Carbon Copies
Topic: Branding, Web Design
Medium: Adobe Illustrator, Figma
Carbon Copies was a project done as a branding exercise. The concept and personality of the brand was set up, then later various aspects of brand designs were explored. Logos, brand guidelines, posters, websites, and branded products were designed for this project. Representing the atmosphere and design language of the brand identity across various forms of media and deliverables was the crucial aspect.
Carbon Copies is a publication brand developed for this project. The brand aspires to form a community and a publishing platform for fans of speculative fiction. It aims to allow both fans and authors to interact and publish their ideas with ease through the website hub and receive feedback from the members. The brand aims to make a creative community that could develop fans into authors. The mission of the brand is to bring up new generations of authors through the opportunity provided by the creative platform it runs.
As the concept and personality of the brand was developed, research for visual inspiration and iterative process of logo design was taken. Various routes were taken for the logo design. In order to deliver the voice as a publication brand, logos that were simplistic yet effective were selected over ones that were too futuristic or technical. Design direction with the two “C” initials forming the shape of an open book was taken.
With the design direction taken, the final logo was set up. Brand guidelines including typefaces and logo lockups were developed. Logo clear space was defined by the logo shrunk down to half the size of the base logo across other lockups.
Colors inspired by charcoal, carbon steel, paper, and mist were chosen as the color palette of the brand. As for the primary and secondary typefaces, Bebas Neue Pro and Sol Pro were selected to deliver the refined minimalist look of the brand.
Posters, Covers, & Deliverables
Medium: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Figma
CosmiCon Posters, Novel Covers, Merch Designs
As to showcase how the design language of Carbon Copies could be applied, event posters, fictional book covers, and merch were designed. The poster for a fictional event called CosmiCon was designed using the diagonal appearance of the C and applying it in other letters as the centerpiece graphic to add dynamicism. Two different main layouts were designed for the posters as alternate versions.
Covers were designed with the intent of Carbon Copies publishing these novels. Thus the same design language with minimalist aesthetics and simple typography were applied. Four different fictional novels were designed for delivering the look of how such covers would be. Finally the merch designs were done with utilizing the brand colors and logo.
Website Design
Medium: Figma
For the website designs, four major pages were designed for the desktop alongside mobile versions of the home and book page. With the concept of creative community that provides a hub and publication platform in mind the website was designed. As the mission of the brand is to bring up new generations of authors through the creative platform it runs, the idea had to be reflected in the website design.
Homepage, book page, forums, and review page were designed to show the look of a community website that doubles as a publication platform. With the homepage showing novels and events run by Carbon Copies, book page showing how the reading experience on web would look like, forums discussing about novels published through the brand, and review page showing how feedback can be shown, the core concept of the brand website was delivered.
For mobile, same information is displayed under a different format. Several instagram stories and post mockups were made as ways to show how events would be promoted .
As a whole, Carbon Copies was a long-term project that allowed me to develop skills in design research, developing and applying guidelines, and coming up with deliverables with consistent design language. Especially this exercise allowed me to improve skills in branding and web design effectively.