~2.5 Hour Sprite Logo Redesign

This week our blog assignment was to select our favorite beverage from our everyday life, and after researching on the origins of the company and their stated brand ethics, to develop a new logo concept with at least 5 iterations.

These days I make most of my beverages at home (coffee, tea, water, repeat) but when I do go to the store and I want to get myself something bubbly and sweet, I always go for Sprite.

I was a little unsure if I wanted to work on a logo redesign for such a big and recognizable brand, but thought it’d be interesting to follow through and see what results it turned out, for experiments sake!

Apparently, Sprite was developed in West Germany in 1959 under the Coca-Cola Company. It started as an extension of the Fanta line with the name “Clear Lemon Fanta.” Only two years later, it would be rebranded and introduced as Sprite to the U.S. market.

I found a decent amount of information on their stated brand ethics and ideals. Their purpose is to “refresh the world and make a difference,” and their vision– “loved brands, done sustainably, for a better shared future that makes a difference in people’s lives, communities, and our planet.” They place a lot of emphasis on wanting to uplift with their product, even if it’s just one moment of happiness at a time.

After some mind mapping, I was feeling really inspired to place more emphasis on the flavor of the drink (lemon/lime) and to try evoking words like: fresh, happiness, light, bubbles, refresh, and fun in my designs. I also took a look at the logo’s history and past iterations to help get me in the right mindset. And at this point, I started sketching!

I didn’t start out with the intent to add type to the logo, but things didn’t feel complete without including the full word.

I really liked the option lowest on the page, and decided to take it a step further and refine it in Procreate. I also started to play with a new potential color palette in my final iteration.

Overall, I’m happy with the result! I tried to restrict myself on time and think I was still able to achieve pretty solid results treating it as a design sprint. I think if I had chosen a smaller brand, I could have really dug in more to their origin story and brand ethics as inspiration for a meaningful logo, but ultimately I feel that the ideas and emotions I wanted to convey in this design (happiness, whimsy, lightness) do come through, while also visually conveying what the product tastes like!

A Story in 7 Shots

For this week, we were tasked with brainstorming, storyboarding, and then shooting seven photographs that as a whole should (hopefully) convey a complete story.

I settled on the idea of “An Unexpected Dinner Guest” because 1) I wanted to find a way to utilize my apartment as my primary setting, and 2) I wanted to feature my dog in the photos. I decided to go ‘film noir’ in terms of the vibe– you’ll notice that the photos are black and white– because it gave a more focused, cohesive, and striking overall look.

#1: Virtual vs. In-Person Work Environments Moving Forward from COVID

Honestly, if there’s anything these months had made clear to me, it’s how many things can be adapted to a remote format. I think person to person, remote work may not be desirable, but for me personally, as someone who strives to be a self-starter but is also a huge introvert, I’ve found the online format to be very workable.

I’ve always thought that after this program, I would aim to one day be able to support myself through freelance work completely. A large part of the reasoning here is because I really want the flexibility to be able to work from home/from anywhere. After Galyn Bunnell’s guest lecture, I feel so much more aware of how companies are allowing more of that flexibility due to COVID, but also will continue that flexibility moving forward into the future. I definitely am planning to keep my options more open as a result.

Of course, a remote format may not always be the most ideal when you’re working on a more collaborative project, but I feel that with all the technology we have available to us at this point and time, it’s still a doable if not completely viable option.

My Official First Post:

Today marks two weeks of surviving the Graphic Design program at SCCA, and though that’s a fairly small accomplishment, I feel like it’s an important one none-the-less.

This morning in New Media, we had a guest lecture from Galyn Bunnell, which was really inspiring to me. It’s always great to hear from someone who has been through the program and found (pretty substantial) success on the other side! An exercise she mentioned was beneficial to her was a “skill/will assessment,” which I’ve tried to create for myself based on my current role, interests, and disinterests. I think it’ll be interesting to look back on it as I move forward in the program, because I expect things will probably change!

Hi Marc!!!

Testing, testing…. 1, 2, 3…..