SAM STUDENT / 8675309 MODULE-X / GR604: NATURE OF IDENTITY
THE VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE A rebranding project for FUBU
History
THE VISUAL DEVELOPMENT GUIDE A rebranding project for FUBU
Visual Development Guide
History
Our Purpose The purpose of the Visual Development Guide is to book two is to come up with a new logo that shows unification, connection, and that will be the visual representation of our brand. After coming up with a new mission statement and rebranding objective in book one, we through a few rounds of rough sketches to figure out how our logo should appear. It includes finding inspiration from similar logos and looking into other visual standards to figure out what should be or not be a part of our brand.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Identity Evolution 1 Mission Statement
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History 3 Previous Logos
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Key Phrases 6 Round 1 Sketches 8-31 Round 2 Sketches
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Digital Logo Comps 40
Inspiration 56
Round Three Digital Comps 46–51
Examples of Inspiration 58
Final Three Options
Similar Logos
Final Logo
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Final Step
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IDENTITY EVOLUTION Visual Development Guide
Identity Evolution History
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OUR MISSION: To empower the cultural unity of people of color through the promotion of inclusivity and diversity.
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HISTORY FUBU is a hip hop apparel brand created in 1992 by Daymond John and his childhood f riends J. Alexander Martin, Keith Perrin, and Carlton Brown. The brand’s acronym stands for For Us By Us because the founders not only want a four-letter word that was catchy, but the mainstream likability that hip hop brought into the street culture inspired them to create clothing connected to the black community.
Its decline occurred around the early 2000s due to oversaturation by withdrawing from the US market to focus their clothing brand into other countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, and South Africa. FUBU remixes their clothing items and classic logo to fit the modern millennial style for them to stay relevant. They also collaborated with various brands, including Eye Candy Creations, Urban Outfitters, and Puma.
The company’s success increased with the help of music artists and celebrities dressing from head-totoe with the brand logo f ront and center. Artists such as Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Mariah Carey, and *NSYNC were seen in their music videos and paparazzi photos, all sporting the brand, sometimes from head to toe in hockey jerseys, hats, jackets. It was all part of the strategy to get their brand noticed.
Although the company pulled out of US markets, FUBU has managed to stay afloat thanks to international licenses. FUBU still sells in South Af rica, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, and Korea, where it exists as a skate brand. Cofounder Daymond John even said that although he appreciates the fact that other countries show their respect for hip hop culture, he considers FUBU as an American classic within the black community.
Mission Statement / History
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Previous Logos
The Original Logo When it comes to the earliest form of the logo, this version displayed a black wordmark in a bold italic type to match the brand’s street feeling. As you can also see, a few parts within each letter do not join together, causing impressive negative space to occur.
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The Current Logo
The Alternative Logos
With this logo revision, each letter part joins together to have the wordmark be more readable and legible. In addition to this, the bold italic type has slightly decreased a bit but still matches the street-like feeling of the brand.
This alternative logo features a hand-drawn version of the brand to mimic the street graff iti spray-painted on the walls. It features two out of the four initials of Fubu. Plus, the f is in a lowercase form. Sometimes this type of logo is shown by itself, while other times, it had the cursive style of the brand name under it, as you can see above.
Previous Logos
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Key Phases
Ingenuity Have an inventive mind through imagination.
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Venture
Enjoyment
Exploring the unknown.
Praise the culture.
Key Phases
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Round One Sketches In the process of trying to f ind out different options of logos in symbolic, graphic, and wordmark formation, we sketched out at least one hundred sketches per keyword. Afterward, we chose the f inal ten options f rom each keyword sketch to move forward with phase two of the logo process.
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Round One Sketches
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Ingenuity “Have an inventive mind through imagination.� In the rough sketches shown in the ingenuity key phase, we tried to think about something that features an imaginative mindset to add the community factor to it in the first eight choices. Because we wanted more sense of togetherness in the wordmark roughs, we felt that the last two options showed unity within them.
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Top ten choices to refine by hand for ingenuity. Round One Sketches
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Top ten choices to refine by hand for ingenuity. Round One Sketches
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Venture “Exploring the unknown.” We were thinking of active and connective designs to describe the community in the ten options we chose in the venture key phase. With the symbolic and graphic sketches, we tried to abstract our roughs so that they wouldn’t be too general to our audience. Plus, manipulating the wordmarks to see how the letters are portrayed in the rebranding by having fun alternating the different letter parts.
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Top ten choices to refine by hand for ingenuity. Round One Sketches
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Top ten choices to refine by hand for venture. Round One Sketches
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Top ten choices to refine by hand for venture. Round One Sketches
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Enjoyment “Praise the culture.” In our ten different sketch options, we tried to develop a fun, connective, and festive logo in our symbolic and graphic drawings while coming up with a wordmark that’s not part of the standard typefaces that we see every day.
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Top ten choices to refine by hand for enjoyment. Round One Sketches
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Top ten choices to refine by hand for enjoyment. Round One Sketches
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Don’t be in such a hurry to grow your brand. Make sure that you and the market can sustain any bumps that may occur down the road.
— Daymond John Cofounder of FUBU
History
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Ingenuity 10 REFINED LOGOS Our ten final choices to describe ingenuity.
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Round One Sketches
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Venture 10 REFINED LOGOS Our ten final choices to describe venture..
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Round One Sketches
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Enjoyment 10 REFINED LOGOS Our ten final choices to describe enjoyment.
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Round One Sketches
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Round Two Sketches This process aims to develop more sketches from round one that is more connected to the rebranding.
Round Two Sketches
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Ingenuity+Venture=Unity “Be united as one.” The reason for ref ining these sketches is to make them more presentable and connected to my audience. In the previous critique, we didn’t realize that my illustrations were too child-like and weren’t relating to what Fubu was. We had to combine the two keywords, ingenuity and venture, to create better masculine sketches.
Top ten choices to refine on the computer.
Round Two Sketches
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Top ten choices to refine on the computer.
Round Two Sketches
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10 REFINED LOGOS THAT FEATURE UNITY
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F
F
U
B
U
ubu
Options to develop more in the next round.
Round Two Sketches
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Round Three Digital Comps This process aims to process more sketches digitally so that we can choose the best three options to reach for the final choice of the logo.
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Round Three Digital History Comps
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Round Two Sketches
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I’ve learned, like with anything else, business is only as good as your connections and your resources.
— Daymond John Cofounder of FUBU
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History
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DIGITAL REFINEMENTS When it came to the digital refinements, with this first set of comps we wanted to show different ways that a triangle can be symbolic. Meanwhile, the other digital options show a combination between something triangular and an arrow pointing upwards.
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Round Three Digital Comps
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DIGITAL REFINEMENTS We wanted to experiment with different kinds of hexagons by having them be displayed in their usual form while having some of them shown vertically to figure out more divergent ways they can get established. It includes adding a wordmark to a few of them.
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Round Three Digital Comps
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DIGITAL REFINEMENTS In this final set, we wanted to add different wordmarks to various kinds of crowns. We had to make sure not to choose typefaces that are too obvious to the audience.
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Round Three Digital Comps
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#ED2524 C0 M84 Y85 K7 R237 G37 B36
FINAL THREE OPTIONS
Black+White
Color
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#000000
#111111
C0 M0 Y0 K100
C0 M0 Y0 K0
R0 G0 B0
R255 G255 B255
Final Three Options
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FINAL LOGO The final choice of the logo features a hexagon that has the shape be in four separate pieces. We added two red pieces on top and bottom while having two black parts on the left and right sides to symbolize the U in FUBU. Even though we are from different cultures, we are still one unit with each other. The name of the typeface in the wordmark is Gobold.
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Final Logo
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Inspiration This process aims to find examples of inspiration from different standard guides to propel our rebranding. It includes finding twenty logos with the same similarities and descriptions as the final logo option. That way, it can quickly help us create visual standards for our brand.
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SAM STUDENT / 8675309 MODULE-X / GR604: NATURE OF IDENTITY
Inspiration History
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EXAMPLES OF INSPIRATION
New Identity Introduction With this logo example, it’s not only clean and sophisticated, but it combines two things into one logo. It shows different ways that you can display the logo.
