Redblue

Having decided on this brief from Rob:

DESIGN BRIEF

redblue is a quantitative research agency based in London.

Quantitative research is traditionally a dry business; it is the statistical and mathematical side of research, dealing with datasheets and vast amounts of statistics (as opposed to qualitative research companies who tend to be more creative and deal with smaller focus groups).

redblue is owned and run by three people who have ten years’ experience of working for large research agencies or large clients.

Target Audience

redblue undertake large quantitative research projects for clients like BSkyB, Capital One, Pearl & Dean and number of advertising agencies (on behalf of their clients). They typically work with senior clients.

Tone of voice

We need to create an impressive, eye-catching visual identity for redblue. One that makes them look more exciting than your average quant agency and which also makes them look bigger than they actually are.

Mandatory Requirements

The current redblue logo is the only mandatory asset that we have to use.

The terms ‘red’ and ‘blue’ relate to psychological profiling (‘red’ being about the big picture (strategy), ‘blue’ thinkers are very much about detail the process)). redblue are about getting both right.

Deliverables

A brand identity using the existing logo. This is the only asset that they currently have and they have never used it to its potential. We need to make this work and then consider how that can applied across all of their communications.

I went about producing some mood boards and thinking about the different aspects that the brief threw up.

Some of my initial ideas were based around maths ie graph paper and equations, calculators and science. 

The idea of calculators and digital lettering from the 80's was born. In my minds eye I was thinking of a gigital and LED kind of feel. One of the important factors was the name redblue and what it stood for (big thinkers and detail thinkers), this should play a part in the design. 

I also considered Power Point chic ie a look and feel taken from power point. I ruled this out quite quickly as I could not see a way of actually making it look good.

I started some mood boards to based on the idea of electronica with an 80's feel. 

There was a couple of pics of Kraftwerk that I felt summed up the feel I was after: electronic, clean cut, got the job done. I also put a New Order record sleeve up to show a feel I might go for, minimal and graphic. I put other images of 80's related electonica. Also a lot of calculators and large computers. 

I brought this into college to show Patrick and we agreed that the kraftwerk route of being hard nosed German efficiency was the way forward with a 80's office influence.

I sent these over to Rob my mentor and he agreed with the Kraftwerk images but warned against the pictures of the large computers saying "be careful what your saying."

The above are some initial ideas which were not well formulated. I think I was on the right track with the idea for the calculator font, it just didn't hang together. The use of the LED photo type would of been a great idea but getting it to sit comfortably on a background in a pleasing way proved too difficult so it was dropped.

I produced a new logo on the idea of monospacing and taking shapes from the digital era. It was based on screen resolution monospaced text.

It had two parts to the logo with green and blue sections making up the same logo. I also varied the size of the dots. I translated this into a letterhead and business card.

I sent thse to Patrick and Rob and these were considered not to be right. Rob commented on the 'Chaotic' nature of the logo with the different sized shapes and the very small size of the circles. I went online and found a font that was monospaced and made up of circles to give the digital feel but in a cleaner way.

Part of the brief and something I had thought about at the early stages was the name redblue and what it means.  It refers to psychological profiling big picture thinkers and detail thinkers. With this in mind I thought the descriptor of:

Strategy and detail together

With Patrick we decided that it needed to be more 'German' more Kraftwerk but in English.

I came up with:

I am unsure wether this works or not. Maybe something to consider is

Vorsprung Durch Technik

Meaning

This German phrase is usually translated into English as 'progress through technology'. A literal translation would be 'advancement through technology'. There's no single English word which is an exact English equivalent of 'vorsprung'; 'to leap ahead' comes close.

Origin

This phrase has been used as a strapline in adverts for Audi cars since the 1980s, capitalizing on the German reputation for technical expertise.