohesive and recognizable. I think that I can achieve this because I am more conscious of my color palette and the kind of subject matter that I am focusing on for my socials. My biggest hurdle to me will be settling on a logo design. I'm trying to narrow down my artist handle from a couple of different choices I have and until I do that it might not be possible to make a solid logo until I know the handle to.