My logo design concepts

After some in-depth research into branding design including looking into examples of really brilliant logo designs that I found inspiring and clever, funny, witty etc. as well as also finding examples of poor logo designs due to lack of originality, bad quality design and unwittingly associated to rude meanings, I am now starting to work on creating a brand for Wolverhampton, and the theme choice I have chosen for this will be music.

To start off, I did a couple more brainstorms on Wolverhampton culture and music. Then I started sketching some logo ideas on A3 paper, using the theme of music. Below are a few examples of my rough sketches which i have penned and coloured in..

The first example at the top shows the letters o and l have been swapped to spell out the word love within Wolverhampton, and I highlighted this using a separate colour from the rest of the name. The other examples are more musically themed with the use of musical symbols and a cable wire spelling out Wolverhampton in a single line (wire). 

Research..

Continuing on my branding research, I'm now looking into specific areas. I have looked at the works of branding artists like Paul Rand. 

I have also researched into examples of brands that have been re-branded over the years due to social, cultural and aesthetic changes, progress and evolution in design and technology, and events that have influenced the brands. Here is an example of the evolution of the Pepsi logo design over it's lifetime.

Beginning the First Assignment

My first assignment is City Re-branding. Updating the image of Wolverhampton. I am asked to design a contemporary logo and brand palette for the City of Wolverhampton. After being introduced to the module in seminars I begin the assignment with general research in brands and logo designs of establishments, companies, agencies, businesses etc. based in and around Wolverhampton. These include many different brands associated with the city council, the college, the university, the football club, racecourse, media centres and the science park complex, amongst others.

Whilst gathering this general research I also started brainstorming on the word Branding. This is what I have come up with so far: