Project type
Branding
TOOLS USED
Paper, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop
Brand guidelines
Created by Orla McCarney
finding the name
When designing a brand, finding the perfect name is the first and most important task. The brand name becomes the base, from which, the typefaces, colours and logo are designed. I started with some word association exercises, using the subject of my project, biodiversity, and some features the project will include.

I decided to continue with the ‘Nature’ route for the brand name. The words associated with this, such as ‘flowers, are gentle and elegant. This is the tone of voice I’d like to produce for this project. Words associated with nature are also more common and will be more relatable and easier to remember among the audience. I completed another word association exercise, using the words ‘flowers’ to help discover the brand name.

I liked the names Bloom, Wild and Bedlam. I liked Bloom for its simplicity and its association with planting and natural beauty which is something my project will help users to do. In a similar way, I liked ‘Bedlam’ as it makes me think of chaos which relates to nature being unpredictable and exciting as well as the term flower beds which is something you can create using my project. However, I decided to move further with the term ‘Wild’ as I wanted to explore more of the words associated with native species and reclaiming land.

This exercise led me to the name, ‘Wilding’ which I loved. The definition of ‘Wilding’ is “a plant growing uncultivated in the wild”. This is exactly what I want to achieve with this project, plants growing wild, embracing plants and insects that belong on our land. These plants and insects are currently struggling with the introduction of invasive, foreign species and the loss of natural habitats across the country.
Curating the colour Palette
I used the website Coolors to create the brand colour palette. Coolors is brilliant for creating colour schemes quickly. I uploaded a photo of a wildflower garden that I downloaded using Unsplash, and Coolors picked out some colours in the image.

I selected the colours I liked the best and then adjusted them slightly to be brighter and more distinct from each other. This created the palette below. There’s a good range of light and dark values in this palette that would allow for colour combinations when designing the wordmark and logo.
choosing the typeface
Typefaces are an important aspect of the brand as they help convey the tone of voice for a brand and a design element. A really beautiful typeface could be strong enough, on its own, to be the brand’s wordmark. To gain insight into what style of typefaces I would look for, I searched foundries such as, ‘Grillitype’ and ‘Fontsinuse’. From this exercise, I learned that I would be looking for a serif typeface with some eccentricity and an organic form. I then used Adobe Fonts to find this typeface as any fonts I find and download, are immediately accessible on any Adobe software on any device. I found the following fonts that matched what I was searching for, ‘The Seasons’, ‘Contralto Big’ and ‘Amandine’. I downloaded these and opened Adobe Illustrator. I typed the word ‘Wilding’ in each font and tried the bold and italics versions of each font. My favourite option was ‘The Seasons’ in bold.

To make the wordmark, I made some slight amendments. I increased the height of the letter ‘w’ to meet the height of the ‘d’. I also made the kerning between each letter slightly tighter.

I enjoyed the shape of the serif in the letter ‘g’ and thought it could resemble a leaf. I drew a semi-circle, with the pen tool and filled it in the yellow colour from my brand. I duplicated it, and flipped it vertically to create a symmetrical oval. I then grouped this oval together, duplicated it and made the second oval much smaller. I placed the second oval, over the first oval, selected both shapes and the ‘exclude’ button. This created my new leaf. I then removed the original serif from the letter ‘g’ and replaced it with the leaf shape.


creating the tagline
I wanted the tagline of this project to be memorable and relate to the brand’s mission. I liked the idea of using well-known phrases or idioms. I searched Google for phrases that related to nature, plants or animals.

I thought “Down to earth” would be a tongue-in-cheek, literal use for this phrase but I wanted the brand to have a more serious tone of voice. I searched instead for common words or phrases associated with nature and found “Unpredictable nature”. I liked this option as it is both a description of what the target audience can expect from my project but also infers the idea of chaos and wildness which I think fits with the brand name
Using a similar process for finding my main typeface, ‘The Seasons’, I searched fontsinuse and the brands I saw around me, to see how they had paired up a serif typeface with a secondary typeface. Most chose the option of a simple, sans-serif typeface which I thought would be a great way to balance out the organic and decorative typeface ‘The Seasons’. I searched Adobe Fonts again and eventually decided on the font ‘Neue Haas Grotesk’. I tried different versions of it, bold, standard, light and italic, to discover which suited the best next to my wordmark. I decided on the bold version. I then placed this under the wordmark.


Logo design
The leaf shape as the serif in the 'g' is the perfect logo. As it is a simple shape that can be recognisable with the brand. I did some sketching on paper to experiment with different designs including this leaf shape.

I liked the idea of using just the floral symbol using the leaf shapes. I think it will work well with the wordmark and match nicely with the leaf in the 'g'. I designed this logo in illustrator and I'm really happy with how it looks.

creating brand pattern
The new logo that I was able to create using the leaves inspired me to think of what other symbols I could create with this shape. I found inspiration online and in floor tile designs on repeating patterns using simple shapes.

I used some shapes from the images to the left as a reference to create my own designs. The shapes below symbolise a butterfly (native insects), the earth (soil and the land we need to protect) and a flower (native plants).

I can now use these shapes throughout my branding, such as packaging by creating a repeating pattern grid. I designed some versions of this to see what it could look like. I had a lot of fun with this exercise and think this will be a really useful branding element to use throughout my project.

Mockups
I designed some mockups of seed packaging and cardboard boxes as these could be used in Wilding for items that will be delivered. I found PSD templates on Freepik and designed the necessary elements for the template using Adobe Illustrator.


I also designed some posters to use for advertising and used Photoshop to mock these up. These posters have an image of a native species hidden behind one of my branding symbols, to find out the name of this species, passers-by can scan the QR code at the bottom. This QR code will open a mobile website which will reveal the answer and a call to action to download the app.


conclusion
I’m proud of my branding work in this project. I think it has versatility. The colours can work on light and dark backgrounds and the symbols are simple and recognisable. They can also be used on their own or as a pattern which allows for creative packaging and other branded physical touchpoints. This was my first experience developing a whole brand identity instead of just a colour scheme and a wordmark. I really enjoyed this project and I’ve found it is an aspect of my role as a designer that I enjoy and will continue building on my skill level in.