OUGD603 - Brief 01 - Sierra - Outcomes & Evaluation

The client has reviewed the 6 identities and chose identity 1B to use for the identity and all stationary. As the yacht will not be completed for another few years, mockups of this identity on the exterior rendering and other stationary have been made.

Overall, this brief was very challenging. As I have only ever managed to complete yacht identity brief in three weeks, attempting to produce a range of outcomes in two weeks was quite tough. Despite this, I feel that I was successful in creating resolutions. They were entirely informed by the word 'Sierra' and are easily legible when placed on the exterior.

Time management in this project was crucial to ensure that the work was completed on time. Creating a time schedule at the start of the project was extremely helpful, as it allowed me to arrange feedback sessions with B&R; this made the development process much more organised and ensured that I did not run out of time.

Working on a live brief with an external company was fantastic for maintaining my communication skills with clients. As I have worked with B&R quite a lot over the past year, keeping a strong relationship is important. I want to continue working with them and have managed to become their go-to freelance graphic designer for identity projects such as this, which is extremely beneficial in terms of money and my portfolio. I have been told that there may not be many further identity this year; however, they aim to keep me in the loop if anything does pop up in the future.

OUGD603 - Brief 01 - Sierra - Further Feedback & Production

I have received some feedback on the digital developments. I asked B&R to select identities that they think would be most suitable to present to the client. Out of all the identities produced they mostly prefer the 2nd range made (stretched type). In terms of the 1st range they think that the type is too thin and would not be very legible from a distance. As the 2nd range of identities are thicker, they think that they are more appropriate as the type is easier to read and appears bolder on the back of the yacht. They prefer  the identities without morse code on the borders as they think it is unnecessary and would take attention away from the boat name. Because of this feedback, I have picked 6 identities take forward and present to the client.

Before producing any mockups I wanted to discuss material considerations with B&R. Superyacht identities that I have designed in the past have either been physically produced with metal or use applied vinyl stickers. I highlighted that the existing boat - Sierra Romeo, identified in the research stage - uses metallic exterior signage. B&R have agreed that a vinyl sticker would be more appropriate to ensure that the identities are not similar. B&R have also suggested that, as the boat's exterior is entirely grey, a monochrome identity would work best to subtly tie in with the outer style. Adding colour to the identity costs more to produce. Therefore, exterior sticker mockups of the 6 identities have been made and collated into a PDF. This will be emailed directly to the client.

OUGD603 - Brief 01 - Sierra - Digital Development

Following on from the feedback received, I have developed some digital ideas.



1st Ideas

By using the sketches and grid created in the previous stage a variety of digital identities have been made. As it was suggested that a custom typeface would most likely appeal to a client, no typeface was chosen to use when making these ideas; instead, individual letters have been made by hand and recreated in Illustrator. Because mountains and cliffs have very sharp edges, I have kept the type quite angular and defined to link in with the 'Sierra' definition.

2nd Ideas

As B&R were happy for me to develop forward some border and shape ideas from concept 2, I have chosen to incorporate them into the 3rd concept.

Before anything else, I have chosen three main typefaces to use as part of the third concept. In terms of typeface choices, characteristics found in the research stage associated with the definitions of 'Sierra' were used. The first typeface I have chosen is Mono Regular. It is very angular, relating to the sharp peaks of mountains, and letters have a high overall x-height, linking to the sheer vertical size of some Sierras.

The second typeface I have chosen is BauTF Bold. The letters in this typeface are both straight and curved in their appearance, which links to the form of morse code itself, which is made up of circles and dashes. As sans-serif typefaces are 'easier to read at a distance' (Walker, 2014), this typeface is very suitable for placement on a superyacht, as the name will need to be easily legible from afar. The bold appearance attempts to strengthen the identities presence.

As the first two typefaces chosen are sans-serif, a serif typeface has been chosen to offer B&R an alternative. Truesdell Std has been picked because the letter 'e' and tail on 'a' point in a direction similar to the grid created in the idea generation stage, inspired by the direction of peaks. It is almost half way between the first and second typefaces chosen in terms of letter thickness and x-heights, which gives B&R the chance to clearly pick between the three and their specific styles.
To produce the stretched type identities, the morse code for 'Sierra' firstly needs to be divided into sections. The grid created by doing so in Illustrator can be seen below. The 'Sierra' type has been placed on the baseline in the three different typefaces. Each letter has then be stretched within the guides made.

The stretching method has worked rather well; the only problem that has arisen is that with the width of the 'e' letter, as letters are not able to be stretched that thin without losing their typographicc style. For this reason, the 'e' letters have been stretched to double the distance seen in the initial template. The result of this process can be seen below.

To produce a wider range of ideas, I have incorporated the 2nd concept with the type produced. A range of of border ideas that incorporate the morse code dots have been generated to accompany the type. The 6 main variations produced for each typeface can be seen below.

OUGD603 - Brief 01 - Sierra - Concept Generation & Feedback

Concept Generation - As the outcomes in this brief must be purely digital, for this stage in the process I am going to focus on creating solid concepts that could then spark ideas later in the development stages. Informed entirely by the research made in the previous stage of the project I have made three main initial concepts.



