What is Branding?
Branding can be seen as a mixture of different disciplines within the design world. Logo design, corporate Id, font choice, colour palette and illustration can all be placed beneath this umbrella, however, it is much deeper than just the above.
A logo design is part of your brand identity along with the colour palette and font choice, it is a visible representation for your company. For instance, A UPS currier would wear a brown uniform with the UPS logo in yellow, they would also drive a package car or tractor-trailer combination called a feeder.
Now we are beginning to touch on the points of branding, It is about how your customers connect with you on multiple levels. How do they view your company? what services do you provide? what guarantees do you make to your customer? what is your product range? who is your target audience? who is the voice of your company? A graphic designer can’t make a brand 100% by themselves, the designer designs a brand identity to base the brand from, a platform if you will.
The brand itself comes from within the companies core values, things like their unique selling point, their target audience, product quality etc. This part of the branding process is known as a brand strategy. A good example of this can be seen in how Apple has built a brand.
They have a logo that is simple and easily remembered and recognized within a saturated market, they have a website, they sell really high-end quality products which are sold in equally high-quality packaging. They have the retail design in the shops and stores. Everything that Apple does is very calculated to add the ultimate possible value to its products and services and ultimately their brand.
The packaging of the box will be a certain weight of cardboard, it will have a specific finished coating, the inner packaging will have similar elements. The logo is clear on the packaging, the font choice for Apple was Myriad Pro, however, they have now changed this to Helvetica Neue.
Every shop all over the world will have the same aesthetic feel. Clean straight lines in the architecture speak of stability, the logo needs no other text to engage the customer. Products are on display to the customer in a roomy environment that gives the customer time to fully explore the products without feeling that they are holding up a queue. Wide-open spaces are illuminated with mood lighting making the customer feel relaxed and safe, it almost makes you want to stay in the shop longer, this is a brilliant marketing strategy to try and get the maximum investment from the customer.
The products themselves are made of high-quality material, they are minimal, sleek and feel like a luxury item. They make the consumer feel like they are on another level to their competitors which is all part of the marketing strategy of the brand. A brand if done correctly like Apple is something that is almost intangible.
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another”.
Seth Godin
Design Brief. Bauhaus 100.
When Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919 he established a school of design which still inspires today. In keeping with its motto “Thinking the World Anew,” the Bauhaus Association 2019 will join regional, national and international partners in facilitating a rediscovery of the Bauhaus heritage and its present and future significance.
Bauhaus 100. is not aimed merely at celebrating magnificent buildings and furniture that defined a style but engaging with today’s cultural legacy of its central figures. The subject of this centenary cannot and may not be the historical Bauhaus alone, but rather what is still tangible and perceptible today of the former design school’s approaches and achievements.
“A break with traditional ideas and old ways of life, a new way of thinking in art, typography graphic design, architecture, education and society”. (Walter Gropius)
The exhibition and programme for Bauhaus 100. will showcase themes of the Bauhaus that may still be relevant today with work by *architects, *designers, *performers, *visual artists, *typographers, *photographers, *dance, *product design, educators and sociologists about their perspectives on the world.
You are required to design and brand Bauhaus 100. An International Design Exhibition comprising aspects of work by renowned architect Walter Gropius who founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. Although it was in operation for just 14 years before it was shut down by the National Socialist Party as part of the Nazi regime, it has become the most influential art and design school in history.
Museums and galleries across the globe are hosting events to mark the occasion. The exhibition will showcase works by renowned Bauhaus contributors and acclaimed alumni across a range of disciplines, including typographer Herbert Bayer, textile artist Anni Albers, sculptor Marianne Brandt, artist Wassily Kandinsky, designer Piet Zwart, and architect Mies van der Rohe.
