According to the rules of the contest, we need to develop a corporate identity and a brand book: letterheads, envelopes, bus and ice resurfacer liveries, umbrellas, hats, scarves, souvenirs, etc.
Inviting more designers to join the project. Let’s go.
While the type designer is hard at work producing the corporate typeface, we start making sketches. Billboards.
Poster.
Art director: Main billboard designs should feature photos of the players. As for the posters, I suggest to make use of active typography: large, densely typeset text.
Designer: Another idea is to add ice scratches to the background.
Art director: Now the typeface is too active, it competes with the star for attention and there is no free space left. The star is more important here. You can also have a photo with an outline, but you need to make sure the photo fits inside without the outline (this will help change them quicker). The stripe pattern needs some work. I think the lines should be based on the corners of the star. The billboards would look better with active typography and no photos. Try googling “typography poster Paula Scher” (not all of the results will be relevant of course, use it for the mood rather than as an example). Let’s have the date in large numbers, you can even cover them in red and blue stripes.
The art director sends some reference images to help find the mood.
New approach to posters.
Billboards.
Season pass.
Art director: This is much better. However, on one type of posters the words “hockey” and “CSKA” blend together, on others the word “hockey” is too large. It would be better to make the date larger (the time is almost always the same, anyway) and maybe cover the date numbers or the background in red and blue stripes. Make the emblems slightly larger. The ticket office hours are difficult to read in two columns. As for the billboards, the outline figure looks OK, but the second one with the photo would benefit from larger display size. And make the logo a bit bigger.
Billboard variants featuring photos without outlines.
Posters in the same style.
Signature bank card.
Season pass.
Tickets.
Company booklet.
Banner advertising for press and magazines.
Opening.
Half page ad.
More souvenirs and scarves.
Pennants.
Flags.
Diaries.
Magnets.
Art director: On the diary and the bag the logo would look better in the center. On the ash tray the logo should be on the outside only. The large magnet with the horse needs a different pattern (or no pattern at all), right now it looks artificial. The logos don’t match this shape of the pennant, you can use different ones. I would create several shapes if I were you. The senior designer has created the final logos, please use them.
Using.
Art director: Let’s show everything except for the pennant: the top shape is OK, but there are too many frames and they all look the same. Maybe make one with the pattern.
Remaining souvenirs.
Art director: The pattern is too large-scale on the pennant. Make another umbrella with a patterned segment. We also use black on souvenirs sometimes. It’s also best to think of implementation from the start: it would be almost impossible to create diagonal stripes that go across the chest an on to the sleeves. It would be better to make the striped front and single-colored (for example, black) sleeves. This would also make the design more interesting.
Decreasing the scale.
Art director: Make the outer contour thinner in pennants 1 and 2. The umbrella would look better with a single-color pattern of thin stars made of hockey sticks (or the same one as on the pennant). It’s better to use the same color for the shields on the sweater. And make them straight, they look unnaturally deformed. The bottom left shirt: I also suggest to use the pattern made of thin white stars made of hockey sticks on red background. The rest is OK.
Getting the client’s feedback, making changes, remaking.
Realizing we shouldn’t use the horse on posters.
The slogans look out of place.
Making one poster with the horse’s head and a more reserved one.
The scarf with the horse either has to be more active or further cropped. The neutral scarf needs to be even more neutral, without the logo. Maybe with a complex rhythm of stripes.
Creating quick sketches for sweatshirts and t-shirts to help us choose.
Finalizing the scarf.
Changing the press module (we don’t like the angle).
Adding a mug with the shield.
Art director: As the basis for clothing, I like numbers 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8. I think just as with the scarf, we should create both more active and more neutral variants. Let’s show the scarf to the client (I think the ends need to be a bit thicker though). Maybe, try another one with a pattern on it? I don’t like the angle in advertising, let’s make the star more evident. The umbrella and the mug are OK.
Elaborating more and more.
Before we start working on uniforms, coming up with a couple more ideas for souvenir clothing.
Suggesting a color scheme for the players’, administration and staff uniforms.
Employees often wear corporate pins. Suggesting several pin types and production technologies.
Starting to work on the cheerleader outfits. Looking at the players’ uniforms and piling up the first ideas.
The senior designer walks by and notes that the cuts are way too modest. Taking a close look at the existing cheerleader outfits.
That’s better. Ultimately choosing two variants in two color combinations.
Starting to work on the brand book. We need to talk about the history of the club and evolution of its identity in the introduction. Studying archive photos and fan websites, describing the history of the club’s brand.
Drawing historic logos and emblems, typesetting the story of brand evolution as a single canvas.
Creating a detailed style guide.
