I started work on Illustrator. Based on previous exploration, I decided to work solely with Helvetica Light, as I feel it has good weight that allows clear legibility as well as has a gentle and friendly presentation. I first carried out my initial ideas of joining the 'C' and 'O' as well as making the letter 'E' a capital. I decided that joining both of these features into one would be more effective, as they represent different things and therefore create a balance within the logotype; the connected 'Co' represents a unity between the bank and the consumer, and the capital 'E' demonstrates authority, importance and professionalism. I looked briefly into rounding off all the letters, but thought this to look too childish and un-professional. I explored underlining, to emphasise even more so the power and importance. Also, I started looking at dividing 'Co' and 'Emption' using colour, to highlight the two different aspects of the company, the 'unity' with the consumer and the 'authority' of the bank.
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Next up, I decided to explore mini-serifs. Although my research revealed that after the 2007 financial crisis serifs within investment banking and the industry weren't deemed as reliable anymore, the traditional values of the serifs were still unavoidably present. Serifs have always widely been deemed as something sophisticated and trustworthy, outside of the investment industry as within. Of course, the finical crisis did have that major affect nevertheless, and that is why I decided to create not full serifs but mini ones. This still adds a traditional atmosphere and a sense of professionalism and corporate identity, however it does it in a more subtle and modern way. This design decision is somewhat inspired by 'Credit Suisse', who also use mini-serifs. They are a very successful company who have been around since 1856. In 2007, they were one of the banks least affected by the financial crisis. This gave them a better public image. Their use of non-traditional logotype, including small capitals and mini-serifs, influenced the way the consumers started to view these features. They began to be seen as more trustworthy and reliable. They set the foundations for the use of these features in future designs. Therefore, by incorporating mini-serifs in my design I can be confident that they will be positively received by the public, and that they will communicate the same trustworthiness and reliability they have done in the past, and the type I am aiming for now._____________________________________________________________________________
Here I looked at some other ways I could emphasise the two different qualities I was aiming to communicate within my logotype. I thought working with negative space could give the logotype more personality and character, by making it seem more structured and strong. Also, adding colour to these features I thought would make the design seems more friendly and approachable. Overall, however, I didn't like these explorations because I felt that although the design decisions seemed appropriate, the result didn't communicate 'investment banking' but rather something more informal and playful. I wanted to make sure that the representation of professionalism and authority was an aspect that was kept clear in my logotype, and these designs didn't represent that. _____________________________________________________________________________
I made a slight detour to explore the logotype in just lowercase letters. I added the experimentations with the joining of 'co' and colour to see what affects they would have. I found that lowercase does a good job at communicating friendliness and approachability, however it doesn't communicate authority or professionalism, the other aspects I thought were necessary. These explorations seem more suitable for supermarket or information company logotypes, as they are smooth and extremely legible. However, for an investment bank, they just do not present enough professionalism or trustworthiness.
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Looking back on the success of 'Credit Suisse' and their logotype, I decided to explore another design decision that has worked successfully for them, using small capitals. Alongside these I also added the previous design decisions I have firmly decided upon incorporating. I think these design work really well because they communicate formality and importance in a very obvious manner, especially the underlined designs. However, they do not seem as modern or friendly as the previous designs using regular capitals and lowercase. This might be because using both small caps, mini-serifs and underlying makes the logotype seem slightly overwhelming, as if it's "trying too hard", which decreases it's trustworthiness. The design with just small capitals and mini-serifs I feel is more appropriate as it is slightly more subtle, and that by maybe exploring with adding colour I could make it even more approachable and friendly.
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I decided upon these two being my strongest designs. They both successfully, although in different ways, create an atmosphere of reliability as well as professionalism and authority in their form. However, I knew these qualities could be accentuated by use of colour. So I started looking at different colours and trying to identify which palette would be most appropriate for me to use. I decided upon the gold palette and the blue. Gold because it is associate with money, and although this could potentially be viewed as "money hungry" and untrustworthy by the customer, I though that the gentleness and friendliness of the form of the design could overthrow that stereotype and show gold in a more positive and advantageous light. And blue because it is a calm and sensible colour, making it closely associated with trustworthiness, therefore reinforcing the features of logotype form and the qualities I want it to communicate.
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