Research on Corporate Identity and Stationary (2)

CI on items other than basic stationary in the food industry

    - possible items to be part of Xiao Mei's CI

       ~ packaging wrapper cum recipe (packaging), fridge magnet, uniform, paper bag, paper cup, paper tray...

Business Card Layout (Attempt 1)

Just a tryout on various business card layouts with the temporary logo

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Feedback:

- confusion: which is the person? Xiao Mei or Cheah Hui Ting?

- logo + chinese and english brand name can be placed at the decorative side, while other information can be at the opposite side (logo included as a sign of continuation)

- Xiao Mei and 小妹: choose one to emphasise

- hierarchy issue: to group into boxes

- flush left, ragged right: avoid extremely long lines in a sudden

- diagonal design similar to swiss design, slightly old fashion nowadays

- to explore different business card shapes

Logo Idea Generation and Sketches (2)

Logo design with constructive grids

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Feedback:

- blue are the better ones

- to consider: hidden 'M' as a crown or a more modern square space

- without angulation is more stable and modern

- to alter angle and thickness if to do angulation

- to explore with colours on the sub triangles

Research on Corporate Identity and Stationary (1)

Observations...

1. Apart from stationary, CI is also applied to business related items

2. Everything looks like a family: same colour palette, texture/pattern applied systematically 
    - not completely the same on all items, but has a sense of wholeness/uniformity

Logo Idea Generation and Sketches (1)

Inspirations...

1. Chinese seal

2. MAA logo

    - 'M' shape similar to crab

Sketches

    - 'XM': Xiao Mei

    - 'X' appears via negative space while 'M' also appears as a form of a crab

    - the form of 'XM' is like a fish

      >> Xiao Mei, visually recognised as a crab previously, is a brand which produces authentic Muar Otak-otak with fresh mackerel 

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Feedback:

- to construct logo with construction grids

- to re-design 小妹

- to explore logo with different blue-red tones

Moodboard (Attempt 2)

Following the previous feedback, I redo my moodboards, focusing mainly on different illustration styles.

Concept: Complementation
- complementation between the old and new
  ~authentic, traditional recipe and the habit of not wasting (uses newspaper to wrap otak-otak) VS modern frozen food technology and fast and convenient service
  ~ eg. common media on unusual canvas, western illustrative styles in Chinese design

1. Watercolour 
    

    - watercolour on newspaper: using the media on an unusual canvas

2. silkscreen/stamping

    - stamping on newspaper 

    - fast and convenient

    - pattern: a school of blue fish VS red Xiao Mei logo

    - blue: sea, red: colour of otak-otak

3. doodle

    - eco feel

4. geometrical-minimalist vector 

    - cute and simple

5. colour pencil and watercolour

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Feedback:

- No.1: too contemporary

- No. 3: too much attitude, a style not commonly liked/preferred

- No.4: so so, No. 5: Malay feel

- No. 2
  ~ has potential
  ~ to explore on tones of red and blue to make the general appearance more approachable
  ~ font: Futura? to explore more fonts
  ~ playing with patterns on silhouettes 
  ~ to explore possible items for logo/pattern application: wrapper, items in store
  ~ suggestion: print on other paper, eg. paper for food (more hygienic) rather than newspaper: 1 side with pattern, 1 side for DIY recipe

Moodboard (Attempt 1)

Concept: traditional

1. Chinese ink painting

2. Chinese paper cutting and traditional window frame

3. Photography

4. Traditional packaging method

5. Cute illustration with retro colour palette 

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Feedback:

- No. 1 and 2: too Chinese, may not be appealing to the general target audience

- No. 3: too common

- No. 4: cannot stand as one art direction

- No. 5: has potential as illustration is more approachable to existing and new target audiences

- bad typo choice

- suggested concept: complementation

  ~ between various cultures

  ~ between ingredients

-  to redo moodboard based on new concept