Research
In 1919 shortly after the first world war, a new art school called The Staatliches Bauhaus or more commonly known Bauhaus was formed in the city of Weimar by architect Walter Gropius. Gropius enlisted the help of other teachers known as “Masters”, these included Wassily Kandinsky (painter), Paul Klee (painter), Oskar Schlemmer (painter,sculptor,theatre), Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Hinnerk Scheper, Georg Muche, László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Schmidt, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger and Gunta Stölzl
Walters vision was to combine each different discipline of the design world into one creative module. these disciplines included metalworking, cabinetmaking, weaving, pottery and typography. A foundation course lasting six months would be the students’ first module and Kandinsky’s lecture on colour theory was part of this module. Kandinsky’s theory in colour relating to shapes was soon adopted by the Bauhaus almost like a logo, this consisted of a Yellow triangle, a Red square and Blue circle.
These colours are based on the primary colour triad that forms the basis of an artists colour wheel. The secondary colour triad is Orange, Green and Violet the colours that are made by mixing the primary colours.
I find this really interesting that this form of colour theory was taught to the students and that these colours were chosen instead of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow that are TRUE primary colours.
Most people are taught that Red, Blue and Yellow are the primary colours but this is a complete lie. According to the definition of a primary colour from the Oxford dictionary, a primary colour is as follows.
primary colour noun
- any of a group of colours from which all other colours can be obtained by mixing.
So that said if you can mix a combination of Red, Yellow and Blue together and obtain Cyan or Magenta then you are a genius. The real primary colours are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow followed by Red, Blue and Green.
Blue is a subtractive colour the same as Red, for example mixing cyan and magenta gives you Blue and mixing Yellow and Magenta to get Red. If Red was a primary colour you would not be able to make it by mixing other colours.
So now that I have explained my knowledge on colour theory I thought it would be a great starting point for the branding of this project. Because Red, Blue and Yellow were used as the Bauhaus signature colours I thought it would be appropriate to use the opposite colour Palette for my branding, so Cyan, Magenta and Greens will be the basis for this brand project.
Because this event is so large, taking place at destinations all over the world for the duration of 2019 it would be impossible for me to design every aspect of this in the time frame I have. I decided to focus on events based here in England and have decided to look at the masters of the Bauhaus. I want to focus my attention on specific individuals and try to make promotional material in the forms of posters and flyers, also brochures, that showcase their work.
Walter Gropius
Gropius was born on May 18th in Berlin, the son of an architect father, Gropius followed in his footsteps studying the discipline at the technical institutes in Munich (1903–04) and in Berlin–Charlottenburg (1905–07).
After completing school, Gropius travelled to Italy, Spain and England before joining the architect Peter Behrens in Berlin. It was here that Gropius shaped his relationship with architecture and the arts. In 1911 he joined the German Labour League, this organisation combined creative designers with machine production.
Between 1911 and 1914, Gropius had completed two buildings that were done in collaboration with Adolph Meyer. The Fagus Works completed in 1911 and the model office and factory building in Cologne 1914 were a testament to Gropius’s design maturity within the architectural world.
During the first world war, Gropius served as a cavalry officer on the Western Front. Gropius was wounded in service and received the iron cross for his bravery. Before the war had ended, the city of Weimar had approached Gropius for ideas about the arts in education. In 1919 Gropius became the director of the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts, the Grand Ducal Saxon Academy of Arts, and the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Arts. These three schools were immediately united and became the Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar (“Public Bauhaus Weimar”) and Bauhaus was born.
Wassily Kandinsky
Born in Moscow Russia, the young Kandinsky travelled with his mother and father and soon became familiar with different locations such as Venice, Rome and Florence before his family finally settled in Odessa. It was here that Kandinsky became an amateur painter and became drawn toward abstract art and also colour theory.
Kandinsky began to study law in 1886 at the University of Moscow, in 1889 he was sent to Vologda by the university to study the people and culture of this province. It was here that Kandinsky found a lasting interest in the sometimes dreamlike styles of Russian folk paintings.
Kandinsky moved to Munich in Germany by the time he was 30 and enrolled as a student at a private school run by Anton Azbé. Kandinsky studied there for two years before taking a gap year, he then enrolled at the Munich Academy where he gained a diploma by 1900. He continued for some years as a professional artist.
