Behind Glass Real Client Corp. Identity

For a recent assignment we were given the task of designing and working on corporate identity for a real client. We had to find a client with an already existing business, which we could re-design their identity or a new business that we could give them an identity.

It was our job to act professional and liaise with the client to create designs fitted around what the client wanted. . The work we created did not have to be used by the client, the main focus of the assessment was to gain an understanding and experience of working with a real client and what work may be like once we are no longer students.

My clients were starting a picture framing business in my home town. They were focusing on opening sometime in January next year and wanted to get a feel and identity for their new business.

I started this process by having an initial meeting with the clients on July 16th. Here we discussed what would take place, the name of the business (Behind Glass), what they were looking for, what type of business they had and were working towards and if they had any ideas for me to work from.

After this meeting I started my research. I started by looking at other business of the same genre. I looked at logos, identity’s, colours, shapes, websites and presentation. I also looked at picture framing business in out are which could be competition. I did this as I thought it would be good to have a different look to the competition.

I then had another meeting with the clients about a week later and I showed them existing businesses logos and websites. I also wrote the business name Behind Glass, in many different fonts to give the client an idea of how much the right font mattered in designing a logo and the different feels each font had. They told me what they liked from these and started to get ideas for the feel they wanted. They wanted subtle colour, marrons, gold, green or blues. They liked the clean corporate look, but also something interesting. One of the logos incorporated a gradient banner which the clients loved and would like to work into their businesses identity.

ON the 27th I had another meeting with the client and discussed some logos I had designed using the information from the clients. I did these logos in black and white and also provided the clients with some colour options I thought would work well. They clients picked the logos they liked and which ones they wanted to see in colour. They also asked if they could see the logo incorporated in something like a business card.

I took this information and created the logos with colour. I then did some simple mock-up business cards and emailed this information to the client on July 29th. I got a reply on the 1st of August and a meeting was arranged for the next evening to discuss the logos and business cards.
A logo was chosen and a card design. The logo was the business name written in a Futura Light, a sans serif font, backed by a faded BG on a pantone blue gradient banner. A vertical business card was chose but the client wanted to see it with a vertical gradient. After I had made these changes I emailed it to the clients on the 3rd of August. The clients were very happy and this made it easier to start work on the other products.

I started work on some letterheads and emailed these to the client on the 17th.
This is where communication between myself and the client became quite difficult. After almost two weeks with no replay I sent another email on the 28th asking if they had received my previous email and if they had any feedback. I realise that people can be very busy and that my clients were in no rush to start their business, but it can get quite frustrating when the client does not reply and you have nothing to work with.

I kept working on the identity and designed a with compliments slip and an envelope. This gave me five products.

After many more emails, phone calls and arranged meetings eventually five products were chosen. I liked all the ones chose and thought they worked well together. The feel of the business was to be corporate and clean. I think I achieved this. The clients were very happy with the final product and so was I.

I found this task very interesting and also exciting. It was great to work with a real client and make something for a real business with the possibility of it being used. I also found it stressful as I wanted to create the best products I could as they could be seen in public and by possible future employees. The hardest part of this process was the communication with my client. There were many unanswered emails. Meetings were arranged and when I rang to confirm there was no answer of the meeting had been forgotten. I also saw my clients and asked for feedback or to arrange meetings and this never happened. There was a long amount of time with no real feedback or lack of interest from the client. I am not sure why this happened but it was quite frustrating as a had a due date for the assessment task and wanted to have everything finished for this date.

Overall I feel I did well because the clients were happy and wanted to use my designs and I think if you have pleased the clients and fulfilled the brief then you have done well.