Bicycle Heaven Branding
Corporate Identity — Spring 2021
Bringing It All Together
The objective of this project is to apply what’s been learned in past courses, including this one, to create a successful brand guideline, letterhead, and business card for a business that I’ve already designed the logo for. The logo project that I am choosing to expand on is the Bicycle Heaven Museum.
Important Information
Listed below is some of the information about the museum that is necessary to include in parts of this project.
Website: https://www.bicycleheaven.org/
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1800 Preble Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15233)
Contact Information:
Email — bikeheaven@comcast.net
Office Phone — 412.734.4034
Craig Morrow — 412.716.4956
Henry Morrow — 412.716.2547
Museum Hours: 7 days a week from 10am-7pm
Social Media:
Facebook — @ bicycleheaven
Instagram — @ bicycle_heaven
Research and Preparation
Letterheads
The letter heads shown above are being used as inspiration for their use of the edge and blocks of color. The tone of the museum that I am designing for is very active and passionate so color, creativity, and movement will be important aspects that I would like to incorporate in my design.
Question: Do you think blocking off/adding design elements to one edge or framing the letter head on more than one or all edges is more beneficial? Does one generally work better than the other?
I enjoyed these three letterhead designs because of their simplicity. I think functionality is an extremely important consideration for projects like these so I am considering going for a more minimal approach as far as including many design elements on the letter head.
Question: Do you think adding more design elements to a letterhead detracts from the usability or professional appearance?
Business Cards
The business card examples above intrigued me primarily because of the shapes and geometry in use. The logo that I designed for Bicycle Heaven is a triangular shape and each of these examples offer interesting ways to utilize a shape like that within the design of the card.
The above two business card examples caught my eye for different reasons. I enjoy the thick colored edge of the first card. I think that would give a high quality feel to the card and it would be a nice, unobtrusive yet eye-catching way of incorporating more color. The second interested me because of the use of photography which is uncommon in business cards. Although I’m not sure that would be the right move for my project, it is definitely something different to consider.
These final business card examples inspired me on how I could potentially use the individual parts of my logo design to use in different ways. Some of them gave me the idea of breaking up the sections of my abstract mark and using those. The way the “Rose Collins” business card takes out a part of the logo to use gave me the idea to take out the bicycle lines and make those work in a similar way. Finally, the card with the dicut was especially intriguing because the abstract mark I designed would actually work exceptionally well as a cut out. The dicut paired with the thick colored edge mentioned previously would be particularly interesting visually.
Question: Do you think straying from the traditional 3.5" x 2" business card size is more beneficial or problematic. I could see that changing the dimensions would set apart the card from others, but as someone who enjoys order and organization, I could also understand an oddly shaped business card as an irritant when placed with other business cards.
Mockup Options
Letterhead and Business Card Development
Thumbnails
Drafts
Questions:
Do you think the second drafts of the business card and letter head are cohesive?/ Do you think changing the color of the back of the business card would make them more cohesive?
On the letterhead, do you think adding the white stripe works better than it did without the stripe?
Do you think focusing on color is sufficient for making these cohesive or do you think there should be more of a focus on making the format cohesive?
Question:
With the new layout of the info side of the business card, is everything (phone numbers and website) still understandable or do they need more space in between them?
Brand Guideline
First Draft
Questions:
Do you think that the first page of the brand guide should be more formal than the current version?
Is there anything that should be included that was not or do you think anything that was included should be omitted? For example do you think I should show more of the structure of the logo or include any iconography?
Is there anything about the formatting that is not working? In particularly I would be curious to hear thoughts on the bar at the bottom of the page and the spacing and placement of elements on the pages.
Second Draft
Questions:
Do you think I should keep or delete the rationale next to the logo structure. If you think I should delete it, is there something I should replace it with or should I let the logo structure stand alone?
Do the descriptions under the patterns make sense or should they be reworded or elaborated more on?
Final Results
Note: The images have poor quality especially in the coloration because they are only screen shots. I’d be happy to send a pdf of everything upon request for grading purposes.
Letterhead and Business Card
Brand Guide
Rationale
The objective of this project is to apply what’s been learned in past courses, including this one, to create a successful brand guideline, letterhead, and business card for a business with a logo designed previously in this course. With the logo and the color palette already established for Bicycle Heaven, the stationary and the guide followed in a cohesive manner. The business card and the letterhead were intentionally designed to have a cohesive color system and formatting. The primary information on each is aligned at the bottoms. Each deliverable also includes a cohesive visual element that is intended to reflect the interior lines from the original logo. The brand guideline also employs the similar elements. The bold use of bright colors is important because it reflects the upbeat, chaotic, and passionate tone of the museum itself.
