My design team had a lot of fun this semester, developing broadcast graphic identities for a proposed "Back to School" television production. We knew very little details about this project going in, possessing only a basic concept and a working title. For example, we knew that we were working on 5-6 broadcast half-hour pieces that each followed a single celebrity who had grown up in one of the five boroughs of NYC, attended one or more NYC public schools, and achieved significant notoriety in a particular career. With this information in hand, we tried to break down the content areas and find the common ground between them all. 

The entire process began with simple brainstorming techniques – what is known as ideation in the design world – and a whole lot of sketching!

 

Initial brainstorming and ideation began in three phases: brain dumps, mind maps, and logo designs.

 

Brain dumps are essentially the spilling out of ideas – some good, some not so much – onto paper. They help get out everything floating around in a designer’s head to better organize ideas. Below are a few examples.

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Mind maps are used to examine non-linear relationships between linear-derived ideas. To put it another way, though we normally think linearly – i.e. one thought after another – mind maps allow us to see how thoughts that aren’t sequential can nevertheless be related in unexpected and inspiring ways.

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As a central branding device, we felt that a solid logotype could encapsulate the overall spirit of the final broadcast package, and therefore was worth spending initial time in developing.

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