Rebranding.

So if you’ve been on the site recently you may have noticed a few things changing.

The big difference is a re-branding of the JUUSmedia name that I created when the site first went live. Originally I had chosen the name JUUSmedia to encompass different aspects of my work and hobbies but I soon came to realise that blogging about everything I’m interested in was not what I wanted this site to become. I already had a blog for that (now called JUUSmedia as if to confuse my readers further) for which I could rant and rave about films, tech, video games or whatever.

This site stayed a little empty, I got a full-time graphic design job and really didn’t put the effort into my ‘online space’ that I had originally planned. In my previous job it’s something I never felt I had time for, there was no balance and no real enjoyment.  Having a full-time job in graphic design actually became a blessing in disguise. I was now constantly being creative and this served as inspiration. I was  sketching, learning and using design software full-time and not just on my ‘downtime’ where I felt it was encroaching on my life. The benefit is that as I’ve become more experienced at what I do, I’ve also learned to be more efficient at time-keeping and planning projects; enabling me to start creating self-initiated work rather than just the daily 9-5. This for me is very important as you should always have a creative outlet to let loose and explore.

Fortunately this is where the site has come back into play. It serves as my platform for my creative side and my opportunity to share what I’ve been up to. It no longer feels like a chore that I need to keep the site updated to please an audience. It’s fun and I’m doing this for me.

So I got to the drawing board and looked at changing the logo. I wanted something that included a symbol this time around, something I could use to represent myself in some way. I also wanted a departure from the overly simplistic design of the last creation. Nothing too complex but looked as though it had been created rather than simply typed out using a word processor.

I started without pushing any boundaries really and was probably focused too much on the symbol rather than a balance of the two.

About this time I had just joined Forrst, the online community for developers and designers. This served as a great platform to discuss my work in progress and gain some constructive feedback. This is where I moved away from the standard font I had been using and started playing with cursive fonts. I felt this gave a natural flow to the logo but now I wasn’t quite convinced about the symbol. I had planned for it to look like a half-sliced orange but I kept seeing so many other objects (video game controller d-pad, flower) that I felt like I was losing too much in the design.

Taking on the constructive criticism I went back to the drawing board and decided to evolve the idea further. Scrapping the previous symbol, I opted for something less complicated but what I thought to be visually interesting none-the-less. The only problem with this was that the spiral wasn’t working in the same position as the previous object. It felt as though it was floating off to the side of the logo and not complimenting it in any way. So I combined the two and moved the ‘JUUS’ element below.

At this point I was all set with what I thought would be the final logo however after taking some time off from the work I came back thinking that the ‘JUUS’ section didn’t fit with the ‘creative’ and the spiral. It looked as though it was hanging off the logo or simply tacked on because it needed a place to go. Then I could see that the ‘e’ stood out too much as it was being underlined by JUUS and basically it went on like this. It’s always a good idea to take a step back from your work, you’ll get a better perspective and you may notice something different now that your not deep into the design. When you have to try and justify a logo to yourself, it’s usually time to go back and make some changes.

So I scrapped the smaller ‘JUUS’ and replaced it with the original font I had used for the ‘creative’ section. This gave the logo some balance and also worked well with posters, letterheads and business cards  as I had only previously tested it on the website. That was a note-to-self moment. Always check to see how your logo looks on a variety of mediums. Overall I’m very happy with the final outcome. The logo flows together, I love the brightness and colour and the spiral adds that extra bit of creative fun and experimentation to the design.

But that’s what I think… I’d love to hear your comments and feedback!