Kandinsky finally settled in the town of Murnau, in southern Bavaria with his partner Gabriele Münter. Here his own personal style of abstraction came into fruition. By 1914 the first world war had broken out and Kandinsky returned to Russia alone. while in Moscow he married Nina Andreevskaya who he had met a year previously. His success continued in The Soviet Union where he helped organise 22 museums. In 1920 he was made a professor at the University of Moscow, one year later in 1921 he founded the Russian Academy of Artistic Sciences. Kandinsky returned to Germany shortly after opening the Academy with his wife.
Kandinsky continued his career in Germany when in 1922 he was offered a teaching post at Weimar in the already famous Bauhaus school of art.
Josef Albers
Born on March 19, 1888, in Bottrop, Germany. Albers was the son of a painter-decorator from the town of Bottrop, Westphalia. Albers studied to become a teacher in Büren before becoming a teacher in Westphalian primary schools from 1908 to 1913. In 1913 Albers attended the Konigliche Kuntschule in Berlin where he studied for two years to earn his certification to teach art.
Between the years of 1916 to 1919, Albers worked as a printmaker at a vocational art school called Kunstgewerbeschule in Essen, Germany. Here Albers was also exploring glasswork for which he would later become famous and received his first public commission to design stained-glass windows for a church in Essen.
In 1920, Albers enrolled as a student at the Bauhaus school of art, two years later, Albers passion for working with glass paid off when Gropius saw Albers work at a student exhibition. Gropius appointed Albers as a junior master and Albers became head of the glass workshop. In 1925 the Bauhaus had moved location to Dessau and Albers was promoted to a master making him the first Bauhaus student turned Bauhaus master.
Anni Albers
Born Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann on June 12, 1899, in Berlin, Germany. Alber was raised by a wealthy family, her mother was a publisher and her father a furniture maker. Alber began painting from an early age and studied under impressionist artist Martin Brandenburg, from 1916–1919.
In 1919 Albers began attending the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg but only lasted two months. Later in 1922, Albers began to pick up her studies again this time at the Bauhaus school in Weimar. Her first year of tutoring came from George Muche and then Johannes Itten. At this time women were not treated as equals to their male counterparts and therefore excluded from many of the disciplines taught at the school.
Unable to work in the glass workshop that was run by future husband Josef Albers, Anni reluctantly had to defer to the only workshop available to women students. Here she learnt to weave under her tutor Gunta Stölzl and soon began to appreciate the many challenges that this discipline had to offer. Albers continued to experiment with weaving unusual materials, in 1929 Albers was awarded her diploma after she designed a wall hanging for an auditorium. The covering consisted of cotton, chenille and cellophane which reflected light and absorbed sound.
Herbert Bayer
Born on April 5, 1900, Bayer spent his childhood growing up in Hagg, Austria-Hungary. By the time Bayer was 19, he was working as an apprentice for industrial-design studios. First for Georg Schmidthammer in Linz, Austria before withdrawing from the apprenticeship and moving to Germany where he studied at the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony under the supervision of Arts and Crafts designer and architect Emanuel Josef Margold. It was here that Bayer came across the Bauhaus Manifesto of 1919 written by Gropius.
By 1921, Bayer had enrolled as a student on the preliminary course headed by the Swiss painter Johannes Itten. Upon completing Itten’s preliminary course, Bayer joined Kandinsky’s wall painting department where he learned colour theories and colour form. in 1925 Bayer passed his journeyman’s examination by designing and painting a nightclub in Weimar.
With his studies completed, Gropius appointed him to be the junior master of the newly formed print and advertising workshop. As newly appointed master one of Bayers first tasks was to design the Bauhaus its own typographic identity. Taking the task seriously, Bayer allegedly redesigned the Bauhaus’ business documents three times between the years 1925 to 1927. Bayers universal typeface soon caught on but Bayer left the Bauhaus a year later.
