How I Started My Own T-Shirt Brand **PART 1**

The idea for what became Deftment began over a year before our launch, when my good friend Kevin and I dreamed of creating quality tees with a unique Caribbean style. I have always loved t-shirt design because a t-shirt is something that everyone owns, thus making the art/design on it something that is available to a huge audience.

We officially launched Deftment on October 3rd 2014, but the real work on the brand began a year before in September, 2013. Our vision at the time was simple, to provide high quality tees that were suited to a Caribbean lifestyle. This meant that it had to be stylish, versatile and durable; it should transition from the beach, to the pavement bar, to an all-inclusive fete with ease. The Caribbean is full of skilled individuals ranging from artists, musicians, chefs, DJ's, fashion designers; and these were the people who we detailed as our ideal customer. Our brand had to reflect this culture, and this passionate bunch. I had an idea of what I wanted aesthetically; something that drew from elements of typography, nature and mathematical geometry...we just had to figure out how to pull it all together. Developing a name posed a challenge. We wanted to invent our own word, something that we could define without preconceptions. Deftment is a portmanteau of deft, as in skilful, and movement. We set out to be a skilled movement.

In these two pictures I was getting close to the final logotype for the word DEFTMENT. I hadn't settled on a final logomark, the symbol that represented the brand (i.e. the Nike Swoosh vs the word NIKE.)The final logomark was made up of a series of hexagons, and you can see the inception of this idea from the pictures here.

The next thing on the list was creating a brand identity for Deftment starting with a logo. As I stated earlier, for the aesthetic of the brand we wanted to feature different geometric elements, and this was what I focused on with initial logo explorations. 

We were looking for those geometric elements for the logo, and it all came to be by experimenting. I was trying to digitally create the face of a monkey using only geometric shapes. I drew a few hexagons and got to work resulting in something really close to what is the final logo. 

A lot of tweaking and hard work went into perfecting the logo, as it would be the cornerstone of our brand and something that people would associate us with. I think the result was successful because it responded to our initial needs, and in the end we ended up with something that we set out to achieve in our own design brief. 

In Part Two I will discuss the lead up to our launch, and the design process for the first Deftment Line. 

Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival Branding Review

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With the 2014 edition of the trinidad+tobago film festival around the corner, I decided to do a write up on what I think is a very successful brand.

Here is a description of the film festival taken from their website, "Founded in 2006, the trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) is an annual celebration of films from and about Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and its diaspora."

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Usually when things are branded as "Trinidad & Tobago..." there is a trend to have it red, white and black, and to include some sort of local logo cliche, such as a humming bird, a steel pan, or something else that screams "TRINIDAD & TOBAGO." Thankfully the film festival logo did not go down this route and instead chose to use more understated nods to the T&T flag that may not be seen at first glance. Firstly it must be noted that the logo is very clean, with the subtle reference to the T&T flag both in the shape that the words are placed on, as well as the thin strokes that pass through the words.

The typography is transparent and shows a glimpse of the background it is placed on (as can be seen in the images below), and the colour of the block is interchangeable; this adds to the versatility of the branding. The colours used are vibrant and represent well the hues found throughout T&T. The only small issue I had with the logo was the fact that the typography is right aligned and perhaps a left alignment may have made it a little more successful based on the shape that the type sits on. Overall a very good logo that is used successfully throughout all the media that it rendered on.

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The application of the logo by the film festival is very uniformed across the board, and the logo, as well as use of colour, makes it instantly recognizable as to what it is. I particularly like the transparent lettering that allows each image to create a unique representation of the typography in the logo.

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Both the cover of the 2014 guide and the website home page keep up the same quality branding and the colour choices for the typography are on point. All of the design elements are thoughtfully executed and makes for a successful and enjoyable experience for the user. The trinidad+tobago film festival definitely has a high standard when it comes to their branding and I am personally excited to be a patron this year.

The trailer for the film festival can be found here.

Update- Abovegroup rebranded the film festival in 2009 and Melanie Archer, the art director for the festival has been responsible for the application and development over the years, under Abovegroup's guidance in 2010, and then solo since.

Nick.

Massy- An Update

After posting the article about the Massy Rebranding I had no idea how many people it would reach and what sort of reaction it would cause. My previously highest read blog post has a tally of 113 views; needless to say the article on Massy got a bit more. I didn't (don't) know how to feel about the reaction the article garnered for several reasons. On the outset I was pleased that people were reacting to the rebranding of a company, and the graphic designer in me was happy that others seemed passionate about a subject that I am most passionate about; however my cynical side was quick to think that people just love a scandal, and this was the cause of the article being shared. The majority of shares on Facebook only made reference to the "stealing/plagiarism" of the logo, something I made clear in my article that I didn't think was the case. I still stand by my opinion that it was a coincidence, and it is unfortunate that people are using my blog to try to prove plagiarism, of course there is no way to prove for sure so I can only give my opinion. The inclusion of the museum logo was to back up my original statement that the concept of the Massy logo could have been pushed further.

The article in the Express that used my blog as reference chose to include the fact that I said that both logos have similar fonts, however they failed to acknowledge the fact that the typeface is Helvetica which is one of the most (over)used typefaces in the world so that has no bearing on anything in my opinion, and once again I made reference to the Helvetica typeface to support my earlier claims of the logo.

To conclude I want to show you an article a good friend of mine sent me this morning showing another example of two logos looking very similar, you can find the article here. The logos are for airbnb, an online company that rents out lodgings, and Automation Anywhere, an IT company focused on automation. The similarities in this story, and the Massy story are extremely close and I urge you to check out the article to see that these types of coincidences happen in design and unfortunately, sometimes it can only be discovered after being seen by the public.

Thanks for reading and sharing.

The Importance of Brand Guidelines

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One of the fundamental things to keep in mind when designing a brand, is consistency. You want people when they see your logo to relate it immediately to your brand/product/service. This is achieved through proper logo usage. Too often in Trinidad & Tobago we see poor usage of logo where brand guidelines (if there are any) are thrown out the window. On my daily commute I pass "Ultracool LTD," a company that deals in air conditioning sales and parts. On the outside of their building there are three (3!!!!) different renditions of their name. The first logo is painted onto the facade of the building, the second is used as a neon light, and the third is on a banner. This lack of brand identity is typical in a place where not enough emphasis is placed on graphic design. Business owners need to realise the positive impact that having a proper brand identity will bring to the table.