Danny Johnson - Branding

Research 

Danny Johnson 

Danny Johnson is a fitness model and personal trainer based in leeds, who approached me whilst working at JD Gym in seacroft. Danny was looking for a branding and a website. 

Danny was my first client I've had where I haven't known them as a friend before so it was my first proffeshional client, so at the start nervs were shooting everywhere, but due to his layed back approach, he was a good client to work with. 

Branding Research 

To Begin his project, i firstly had to come up with a rough time in how long it would take me to create his branding and website. From being new to website design, I new that it could possibly take me longer to create what he wanted, so because of this reason I decided to contact a friend from college, who currently works in Berlin creating coding for websites. After much conversation's and debates we decided to collaborate and work as team, I'd design the website and he'd code it, but would also teach me. 

Begining to gather information for the concept. From meeting danny he made it clear what he wanted, sophistication, red/green, bold, simple. So the research began...

Looking into relevant branding ideas, simplistic, bold, sophisticated, red and green.

Phycology of Colour

Three main Fitness colours 

From research Gatherd and knowledge of Danny's colour choices, I decided to have a look into the phycology of colour to see what colours would best suit his brand identity and the following results were showed.

Red 

Red, the color of blood and fire, is associated with meanings of love, passion, desire, heat, longing, lust, sexuality, sensitivity, romance, joy, strength, leadership, courage, vigor, willpower, rage, anger, danger, malice, wrath, stress, action, vibrance, radiance, and determination.

Red is assertive, daring, determined, energetic, powerful, enthusiastic, impulsive, exciting, and aggressive. Red represents physical energy, lust, passion, and desire. It symbolizes action, confidence, and courage. The color red is linked to the most primitive physical, emotional, and financial needs of survival and self-preservation.

The color red is an intense color that is packed with emotion ranging from passionate, intense love to anger and violence — representing both cupid and the devil. It is a hot, strong, stimulating color that represents excitement and energy. Studies show that the color red can create physical effects such as elevated blood pressure, enhanced libido, increased respiratory rates, enhanced metabolism, increased enthusiasm, higher levels of energy, and increased confidence.

The color red is a highly visible color that is able to focus attention quickly and get people to make quick decisions, which is one of the reasons fire trucks and fire engines are usually painted red. Flashing red lights mean danger or emergency, while stop signs and stop lights use the color red to alert drivers about the dangers of the intersection.

Red represents power and courage. The color red is the basis of the traditional red power tie or red suit in business, and the red carpet for celebrities and VIPs. Red’s association with courage and bravery makes it a color that is used often in national flags, on shields, and in achievement patches.

Green

Green, the color of life, renewal, nature, and energy, is associated with meanings of growth, harmony, freshness, safety, fertility, and environment. Green is also traditionally associated with money, finances, banking, ambition, greed, jealousy, and wall street.

The color green has healing power and is understood to be the most restful and relaxing color for the human eye to view. Green can help enhance vision, stability and endurance. Green takes up more space in the spectrum visible to the human eye and it is the dominant color in the natural. It is a natural choice in interior design as an ideal background or backdrop because we as humans are so used to seeing it everywhere.

With the color green’s association with renewal, growth, and hope, often green stands for both a lack of experience and need for growth. Green also stands for new growth and rebirth, common in the spring season when all of the plants are coming back to life with fresh growth and life after the cold winter months.

The color green affects us physically and mentally in several different ways. Green is soothing, relaxing, and youthful. Green is a color that helps alleviate anxiety, depression, and nervousness. Green also brings with it a sense of hope, health, adventure, and renewal, as well as self-control, compassion, and harmonyThe green color is often used to indicate safety in the advertising of drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature and energy, so it is also commonly used to represent and promote ‘green’ products.

Blue

Blue represents both the sky and the sea, and is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, expansiveness, inspiration, and sensitivity. Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, heaven, and intelligence.

The color blue has positive affects on the mind and the body. As the color of the spirit, it invokes rest and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming and exude feelings of tranquility. Blue helps to slow human metabolism, is cooling in nature, and helps with balance and self-expression. Blue is also an appetite suppressant.

