Study the Brief

Explanation

In this assignment, you’ll study a design brief from a new business that has asked you to develop a brand identity for them. Then, you’ll complete some initial idea generation.

In the six short assignments that follow this one, you’ll design a name and logo for the business, choose the brand’s typography and colour palette, and then put together some documentation.

Instructions

Study the brief

 Set your timer: 10 minutes

Carefully read through the following design brief, and note down any words, phrases, and ideas from the brief that you think are important.

Background

The director of a new small business has approached you to help them develop a brand identity ahead of their launch in a few months. The brand doesn’t have a name yet, so the client would like your help with that, too.

The business will be an online subscription service that delivers a box of starter garden plants to subscribers four times a year — one package for each season.

Traditionally, home gardeners will tend to drive to a nearby garden centre and spend several hours there. This new business is trying to do something different, by making carefully starter plants available through the post.

Design direction

Overall, the new service aims to provide an easy, convenient way to getting home delivery of high-quality plants.

The service is designed for people with busy schedules, or who prefer not to venture out to garden centres. Although it’s designed for people of all ages, the fact that it will be an online subscription business may mean that it is more attractive to younger age groups, who tend to use online services in preference to in-person stores.

The brand name needs to be short and memorable, and the logo, colour palette, and typography, need to be very distinct from the traditional garden centre.

Deliverables

The client has asked for the following seven deliverables:

• Notes from your research
• Three options for a brand name
• Three logo options, in sketch form, for your chosen brand name
• A digitised version of your chosen logo design
• Three options for a brand font pairing
• Three possible brand colour palettes
• A “brand essentials” document to present these brand assets together

(You’ll work on those deliverables in the following seven assignments.)

Capture your initial ideas

 Set your timer: 15 minutes

Next, take a little time to think about the brief, and note down any ideas that immediately come to you. The purpose of this stage is to capture your initial thoughts, before beginning research (which is coming up in the next assignment).

Review the example solution

Once you’ve completed your work on this assignment, take a few minutes to review the example solution below.

Example solution

In conclusion...

Now that you’ve studied the brief, it’s time to do some research.

Assignment version 1.1
Last updated 21 June 2021

Change notes
v1.1: Added initial idea generation to the instructions (step 2).