​Project Brief

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Research

Logos/Brandmarks
Looked a few different logos, along with some icon design.
Websites
Bang-Olufsen (music technology)
Link: www.bang-olufsen.com
Faktory (hospitality)
Link: faktory.fr
Formless
Link: formless.xyz
Hyer
Link: flyhyer.com
All these websites have really current design languages, rather than being the standard basic look most websites use.
Brainstorming & relatable words
Brand Campaigns
KFC's "FCK" 
Irn Bru "Gets you through"
California Milk Processor Board's "Got Milk?"
John Smith's "No Nonsense"
o2"s "Be more dog" and "Hook a duck"
WW2 UK Propaganda campaigns
Wartime graphic posters are interesting in that they are always to the point, clear in message but yet stylised enough to memorable.

Direction

some ideas came to mind for branding, such as drip and zero... but I felt they weren't interesting enough. The best campaigns seem to either have a very simplistic but. strong message (Got milk?), or go the other way and add a bit of controversy (KFCs FCK)
muck.
Initially was searching manure and seen this word; muck, fuck... perfect.
I want it to be your typical eco-conscious brand in all but one way -a daring approach to get attention from the industry.
some quick mockups of the name + some slogans
Another element I want to explorer is creating an educational side to the brand, possibly using 8bit art style to get people interested in waste cleanup.
examples of 8bit design:

Branding

Word Mark
Played about for a bit trying out different typefaces that could be used for the word mark:
Chosen typeface to edit:
Sonar Sans
Refining the word mark
Was initially trying to make a water droplet between the M and the U, whilst at the same time making it shorter in length by combining the letters. pulling out the second stem on the U however revealed a shape remembling the bowl of a toilet.
tried a few different versions, such as dropping the U below the baseline, along with raising the M to the cap height. Think it looks best all one level however. Flattened the bottom of the U to make the toilet bowl-esque shape above clearer
Brand Mark
Wanted something to accompany the word mark, so decided to sketch some symbols... mostly things related to clean or sewer.
Even after drawing these and then recreating, still didnt feel like they were right for the brand. Decided to pull out some shapes used in the word mark instead, specifically the sharp cornered circle (part of the "poo" muck) from the first concept, along with the MU from muck.
I find that the stylised MU. from the word mark actually works the best; it feels unique, and still includes the toilet bowl shaped U.
Testing colours
2 colour combinations
3 colour combinations

Brand campaign

Idea 1: muck cleanup
This would be a very simplistic in design, showing what is being dumped into waterways. the net would show that muck is cleaning up the waterways by removing all this plastic from the water.
Idea 2: "So clean you could bathe in it."
With this idea, I want to try executing it using blender. it would maybe work using flat graphics, but I want it to be full interactive animation. The idea could either be clean water flowing into a digital billboard with floating ducks in it, or a pipe with a rising water level with floating ducks and suds. The tagline "so clean you could bathe in it" could either float within or be a static element in a corner outside of the animation.
Playing with fluid sim in blender:
Dont feel that this is working that well, and it's taken a fair bit of time to get to this stage. For now, going to park the idea and try and see if others are more viable
Idea 3: The drain sponges
The idea behind this one would be to have a physical campaign, with sponges strategically placed around drains, to signify that the sponges are soaking up the dirty water, preventing it from entering the waterways.

Development Reset

After a feedback session, it became clear that I was getting a bit lost in the project. Nothing was really working or progressing well enough. Decided to start again, but with a more grounded approach to the project, instead of trying to be clever/funny about wastewater.

extra research

Decided to look at a few different things to see what was out there, to find a style
from instagram
Billy came across these on instagram; they're really cute. would be nice to try and do something in this style.
Powwow
Damon showed us a book containing Powwow, a water cooler company that was revolutionary in design for the time. Water cooler company designs tend to be really corporate and boring; Powwow was a stark contrast to these when it entered the market.
Octopus energy
website:
App graphics:
Octopus energy is a good example of design that isn't conforming to the norms of standard energy companies. The name isn't remotely related to anything electricity, and its design is so different in comparison. They've kept it clean and simple, and have a cute mascot that is used only in the right scenario.

Branding take 2.

Brainstorming
Started this time by just looking for words that aren't necessary related to wastewater or the industry (along with random words that popped into my head). Actually liked the thought of using an animal as a brand name, a bit like how octopus energy has done it. narrowed it down to the following three:

Duck

Newt

Otter
Decided on otter. Duck possibly would have worked, but im all ducked out. Newt maybe less so; not the nicest sounding word to say.
Creating the brand
Stuck with the same typeface used on the previous logo (muck). played about a bit to see if there was a way of customising it to look original. Some were a bit over-complicated, so I just settled on the 7th:
V1
V2
Still wasnt sure about the VolteOtter, so tried a different name for it:
With otter in mind, I decided to get down on paper on how it could be structured. The brief lists a lot of different parts to the brand; splitting them into distinct parts with an overall brand would make it clearer to the industry/consumer.
v3
V4
V5
I ended up changing the names of the products again; having them in front of the word otter visually wasnt working as well, along with making them feel like completely separate companies. Happy with the first two names, however I'm not sure about otter bio. Will need to find a better word that fits (will swap this out later).
Brand statement and catchphrases
Test graphics for products
Want to go with a style similar to this across all branding, including the website. They're a little overworked; could do with trying to simplify them further.
Catchphrases
Brand mascot / Brandmark
With the logo done, I want a brand icon to go alongside it to be used as a mascot. The simple segment drawings from earlier would be a good style to mimic.
The segment style is proving hard to replicate, especially with it being an otter. 
Decided to just go with an outline of the face instead of a full bodied otter. Played about a bit with eye placement and direction, pulling in the water drop from the main logo.
Applied the face to a head, but it looks a bit odd in context, especially with trying to keep the shapes geometric and circular.
It looks better applied when the top of the head isnt circular. Otters are long thin animals; extending off the page gives this illusion somewhat.

Visualising

Lanyards
Hard Hats
Vans
Website 
Figma Development Board

Hotfoot presentation

Feedback

Feedback from hotfoot was really good. Few things to work on over the winter break:

Harmonise the icons to better fit each other (the otter and the utility icons
​See if the graphic style can be applied to process (e.g. filtration process diagrams)

​I also want to work on the otter brand mark a bit more, to see if it can be improved further. Would like to try the segment circle art style again, along with trying to simplify the existing one further.