However not all blues are serene and sedate. Electric or brilliant blues become dynamic and dramatic, an engaging color that expresses exhilaration. Also, some shades of blue or the use of too much blue may come across as cold or uncaring, and can dampen spirits.

Blue can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly. Blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity in heraldry. The color blue in many cultures is significant in religious beliefs, brings peace, or is believed to keep the bad spirits away. In Iran, blue is the color of mourning while in the West the something blue bridal tradition represents love.

The blue color communicates significance, importance, and confidence without creating somber or sinister feelings. This is where the corporate blue power suit and the blue uniforms of police officers and firefighter came from. Considered a highly corporate color, blue is often associated with intelligence, stability, unity, and conservatism.

From this research I Found that there are three main colours, however the most relevant colour would be red, which stands for determination, passion, and intensity, which is what the fitness industry is all about. 

From these findings, I put together a folder of what research I had found so far and arranged to meet up with danny two days later. Danny was pleased with the research I had found and was impressed with the quality of work which was presented, and indicated that he prefered, the intensity of the red and black together as it gave a more 'masculine feel' which, I said was pefect due to it's phycology colour connection, connecting with his industry. 

From here, we then went on to talk about price, and length of time. Danny isn't the only person who I've done work for in the past so I've had confidents when it comes to pricing. As a designer the first thing I always ask a client is if they have a budget that they would like to stick to, so i can work into it or around it. As this brief was my first website design brief and I'm currently a student, I under charged and said it would take around 2 weeks (only because I was new to websites) and that it would be £250 and Danny was pleased with the offer. From leaving the conversation happy. 

Danny was wanting his branding and website up and running as soon as possible, he was very clear in what he wanted, he wasn't interested in monograms, or anything complitcated he just wanted his names 'with colour'. This makes it both easy and hard, because as a designer you want something to look good but you also want your client to be pleased also.

Coolvetica typeface

Concept 1. 

After four days of developing a concept, myself and danny met for a coffee and a chat to discuss what I had created so far. I moved forward with the colour choices of red, then added the colour black for dertermanation and masculinity, and added white for space. The logo itself is very simplistic, stylistic, bold, which is what the client asked for, as hoped for danny was impressed. Normally I have a process of preducing at least three concepts to a client but, danny fell for this concept immediately and wanted us to make a start of the website as soon as possible. Having this much independence was exiting but scary at the same time. 

From this I then started to build the design for his website firstly by sketching some ideas out, taking into consideration what he has asked for;

From Sketching I then took it digital to experiment and also mockup in sitch versions of merchandise 

From designing the website and merchandise as extras, I arranged to meet with danny and he was very happy with the outcomes of his design.The design of this concept only took around a week to actually create. After meeting up with danny, i then got back in cotact with mark, and mark is now in last week of editing the site before it goes live. 

Reflection

Reflection on this project, I'd say that this project was the easiet project, but also the project which I enjoyed the least, as it the client new what he wanted and he only wanted it done in a certain type of way, so I had to stop being a stubborn designer and go by what the client said even if I didn't agree. This 'Digital' style work is not really in my area of interest, but is useful to have experiance in when it comes to the future. From my personal point of view the design lacks concept, but for the client, he was was more interested in the asthetics rather than the concept and I think that's why I found it difficult to connect witht the project. Due to the client needing this concept fast, the only feedback i had time for was from Mark, which was helpful, however I would of felt more confident if i fitted enough time in to speak to other peers in the Graphics Group, for future projects I will definately be more aware of how important it is to keep time for feeback. 

Although I was not hugely, happy with the final outcome, the client was the complete oposite and since then I've had other personal trainers approach me from his friends, so this project has helped me network into a new kind of buisness to start off with. 

Doing this project has helped me identify that im not a fan of this area of design, as it's not traditional print incorporated, however in the future i'll come up with ideas that let me incorporate a bit of me in to the work also. 

Summarising, I am satisfied with the outcomes of this project due to the customer being pleased, however next time I'd like to incorporate my personality into my work more.