Joost Schmidt
Schmidt was one of the three children, Born 5 January 1893 in Wunstorf near Hannover. Joost began his career in 1910 where he attended the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Hochschule für bildende Kunst (Grand Ducal Saxonian school of arts) in Weimar. It was here that Joost became a master student, guided by the respected painter, draftsman and etcher Max Thedy. Although Joost’s true calling was to be a graphic designer and typographer, he was heavily influenced by Thedy pursuing his career in traditional painting. by the year 1913 Joost received his diploma in painting, however, his career was put on hold as the First World War broke out and Joost was drafted into the army.
During the war Joost was captured and held as a prisoner of war a year later, here he remained captive until the end of the war in 1918 when he was finally released and returned to Germany. Once home he quickly refocused his efforts in his artistic career. To further his prospects as an artist, Joost enrolled at the Bauhaus in 1919. Under the guidance of Johannes Itten and Oskar Schlemmer, Joost trained in the woodwork and stonemasonry workshops where he learned to work with mediums he had never used before. In 1921 Joost designed carvings for the Sommerfeld House in Berlin and the poster for the Bauhaus exhibition. Again Gropius saw Joost’s potential and subsequently offered him the position of junior master at the Bauhaus Dessau.
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer was born on May 21, 1902, in a small town called Pécs near the River Danube, Hungary. Upon graduating high school at the Magyar Királyi Föreáliskola in Pecs, Breuer secured a scholarship and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Here Breuer began to study painting, however, Breuer quickly became unhappy with the curriculum and three weeks later he left.
Breuer found an apprenticeship with a Viennese architect and in 1921 at age 18 he joined the cabinet making studio of the architects’ brother. Later that year, Breuer moved to Weimar, Germany wherein 1919, he enrolled at the newly founded school of Bauhaus that was founded by Walter Gropius.
Gropius saw Breuers’ potential and within a year had promoted him to head of the carpentry workshop. Breuer remained a teacher at the Bauhaus until 1928 and in this time produced furniture for Gropius’ Sommerfeld House. He also was famed for his series of “African” and “slatted” chairs, but most famous of all was his “Wassily chair # B3” that took inspiration from the shape and form of bicycle handlebars.
Johannes Itten
Johannes Iten was the son of a teacher and he himself trained as a primary school teacher at the teacher-training institute in Bern. Born in 1888 in Sudern-Linden in Switzerland Itten is regarded as one of the most brilliantly talented within the art world. While training in Bern, Itten was exposed to the ideas of psychoanalysis which in turn enabled him to study colour theory in depth.
Itten’s’ style of art was expressionist and he soon began to form his own unique theories about colour which he would later publish with the books “Kunst und Farbe” in 1961 followed by “Mein Vorkurs am Bauhaus”.
Itten was one of the first masters that Walter Gropius invited to teach at the Bauhaus. Through this movement, Itten was able to teach his students about the concepts of colour, material and composition. However, due to Itten’s’ devotion to a cult following and the fact that it influenced many of his students, he was eventually dismissed from the Bauhaus.
Oskar Schlemmer
Oskar Schlemmer was a painter, sculptor, choreographer and designer. His work in performance was experimental breaking free from the usual constraints. His work as a painter and sculptor gave him international acclaim and saw him produce a number of murals including a series that he was commissioned to produce for the Folkwang Museum in Essen.
Born September 4, 1888, in Stuttgart, Germany, Schlemmer was introduced to design at a young age as an apprentice in a marquetry workshop. He also studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Stuttgart, and a scholarship allowed him to further his studies at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Art (1906–10).
Wounded in action during the First World War, Schlemmer returned to Stuttgart wherein 1919 he helped initiate a movement that modernized the curriculum at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Art. In 1920 he was appointed to teach at the Bauhaus where he would produce his most famous work Das triadisches Ballett (1922; “The Triadic Ballet”). Schlemmer designed the costumes and choreographed the production that he named “Triadic” to reflect the three acts, colours and dancers of each performance.
Design Concept #1
I really like the dadaism movement of the 1920s, this style of surreal photomontage and mixed media creates some really striking pieces. Black and white photos cut out and set against bright coloured backgrounds create contrasting and striking imagery that immediately catches the viewers eye.
