Echo
'Echo' is an ongoing research-based design project that is managed and design-led by me for Creative Director, Professor Lisa Winstanley. It taps into issues revolving around visual plagiarism and is meant to serve as a youthful approach to educate high school students and educators.
Process & Design Thinking:
I began by picking out and creating words that best suited the topic of 'visual plagiarism'. Out of the numerous words proposed, 'echo' and 'plagic' stood out. 'Plagic' resulted from a mixture of 'plagiarism' and 'magic' (as I had the younger audience in mind). 'Echo' came about as it was simply synonymous with the word 'plagiarism'.
I began forming brand logos with the word 'plagic' using a few distortions at the right places, but mainly keeping the skeleton of their fonts intact (as seen above). Similarly with 'echo', I kept the youthful and simple concept in mind when creating the logos (as seen below). I added colours based on inspiration as I go.
Afterwards, I proposed mood boards for each word. Following the fresh approach Lisa hoped for and keeping the brand light, I chose colours that were fresh on the eyes such as peach or orange in the first mood board and yellow and bright teal in the second.
In the end, 'Echo' was what we finalised on as the word truly echoed the idea of plagiarism and it simply felt fitting as the brand name. It was also the word containing more vowels of rounded forms, which gives us more possibilities of animating it in a variety of ways. Using san serif typefaces with naturally rounded edges makes the brand logo easily friendly and inviting too!
The second mood board (on the right) was what Lisa admired most and hence moving forward with those colours for the brand Echo. She was also fond of the 'echo' using 'Proxima Soft Bold' typeface and the design direction I went for, so I moved forward with that as well. Sticking to the colour of dark teal, bright teal, yellow and watermelon pink, I decided to create gradients within the typeface.
Out of the 3 outcomes of my gradient design logo, the middle one became a favourite. Hence, that became the finalised logo and the brand for the visual plagiarism project. Lastly, the logo was animated as part of the brand through After Effects. Having the youthful idea in mind, 'fresh' and 'simple' as well, the fun animated twist was decided for the end letter 'o' of the 'echo'.
ECHO - Prototype
UI/UX design of Echo for its digital usage. Echo can serve as a simple application for both tutors and students if need be.