I was lucky enough to be selected for an interview at IKEA for a graphic design role. As part of the interview process, I had to complete a design challenge for a sustainable brand identity.
The assignment, was how could I use my creativity to create a mood board that represents the brand description for a fictional brand called “Bloom Design International”.
“Bloom Design International” is a home furnishings brand that would:
- Sell high-quality design products.
- Promote interest in sustainable design.
- Be the reference source of information about sustainable home furnishing accessories.
- Identify and strengthen young local designers who create high quality sustainable produces.
- As well as emphasize that the brand is primarily around supporting local furnishing designers.
I had to create a visual identity for the fictional brand, incorporating graphic elements such as:
- Colours
- Typefaces
- Graphic forms
- Symbols
- General communication and advertising style
- Defining the tone of voice in the messaging
The goal was to create a visual identity for presentation at the interview.
I looked at this brand identity in 2 steps:
- The research stage where I defined the brief, deliverables and messaging whilst also gathering visual research to aid the development of the identity.
- The artwork stage where I’d develop my research and analysis into a logo, visual identity and overall look and feel for the brand, whilst considering how the brand might develop it’s collateral into social media posts and other areas of its marketing.
In my research stage, I gathered relevant imagery from brands that were existing in the areas of eco-friendliness, sustainability, modern style and also ones that were targeted towards a younger audience (mainly early 20’s).
I also defined the descriptive makeup of the brand in terms of how much emphasis should be centered around what parts of the messaging.
In the artwork stage, I worked on this in the same way I’d work with a client. I’d begin by starting off with defining the logo, fonts and colour palette.
From that point, I’d have a good base of how the brand could develop.
My next stage was looking at imagery – as one of the brand’s main part of it’s messaging was that it worked with and championed young designers, I looked at the option of using imagery that would feature young artists working on products they’d designed. Using natural and personal photography.
My strategy when looking at the brand identity was how could I make a consistent theme and use visual restrictions so that it looked like part of the same visual research I’d defined, but also had it’s own unique style that would be hard to replicate.
I then started to look at how the image styles could develop and what types of imagery that brand might use for different scenarios. For example when the brand was communicating higher level statistics, it might have different imagery in comparison to other marketing scenarios.
I also considered how product sections would look, for example brochures and how I would best showcase the product in the brand identity.
I also looked at what imagery the brand would use when it was communicating internally through perhaps signage in in-store offers, as I envisioned the brand in having some in-store promotion through IKEA in their stores.
You’ll find a few pages of examples from my finished brand identity here.
You can also view both the full research presentation, and brand guidelines document by entering your email address in the form at the bottom of the page.
You’ll receive the download once the form is entered.
Hopefully this design challenge gives you a bit of an idea of how I approach brand projects with clients. I’m always open to work with new and exciting projects.