This style of design can be seen in some of the early Bauhaus works of people such as Herbert Bayer, and Joost Schmidt.
Herbert Bayer
I decided to try and recreate this style of design by using cut out photographs of the Bauhaus masters, set against a solid colour background with Graphic elements that related to that person. I used the three main colours of Magenta, Cyan and Green to bring uniformity to these posters.
I think that some of the posters have turned out better than others, however, I am still not completely sold on this idea. The posters look too clean and I want them to represent 100 years of this movement. I decided to add some distressed overlays and halftones to try and create a more aged feel to the designs.
I’m happier with the way these are beginning to look, I think the overlays add more depth and interest to the overall designs. I’m now going to narrow the designs down to six and begin to refine them using a grid system. I also like how the designs with the white background look so I will look at how these work as a group. I think by keeping the backgrounds the same colour will add uniformity and identity to the overall brand.
Revisions
I think that these designs are starting to come together now they are on a grid but I still want to look at just using a plain white background.
Revisions #2
I prefer the way these have turned out, The designs with the solid white fill look clean and polished while the distressed versions add character and depth.
Stylescapes
Stylescapes are designed to be shared with clients before the visual design phase to make sure everyone’s in agreement with the direction. When you and the client sign off on a modern, clean, and simple design, you have a visual reference tool to communicate exactly what that might look like.
Revisions #3
I decided to do another set of revisions, this time using a different style of design. I wanted the posters to look more modern but with a contemporary twist while still keeping the timeless feel of the period. I decided to stay with the colour Palette of Magenta, Green and Cyan but to use it very sparingly as a way to accent parts of the design. Because I was still using the old black and white photos, I decided that a secondary palette of subtle greys would complement this and add a sense of vogue.
I decided to use the same background in all of the posters and overlayed these with subtle geometric shapes that correlate to the Bauhaus period.
I like how these have turned out, however, I am unsure about the text placement and also that there is no hierarchy between fonts. I will address this with another round of revisions and decide what looks better.
Revisions #4
In this final set of revisions, I have enlarged the image of the person and aligned all the text to the left. I have also altered the font size, weight and family to give hierarchy to the text.
I think these look better with the text on the bottom so I will use these as my final proofs.
In Situ
Because this is a branding project I wanted to show how the design can be utilised in different formats. I have made mockups of them as posters, brochure and gift cards to do this.
Brand Guide
Below is a comprehensive guide of how to use colours, fonts and the different types of paper to be used in conjunction with the Bauhaus 100 Brand.
Colour Palette
The Three Primary colours of Green, Cyan and Magenta are only to be used as overlays to highlight specific points of interest within a design or text. The blend mode should be set to Overlay when working with the Primary colours, with the opacity or fill setting of 25%
The Four Secondary Greys can be used as solid fill colours or combined to make subtle gradients within a design.
Fonts
I decided to use the Futura font family because it fits in with the Bauhaus time period. It was designed in 1927 by German typographer Paul Renner as a contribution to the New Frankfurt project, the geometric sans serif typeface was based on visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919 to 1933. In fact, it was commissioned as a typeface by the Bauer Type Foundry. Futura’s simple geometric circles, triangles and squares represent function over form, taking away the nonessential and decorative elements.
Following the release of the Futura font family, new competing geometric sans-serif typefaces sprang up from foundries in the United States. However, The font was overshadowed here in the UK, with the iconic Gill Sans taking over London’s transport system and signage in the 1930s and 40s.
Any of the Futura font family can be used to brand various items within the project above are examples of the most used three fonts within this brand.
Paper Stock
Magazines
All magazines are to be printed as newsstand sizes 22*28cm
Cover: 250 gsm Semi-gloss
Paper: 115 gsm Matt text paper
Posters
All posters are to be printed as A0 size for outdoor use 84.1*118.9cm
Blueback: 130 gsm – Blueback is the industry standard for water-resistant outdoor signage. It is easy to install and obscures any previously installed image.
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