My Personal Brand System
My goal for this project was to come up with a personal logo, a business card, a notecard, and an envelope.
Mood Board
My mood board consists solely of three AI-generated images that represent the three sides of my personaloty/styles that I rotate between:
While my final design is more similar to this one above,
As you will see, my first draft and first design lean more in the direction of these two....
Draft 1
My initial design centered around my love of two animals: spiders and cats. At first I did a very simple design, with a spiderweb that was then used to make the shape of a cat's head. I created a little spider hanging down between the cat's ears. For the notecard, I created a nighttime scene with a cat sitting on some clouds. Everything was done in a color palette consisting of several shades of red, one black, and white. I used my initials to form my logo. I used the capital L in the Monotype Corsiva font and I rotated it 180 degrees to acheive a makeshift letter J. I added little paw pads to make the rounded parts look like cat paws playing.
Design 1
The color palette I used for my first design is the same I used in the first draft. I also use tints of the different shades of red as needed. I added stripes along one length of the logo letters to make them look like a tail, and a dark stripe along the back of the other length along with the paw print on the end to give it the illusion of an arm. I designed a spider cat creature to use as my own mascot as well as to show an example of my talents and what I can create. I created a spiderweb and a ball out of yarn to use as a repeated motif. I also used zigzags along with stripes as motifs so that I can have a variety of patterns to use as needed. This system was a good representation of my attitude... but it lacked the depth of what I as a person have to offer.
Design 2
One day I had an epiphany: why didn't I use my name in my personal brand? My name, Layra, means "victory," and it, more than anything, is a perfect representation of who I am at my very core. I decided to use a laurel crown for my logo. I made some new red swatches, and I chose to go with silver and gold for the flowers of my favorite land: Lothlórien. The gold flowers, Elanor, and the silver flowers, Niphredil, grow all around in Lothlórien, and in my logo they also serve as a visual representation of my favorite quote from my favorite book, The Lord of the Rings:
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
-Haldir
In the end, I decided to just have one star in the center. I gave the star ten points and colored each point with the birthstones of my mom and my nine siblings. I put a small glow within and another outside the star. I colored the leaves of the crown in red, gold, and silver. The red is to represent myself, as I frequently describe the color as "my entire lifestyle;" the gold and silver are a continuation of the flowers and the quote that they remind me of. The gold tones are also taken from a photo of my family's cat, whose name was Hope, and who left us far before his time. I wanted to have some kind of reference to hope and I thought the best way would be to pay homage to the cat who brought us all so many laughs. In the final design, I added a drop shadow on the objects to give them some dimension and set everything on a black background for contrast as well as to make the star look lik it is shining in the night sky.
For the center, I initially was going to go with a design of a lion reaching for 10 stars with a crown over its head. The lion also represents me, with my strong will and bold bravado. The ten stars are for my mom and my nine siblings, who have been my greatest guiding light. The crown also represents victory, and the design was to be arranged similarly to the tree of Gondor. I also thought of replacing the lion with just a large crown.
Rough Draft
With my first design, I had my url and contact info as spidercat. With the rebrand, I decided to continue the Tolkien-inspired theme by giving myself an Elvish name:
Nangwë is an Elvish (Quenya) word for Victory. It is intriguing and beautiful, and it is essentially my name in Elvish. What could be a more perfect fit?
Final Design/Business Card
I wanted unique business cards, so I went with a round shape. I kept it clean and simple, as I felt that my last design was too cluttered. I put the logo on one side and all text on the other for simplicity.
The back side of the note cards simply shows the star . The front side is a red page with a wavy outline of deep red and dark gold. I created this design with the intention of giving it a woodsy, whimsical feel. I am also having these cards printed on wood. I wanted it to look like a notecard that came straight from Lothlórien!
I did a similar design on my portfolio, which you can download
HERE!
My brand style guide shows information about the brand, logo, colors, and type. Please click the image to download the PDF.
Reflections
This project was obviously very personal, and I feel like I got a new understanding of what really makes me me. I got a very intimate look at what it takes to turn an entire identity into a logo, and I love my logo. Going forward with any project, I now have a deeper understanding of what to look for, think about, and how to execute things.