Concept 1

As 'Sierra' means a chain of mountains, I visually analysed the form of peaks and hills to see whether any patterns could be found. Whilst peaks can follow very random lines (indicated by the diagonal lined image), the overall direction of peaks can be uniform/parallel in direction (indicated by the filled line image). As seen, a grid can clearly be made from the direction of peaks.

By slightly rotating the grid identified, the horizontal lines can be used as a baseline for type to be set within. As seen, the type must be slanted in appearance to fit the grid set. By roughly using the grid I have made a range of initial ideas.

Concept 2

In the research stage, a link was identified between two definitions; firstly, the letter 'S' is represented by 3 dots in morse code, and secondly, the Pacific Sierra fish is covered in yellow-brown dots. The main idea behind this concept is to therefore combine typography with dots in some way.

By sketching a variety of ideas it is clear that there are multiple different ways in which dots could be incorporated into an identity. Replacing the dot in the letter 'i' for three dots is one possibility, alongside incorporating the three dots into surrounding type borders and spaces.





Concept 3

The third main concept focuses entirely on morse code, and how it could be used to produce a unique typeface. The morse code for 'Sierra' is '... .. . .-. .-. .-'. As opposed to in ordinary type, morse code letters all have different widths. Because of this, I have been inspired to apply the widths of morse code letters to normal type. As seen in the rough sketch below, the width of 'S's morse code is triple 'E's, whilst 'R' has a similar width. The overall result is a word that has letters with varying widths.







Some visual research of this style has been made to present to B&R.

Feedback - Today  I pitched the concepts to B&R over a Skype call, as planned in the project time sheet. I wanted to hear their thoughts on the concepts more than their opinions on the rough sketches made, as an overall concept is more important than the visuals at this stage.

Their favourite concepts are the first and third, purely because they would produce a purely unique outcome, typeface wise. They said that clients are all about having something that others can't; therefore, an identity that is not attainable elsewhere (i.e a custom logo/typeface) would most likely be of interest to them. They have suggested to not push the letter widths too far in the third concept, as the name needs to be easily legible and look professional.

The second concept has been given some form of approval by B&R. They do not want me to develop forward any of the ideas where the three dots would be incorporated into the lettering, as they think this would reduce the readability of the word. However, they have given me the all clear to develop forward some border ideas and shape concepts.

OUGD603 - Brief 01 - Sierra - Research

As the brief states that outcomes must revolve around the name of the yacht, I have made some initial research into the word 'Sierra'. The three main definitions found are:

Last year, I created various logos for a boat named 'Megalodon'. During the research stages I looked into the name - investigating the shark and its qualities. As my identity was successfully accepted by the client, I am going to follow a similar research route in this brief. To visually start thinking about the word, i've made some in-depth research into the definitions.



Definition 1:

Historically, Sierra meant 'saw' in Latin and Spanish. The word has then been used to describe mountain ranges, due to the sawtooth appearance of the peaks. Examples include the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Madre. Some people also believe that the name originated from the term 'saw' due to the high populations of lumberjacks living in mountainous regions and their use of the tool.

Sierra Leone, the West African country, dates back to 1462, when a Portuguese explorer sailed down the coast of West Africa. Various sources claim that Pedro da Cintra came up with 'Sierra Lyoa'. meaning Lion Mountains, because of the climatic conditions and landscape.

Google's NGram feature highlighted the popularity of the word over the past two centuries. As seen below, the word has increased in use and popularity over time. Whilst this may not seem that relevant, the graph ironically caught my attention as it visually links to the aesthetic 'saw' qualities of mountains and hills. It is an aspect that could inspire some initial ideas.













As yacht logos always tend to use type, I have considered the possibility of using mountains and cliffs as inspiration for a typeface. Some research has been made into existing typefaces to see if anything like that has been done before.

The most visually related typeface that has been obviously inspired by mountains is called 'Mountain'. The stems of letters are very sharp and angular, resembling the contours in mountains and hills. As the word Sierra has been used to describe the sawtooth appearance of peaks, this has inspired me to generate some typographic sketches in the idea generation stage. 

Definition 2

The Pacific sierra (Scomberomorus sierra), also known as the Mexican sierra, is a ray-finned bony fish in the mackerel family. More specifically, this fish is a member of Spanish mackerels.

It's most easily distinguished by its pigment and colour pattern. It is silver-blue above and silvery white on the lower sides, covered in a series of yellow-brown spots. The anterior half of the first part of the dorsal fin is jet black, in contrast to the lighter remainder of the fin. It is a fast moving, voracious predator that feeds on small fish and they have sharp teeth.

The fish has very unique patterns and colours on it which could be used to inspire some ideas.

Definition 3

'Sierra' is one of the code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet, which essentially the most widely used radiotelephonic spelling alphabet. The International Civil Aviation Organization assigned codewords acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet, so that critical combinations of letters and numbers are most likely to be pronounced and understood by those who exchange voice messages by radio or telephone, regardless of language differences or the quality of the communication channel. As seen below, 'Sierra' represents the letter 'S'. Its morse code is three dots which accounts to three clicks.

Existing Yacht Identities

To see whether there are any superyachts out there that use the name 'Sierra' I have made some research online. Studio Vafiadis designed a boat named 'Sierra Romeo' which uses a purely typographic identity. To try and produce an identity that differs from this, I will carefully consider materials in this project.