Reflection and Progress from Feedback

Since receiving the feedback from my tutor and group in week five’s workshop, I have worked on amending the areas that needed changing in order to fit the brief and tidy my work up.

I removed some text from my Business Card to make the card look less ‘full’ and ‘busy’, and remodelled it on my mock-ups.

This tiny adjustment does clean the card up, ensuring its professionalism.

I also worked on the font of my posters. Again, a very simple adjustment of spacing out the letters slightly so the text is more readable and therefore will be more likely to achieve its goals by attracting people.

The most constructive criticism I received was about my website. It mostly circulated around the fact  had no actual photographs of women in the gym, and therefore the realism that this was a website for a gym was not quite there and looked tacky and unprofessional. I therefore removed a large amount of work from the right and left side, keeping my central hexagon navigational icons, and added in photographs I had found online. I do very much prefer my new website, as the simplicity is enough to make the site look attractive enough.

 

Feedback on Designs

Week five’s workshop we sat as a group and looked through everyone’s ‘final’ designs. I presented the PDF document below, including my logos and slogans, colour palette, business card presented as a mock-up, two versions of my website and the four posters.

Final designs

The Feedback I got from my group and tutor:

  • Business Card: It may need some text taking out so it doesn’t look so busy and ‘full’.
  • Good colour palette and use of colours throughout the package.
  • They liked the hexagon design used throughout.
  • Posters: Unsure on the font – maybe needs spacing out slightly.
  • The branding may need some actual photographs to make it look more realistic
  • Themes going through: powerful, clean, energetic, strong women
  • Possibly make the woman in the slogan more slanted – try italics?

 

Business Card Design

I decided to create a business card for my branding package for Fitnesse.

My first stage in the design was researching existing gym business cards and the layouts. I used the four below as my inspiration and layout ideas for my own.

I began with the front design of my card and recreated the simplicity of the first image in the gallery above. I wanted to link the poster design in and used a simple statement “GO TO THE GYM” in the same font as on my posters and website. With a plain background this really makes a striking impression, enough for someone to pick it up and have a look at the back.

Front of business card.
Front of business card.

I then began working on the back design of my business card. Incorporating the hexagon design featured on my website, I used the shape to separate the card into two sections; the left side with the iconic figure of the woman from the “You put the I in Fitnesse” slogan and a list of the gyms facilities, and the right side is more informative on how to get in touch with the gym and their social media pages. I also added the 5 coloured hexagons from the top right corner of my website design onto the business card as well to keep the hexagon design a main part of the branding.

Back of my business card.
Back of my business card.

I used my main darker colours from my colour swatch for the card, but keeping with a plain white background so I could include a large amount of infomation without it looking too over crowded.

All I have left to do is to add my card onto a mock-up to display it in a more professional way.

Colour Identity

Though out this project I have found deciding on a colour palette which will work the best for my target audience a very challenging aspect. Being a female only gym i wanted to avoid the stereotypical feminine colours such as pinks and purples, however without these it was difficult to make it obvious the brand was for females.

 

However I have decided, after gathering feedback from design students on my course, friends at home and my workshop tutor, I have created a colour swatch which includes all six colours I will be using in my package identity.

Final Colour Swatch.
  Final Colour Swatch.

COLOUR REPRESENTATIONS/MEANINGS:

Blue shades connote health, tranquillity and water. White connotes hygiene, cleanliness and goodness. Green shades are associated with nature and growth.

These representations combined  will implicate that this gym is a relaxing and positive place for women to work out comfortably.