Business For Design

Company names

This is a list of potential names for my design company.
Some describe what I will do, some seem to be far away from anything related to design, but you can associate something positive, new and/or fresh with it.
Maybe, with some little changes, I will be able to make use of a taken one, too.

real fantasy
think free
brainstorm*
connectdesign
good advice
birth/birthday**
unique design
difference design*
message design
ask me
thesis*
about your design
i ‘ve got it**
no fear of ideas
fine design
good flow
fine design
awake*
good idea
aesthetic approach*
active design

taken
not taken
* I likmost
*favourite

 

 
My design company

When starting your design company, there are a lot of decisions to make regarding your own design, how you present yourself optically to the public. The whole corporate design and visual language including colours, typography, logo, everything combined in the website and even the furniture in your bureau should mirror you and your work and, if appropriate, the name of your company.

In the course of these considerations it is necessary to decide:
Should the appearance of my firm with all it mediums of communication be rather playful and fancy or straight-line and serious?
Do I want it to be cute or cool, arty-individual or clear and neutral?
Would I put my core area in typography, photography or illustration when creating my website etc?

The accomplishment can be a balancing act, when trying to make a professional impression and not to appear kitschy while letting your design tell something about yourself. How to look unique while pleasing the taste of a broad clientele? How important is it to address a broad spectrum of clients for me at all?

I personally tend to the following directions:

     Playful........................x....................................serious
   
        cute...................................x.........................cool

    unusual.............x...............................................mainsteam, straight-line

     artistic....................x........................................clear and technical

    typo as
    artistic
    element.................................x...........................illustrations as artistic element
                                                                                                                   
     

Of course it isn´t easy to imagine what that means practically.

Therefore, with the help of a few internet presences, I would like to show the way my own potential prospective design company could go. I chose websites to illustrate that matter, because they contain the most CI/CD-elements and they are normally the first that you see of a firm.
The chosen examples are for the most part, but not exclusively design agencies themselves.

http://www.der-schrittmacher.de/
The site is dynamic, without disorienting. It´s moving, but still looks tidy. Nevertheless it
still looks too severe for my taste.

http://www.bouroullec.com/
There is only a small area within that the information is happening what helps easy orientation. The information given is supported by some, not too many pictures.

http://www.theaterhaus-hildesheim.de/
The site could even be arranged a little simpler, but I like the playful typo-logo and the way they reuse it at the bottom of the page. Also they make use of a strong colour.

http://www.enjoythis.co.uk/
The „home“-part could be died out a little, apart from that it´s nice, a creative name, the typography and the handwriting logo help to loosen and the team gives a very personal, inviting insight in their working environment.

http://www.pixelot.de/ 
has an interesting image composition and a strong colour and shape-language.

http://www.thesum.ca/index.html
It´s clear, illustrative, funny. And it moves, but not too many items, only the logo.

http://blublu.org/
it is very different from most of the websites, which I consider as desirable, but it´s very extremely artistic, (which is fine here because it´s an artist and no designer) but I think it would alienate potential clients of a designer.To make a similar website for a designer, work should be arranged a little more clearly.

http://www.infinvision.com/index.php
I like the way typography and illustration are combined and the way the image composition changes with each topic. The first half of the pages is always very clearly structured and „empty“ in a good way, but the lower part of the pages is too unclear and confusing because there is too much going on.

To conclude, clear arrangement is of great importance for me, because if people are confused, they lose their interest. You have to understand at once what the designer wants to tell you. That´s why it is necessary not to have too many items on each page of a website or any communication medium because the reader becomes overstrained.
Some of the pages shown consider this well, what also gives them certain clear aesthetics, but often they come without great recognition value and don´t stay in mind.
Others do quite well in being creative and fancy, curious. Being able to combine both qualities would be my aim.












Company logos (in progress)

An object representing my future design company

The object I chose to represent me as a designer as well as my future design company is a natural sponge.

1. Normally, with a sponge comes the association of cleaning.

a) I like “clean”, tidy, not overloaded design.
b) The sponge for cleaning is an object of utility. Also a natural sponge is in my opinion a very beautiful item. Being decorative and useful at the same time for me is an important demand that design should fulfil.

2. 2.If you are a curious person, what designers generally tend to be, and if you are sensitive towards influences from outside, you absorb your environment exactly like a sponge absorbs liquids and other substances surrounding it.
If this constant gathering and collecting is part of your personality, you can draw on very broad resources to generate your design.

3. 3. A sponge is flexible, that is what designers should be, to be able to adapt to the individual wishes of clients and to permanently changing work conditions.

4  4. Every natural sponge has its very unique shape. What I want to achieve in my design company are unique design solutions that suite the particular needs of the client, product/brand and situation.

5. It´s remarkable how massive a natural sponge looks compared to its actual weight. It can be a big object without needing much material.
My aim as a designer is to obtain strong design outcomes with the smallest means possible.

A mood board for my future design company

                

This is a mood board illustrating the visual impression of my future design company.

Since I am planning to go into branding and packaging mostly, I mention some examples of logos here:
There are very simple ones,  like that of  the “deutsche bank” or “Nike” that are memorable anyhow, which impresses me very much. Other logos that are shown are more illustrative, but clever,  like that of “green one” or “Electracicle” that play with the shapes of numbers, objects and letters and combine them  adroitly. The logo of “nude” makes a strong impression on me, because it is capable of representing four letters with only one simple shape and looking good at the same time. The one that sets itself apart from the assortment is the “this water”-logo. I personally like it, it´s really lovely and cute without being kitschy, and it´s very unusual.

In terms of the colour mood of my company, I chose a light blue to be very present, because it´s my favourite and moreover it´s a positive but neutral colour that many people like. Shades of grey blend well with blue and appear classy and cool. I would add some brown or brownish grey to set a contrast to these colours: the dark, heavy, earthy, warm brown with the cold, light, far bright blue I think look very good together. To apply highlights to the not very attention seeking colour-mix, I would sporadically add some red into important elements as eye-catchers, maybe even in the logo.

As I mentioned before I like to concentrate on branding and packaging, that´s why my mood board shows examples of packaging in addition to logos. These are samples with graphics that are of an illustrative stile without picture flood, they look very nice but are well structured, too.

Furthermore, my mood board shows two examples of three dimensional typography (up right and down left). As I want to create three-dimensional items (packaging), it may be interesting to play with three dimensional illustration or typography in my communication media. “Build typography” appeals me very much, but I´m aware of the fact that it´s a temporary fashion. In case of realisation of my agency I would have to rethink this point and check if it´s out already.

For better clarity of the elements shown, they are held in grey or grey-brown, which serves my colour conception, too.
The mood board itself is not as clearly arranged and “empty” as I imagine it to be for my future communication material. I intended to show all visual impressions that are of importance to me for my company and to unite them into one picture. For better clearness I would have had to relinquish some of the content.