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Type Specs With the brand RED, it uses two typefaces to express their brand. The good thing about this particular typeface is that it contains different weights. Plus, this example shows how the type has to be delivered in print and web.
Examples of Inspiration
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Logo Anatomy When it comes to the logo anatomy, it shows two different ways, which are the clear space and the minimum size.
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Main ID Colors When it comes to the color palette, it shows different fields of color by showing the primary and secondary colors of the brand. With the bigger squares, they gave the colors personal names to separate them from the others.
Examples of Inspiration
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Logo Don’ts It shows designers what not to do when displaying the logo in any different media. It includes not changing the typeface, color palette, and background within the logo.
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Alternate Versions of Logo It is showing the different divisions of the brand by differentiating the colors. It stills maintains the symbolic logo and typeface.
Examples of Inspiration
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20 SIMILAR LOGOS Playgon The brand is a gaming industry that delivers digital games live from Las Vegas. The 3D logo shows triangular shapes interlocking with each other.
HSBC The logo’s inspiration was from the traditional flags of the Hong Kong company. The reason for the hexagon shape is to symbolize strength and security.
Spider Strategies The logo design features the capital S created in the shape of a hexagon.
Chase Bank The octagon symbol is in four different pieces while having a white square shape cutout in the middle.
Building Controls and Services, Inc. The design of the hexagon represents the community of the brand. The shape itself creates a 3-D box that symbolizes the customer’s building envelope, while the circle indicates the control of their business.
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Hexagon AB The brand is a global technology group headquartered in Sweden. The logo features various triangular shapes forming into a partial hexagon.
Bajaj It’s an Indian brand of motorbikes and rickshaws developing company. Even though the logo looks like a flying bird, or two arrows intersecting one another, a hexagon shape occurs in the logo since its previous logo a based on a hexagon frame.
Leafline Labs The logo design displays a hexagon outline in three different pieces and shows a hexagon in the middle.
Baker The design features different tricolor shapes forming a leaf in the hexagon symbol.
Cloudbau It’s a startup company in Berlin. The shape of the hexagon is formed into the letter c that features different hues of turquoise.
Twenty Similar Logos
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The Clinic The brand is a cannabis company that shows a hexagon log in six triangle pieces at the left side while displaying different type weights and sizes in its wordmark.
Columbia Sportswear Company The design has interlocking shapes that symbolize a textile weave pattern.
Sun Microsystems Another interlocking logo that displays a rotational symmetrical chain ambigram that reads the word sun whichever way you rotate it.
Google Drive The design forms an interlocked triangle in three different colors that replicate back to the Google wordmark.
Pacific Telecommunications Council The brand has five different shapes that replicate a wave in the sky.
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Lucky Box Club The brand has a black hexagon with two hexagon outlines. The typeface is in a sans serif spacing out in tracking.
Heptagon The IT service company’s design shows a wavy graphic element inside the seven angled shape.
Ubuntu The wordmark is futuristic and angular. There’s a crafted graphic symbol representing freedom, collaboration, precision, and reliability—a circle of friendship.
Human Rights First The symbolic design of people holding hands in a circle represents collaboration.
Bitlle Network This octagon logo has a double helix within its shape. It also shows a sans serif wordmark.
Twenty Similar Logos
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An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
— Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Leader and Minster
History
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FINAL STEP The Visual Standards Guide will go further into FUBU’s rebranding after looking into the development process of creating a new logo through research and brainstorming while coming up with standards that will analyze various business aspects that will generate constructive decisions on FUBU’s brand expansions. That way, we can develop exciting activities that can make people of color more welcomed and secure.
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Final Step
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Sources School
Academy of Art University
Course
Nature of Identity
Instructor
Hunter Wimmer
Term
FALL 2020
Design
Chinwe Uduko
Software
Adobe Creative Cloud
Bindery
Blurb.com
Photography
iStock, Pexels, Unsplash, and
Visual Standards (A6.2)
This book was designed for an MA student project. It is not for professional use and FUBU has no association with any content on this book.
Visual Development Guide