OSA Brand Expansion:
Image Collage Guidelines
As part of the The Optical Society's 100 years celebration, we were tasked to review the existing graphic guidelines and provide necessary edits and additions to create a more cohesive brand language and add flexibility to the graphic system, based on the current needs of the various divisions. One specific part of the expansion that I worked on is the "brand image collage".
List of main graphic elements that were already in progress for the visual guidelines.
2 Examples of print material from the revised brand guidelines, in progress. This set of examples illustrates the use of the wedge shape in solid brand colors with the gradient beam and new centennial logo.
2 Examples of print material from the revised brand guidelines, in progress. This set of examples illustrates the use of the a single image, masked in the brand wedge shape, with the gradient beam and new centennial logo.
The Gridded Collage
Upon analyzing the different documents that the organization produces on a regular basis, we noticed the need for a graphic system that allows for multiple images. These are often a mix of content-specific and mood/decorative images. As such, the guidelines need to make sure the images can be easily understood, and not abstracted, unless they are purely decorative.
Inspired by the existing visual language of geometric shapes and angled lines across the medium/page, we came up with a grid system made up of these elements. The grid can be used as is for image heavy documents, or modified to feature varying sizes of images. The latter is our recommended way of using the grid. Below is an illustration of the full grid and a few sample of its variants.
The Brand Imagery
Another key factor that we helped define for the organization is the imagery used for brand purposes, such as promotional materials and publications covers. We recommend using optic-inspired, but non-industry specific, images for top level/organization level collateral pieces. We helped create an image library that the in-house designers can use. We looked at images that OSA already owned and selected several that would fit/enhance the visual language of the organization.
In addition we included images that we had created in house for previous OSA projects, upon request of the client.
Grid + Images + Applications
We provided samples of how the grid can be used within the existing brand guidelines. We also applied these additional guidelines on the traveling Marketing booth and pop-up banner designs.
Role: Mid-level graphic and exhibit designer, lead production designer for the booth designs.
Senior Designer: Eliza Fitzhugh, Senior Architect: Monika Thorson, Project Manager: Leah Kassell. Partner-in-Charge: Maya Kopytman.
Year: 2015–2016