The New Media Certificate
For the Visual Design Course
The New Media Certificate is a program at the University of Georgia that teaches students the fundamentals of all types of design and new and emerging technology.
- Graphic Design
- Technology Used: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
In my New Media Design class, we were tasked with creating a style guide for a fictional brand. I was going through childhood pictures and came across one of me grinning at the beach next to a horseshoe crab. It got me thinking about the unique ways Georgia’s barrier islands could be advertising themselves, and so Visit Horseshoe Island was born.
About
My goal for this project was to design three logos that could represent a company dedicated to advertising an eco-tourist destination. I wanted the logos to encourage people’s engagement with the unique creatures offered by Georgia’s coast while simultaneously reflecting a sophisticated, upper-crust resort.
The Challenge
One of the main challenges of this project was the unique approach. Current coastal brands use a more popular crab, waves, and other common coastal motifs to represent themselves. I used a different approach that would still resonate with our brand’s audience. My design approach focuses on the horseshoe crab, which brings other design elements, such as text and images, into focus. Technical challenges included aquainting myself with Adobe Illustrator, which I had not used extensively before.
Process
I began first with brainstorming with my team. After coming up with initial sketches, I pivoted to Illustrator to translate those designs. At the most basic level, I wanted the main motif of the brand — the horseshoe crab — to be designed simply, yet with enough detail to be easily recognizable.
The first crab felt empty and unpolished. By adding more detailed elements and rotating the crab 45°, the crab is made more vibrant, both through the illusion of movement and the increased details.
After designing the main motif of the brand, I wanted to design a mascot. Horseshoe Island is advertised as a vacation destination for families. I felt there was a need for the children to have a symbol that they would find cute and inviting. The first design developed the basic shape, but it the lines were too harsh and the overall shape too geometric. After several revisions, I landed on the final versionn of Lil Scuttle using a combination of the main and secondary colors of our brand’s color palette and soft, heavy lines to create a cute and curious ambiance.
The final logo I had to create was a lettermark. We planned to use this lettermark as the logo on official communications and digital channels. Therefore, it had to be sleek and easy to see no matter the size.
The above logo combines the name of our brand, “Visit Horseshoe Island” into a simple, easy-to-recall acronym, making it perfect for wide brand recognition and communications platforms.
Results
My group presented our style guide to our class of 30 students. The logos were all well-received, especially Lil Scuttle. One audience member proclaimed, “I would die for Lil Scuttle!” We received favorable feedback on the project as a whole.
Personally, this project gave me the opportunity to expand my Illustrator and Photoshop skills, and experience with brand image and product ideation. I developed a deeper understanding of design fundamentals and a more complex comprehension of the iterative design process.