Top Dog Research

I began researching into hot dog rans and food places on wheels, in order to understand what is necessary in the design to stand out. 

Bright colours certainly work for some of this vehicle. I think the ice cream looks too much look like an ice cream van still, so if we were to use one of them it would be a total redecoration. We need a vehicle so we can move around Leeds and be around at the times when people want food. 

Neon lights and the use of light in type is popular at the minute. We are aiming this to cool young trendy people so using design that sits within this area will mean its success.

Imagery could be useful within the design. It gives the viewer something to look at, and understand what the company is about etc. I especially like the blue and red design, its simple and clear.

Top Dogs Brand Idea

In order to create and design a brand, we need to think about why we are creating it in the first place. My friend Rena who a student on Graphics at Leeds Uni and I want to create a hot dog food place. So we need to think of how to fully brand it appropriately. 

We came up with the name Top Dogs because thats what we are selling. Topped, in this case with pizza type toppings on hotdogs. 

Brand Story - 

We want to create a food stall, most likely on wheels. We want to be easily accessible for the customers. Cheap and filling fast food, mixing hot dogs with pizzas. 

Who?
Audience -

We want to aim this company towards the young foodie type people. Young professionals with disposable income to spend on these hot dogs. 
The night life is very good in Leeds, where the company will start. A lot of people get hungry after a night of dancing and drinking, so being around the hot spots would be beneficial for the company.

What?
What are we selling -

High quality, big hot dogs with pizza toppings. This makes for amazing indulgent food that is filling and fairly priced.

When?

The food place will be open doing best times for eating. Lunch time, in and around the city, and late night from 10-4/5 in the morning for the drunk and hungry people. 

Where?

Leeds city centre is where it will begin. If it turns out to be successful and popular it can expand and move further around Leeds. Hyde park and Headingley are good place to move to, due to students etc.

How?

The food place will be most likely be a converted four wheel vehicle, possibly an old ice cream van, horse box or something similar. This is because it will be cheap and we are able to completely decorate it with the brand in mind.

Tone of voice?

This is a young company aiming indulgent food to young people. The brand will fun, energetic and cool. It must look high end and well designed in order to build up hype and publicity. 

Hollie Webb Fashion Communication Logo

Hollie came to me with an idea for her personal Logo. She does Fashion Communication and because we are friends it was easy to understand what she wanted. Hollie helpfully sent me a small design sheet with the idea and style she wanted. 

I began by looking at artists with similar styles to the ones on the PDF. This was so I could work out the style and pencil/pen to use. I planned on image tracing the image on Illustrator.

These drawings are too detailed and shaded for the logo, this will be a small design that needs to work on different levels, so the more simple design will work.

I also looked at Hollie's work which was full of colour and personality. It was clear that using a lot of colour would be appropriate for this logo. It will depict Hollie and her personality, but most importantly her way or style of work.

I began by drawing out the image on the PDF. 

Using image trace to create a digital version. I then went onto Photoshop to apply colour, however this wasn't very good when it came to editing. So I realised putting in Illustrator and expanding the object, meant it was a lot easier to change parts. 

Image on photoshop. Not easy to work with so transferred to Illustrator.

Expanded image, Hollie suggested the red lip.

Colour is a big part of this logo because it represents Hollie a lot. She wears a lot of colour and pattern, so it is good this logo works with black lines but is important it works with full colour also.

This is the basis of the full colour logo. The outfit is most important, hence why its full colour. It is easier for the face to have no colour, so the design is not overwhelmed. The hair needed definition so had to have black and blonde within it. From this point it was just a case of editing the colours and lines until it looked good. 

A choice of eyes, with block colour or outlined and different shapes. I showed Hollie these differences so she could pick. 

Detail of the hair. The frame of the glasses was also thinned. 

Hollie discussed she thought a hand written looking font would look good. Instead of using one off a website, I thought I'd try mine. By image tracing it again. The two versions, of straight or curved were experiments. Hollie really want a curved type on the logo, so it in the end it worked better to use an already existing typeface. 

The hand writing works on the straight level, but not on the curved. 

I used the typeface BlowBrush at the beginning but decided it was too close to a graffiti sort of look. 

I then found this typeface, Trashhand, which looked similar to my handwriting and thought it would look a lot better. 

The versions I sent to Hollie for the final say. 

The final Logo - 

The logo is being used for her online presence and further printed material when necessary.