My Brand

My Brand

After combining all the contents from the previous blog, I finally managed to settle on a feasible brand. It is something that I enjoy creating and also something I enjoy being involved in.  My brand is called 'New Hit", and it is a punk related zine created to gain awareness for local bands nationwide. It will document their live shows and contain interviews with them. The aesthetic will be rather punk themed with a hint of modern design as well.

I got the idea from this fan-made zine from back in the late 1970's. It was called slash magazine and was basically about those upcoming punk bands who ended up becoming incredibly popular. Kids would go to their shows and document it all in this $1, un published magazine and sell them to their friends. I wanted to recreate this and bring it back to life with my own brand. I really enjoy the sense of DIY within this magazine as well which will be the main goal of everything created through it, from the design to the content. 

I also wanted there to be a slight modern aspect to this zine as well as I couldn't just rip this magazine off. I noticed in my research many zines are approaching their designs very simply and with minimal colours. Maybe I can also apply this to that old fashioned punk aesthetic. 

Some of my main influences in the design for this brand are Raymond Pettibon and Winston Smith. These are two designer/artists who were apart of this punk movement and would create fake tour posters and zine for bands that weren't even really. It's quite ironic as these two artists actually became hired by the real bands and made some really memorable album designs and are still around today designing for big labels. I am also heavily influenced by this music which is why I chose to do it in the first place. Both past and present bands all play a part in this design process.

Self Branding Ideas

Self Branding Ideas

For the beginning of this module we had to get to know ourselves a bit better and see other peoples opinions about ourselves. This would help identify ourselves when creating our own brand.  This is a list of a bunch of things I related with myself and the kind of things I am currently in to.

• Coffee
• Cheese
• Socks
• Music
• Gigs
• Punk
• Too much hair
• Only Irish swear words
• Star Wars
• Bass guitar
• Black
• Tattoo culture
• Getting kicked out of places
• Zines
• Fan-zines

After that I had to see what other people thought of me and answer peculiar questions. These are some of the answers.

• Weak at tearing paper
• Likes revenge?
• Serial head-bobber
• Is weird
• Squints eyes too much
• Has a nice design account
• Spells his name wrong (I don't)
• Bad manipulation skills
• Accidentally kicked a homeless mans change over
• Had a bottle top necklace
• Hasn't had a haircut in two and a half years

I don't know how useful these will really be in identifying my own brand but maybe I could include this somehow for further character. Then I narrowed all these things down to the key and most important parts. I did this so I could perhaps identify some sort of style or outcome I would create to represent myself as a brand.

• Good routine
• Coffee+cafes
• Cheese boards
• Punk music
• Gigs
• No hair cuts!
• Zines/fan-zines
• Funky socks
• Pubs not clubs

I combined all of this together and came up with a strong initial idea. I wanted to re-invent fan-zines from the 70's and 80's that were made for punk bands. I haven't decided if I will do it about punk or something completely different, whilst using the punk aesthetic with a modern graphic design input. Maybe I'd have to make it about something that is important today. Or maybe I could create it all based upon the design of those old fashioned zines. For this kind of work I have been heavily influenced by Slash magazine, Raymond Pettibon and Winston Smith. Finally I 'd think of a name for this brand. A few ideas so far are 'New Hit', 'RufBuf' and 'New Revolution'.