For this project, I knew that I wanted to focus on a branding project, as I need more emphasis on those skills for my book. I knew I wasn’t interested in packaging thus I was considering branding a company that provided a service or experience. From there I came to the idea of an outdoor school.

I pitched the idea to my mentors, initially suggesting that I would rebrand the entire school and create a logo and some other branded deliverables. I also mentioned that logos are not my strong suit, and thus my mentors offered the possibility of just focusing just on the logo. I was really happy with this development because of how important a logo is for a brand (as it’s one of the biggest touchpoints for a customer) and how much time crafting an effective logo can take.

From there I wrote my brief and send it to my mentor who wrote me a few helpful pointers for brief writing, For example, I had misinterpreted the function of the background section and lumped it in with the brand’s USP.

Another really valuable lesson learned was to take the old logo and to identify its weak points and write them out. This helped me practice analyzing logos as well as gave me concrete examples to watch out for in my own work.