An Attempt At Personal Branding

Here is my attempt at creating a personal brand.

I first started with a personal logo. I wanted to create something that is based on typography. There are two options I could go with the wording for the logo. The first option is “tirtawr”, which is the handle I use almost everywhere. It is the address of my website, my username on github, twitter, everywhere. The second option is to use “T.W.R”, which is my initials. My full name is Tirta Wening Rachman. Furthermore, I also know that I want to use a handwritten typeface to introduce some whimsy.

Here are some of my early tries.

After spending some time trying out different combinations and colors, I landed on three logo candidates that I quite like. It is written using the Chelsea Market typeface. I also added some decorations to go along with it.

The three main candidates

I ended up gravitating towards the one in the middle due to the vertical symmetry. And I also like it because to me it looks both professional, yet it also has some whimsy to it.

Chosen logo

Continuing on, I wanted to along with the personal color palette that I’ve created for myself.

Color palette

During that previous project, I’ve also created some compositions that go along with the palette. However, something that I noticed was that the font I used for some of the compositions only works well on certain scales and is not friendly for the web. This has to change. I updated the illustration to use the font that I’m using for my logo.

Original compositions based on my personal color palette
Updated compositions based on my personal color palette

Lastly, what I wanted to do is to create some font pairings to go along with my logo. I used FontJoy to help me create the font pairings that I need. I landed on using Roboto Mono and Cousine to go along with Chelsea Market. My logic is that I wanted to contrast the “handwritten” logo/title with a monospaced font for the text and heading, showcasing my programming background.

Screenshot from FontJoy

Looking back, this was a fun project to do. The final result definitely is not perfect in any way, and I’m accepting feedback. Leave a comment below if you think I can improve this in any way. Cheers!

My Second Poster

After creating my first poster, some improvements were in order. I received two main criticism of the first poster.

The first one being the header font is not working well. The italics style of the font is too harsh and a bit hard to read.

The second criticism I received is that the image is somewhat too busy, and the work that is being done is not well showcased.

I try to address the first criticism by changing the font to a less italicized one. I still want to use a “handwritten” font for the header to contrast the typewriter font I’m using for the text.

As for the issue with the image, I wasn’t able to take another image that I liked (plus, I fell in love with the first image already, I think this is bad). Instead, I chose to zoom in the image a bit to give more attention to the people working.

Here is the second iteration of my attempt at the ITP Winter Show poster.

My First Poster

This is my first time creating a poster. It is a poster for the 2019 ITP and IMA winter show.

I had fun trying this. My general idea is to showcase the process of the work that is going down here at ITP, and also the people doing it.

First design
Alternate design

Personal Color Palette

This is the color palette I have chosen for myself. In my opinion, it is elegant, modern, effective, and somewhat understated. Along with it, I have made a set of six compositions using my color palette. Two of them is an edit of photographs using Lightroom, another two are random geometric patterns that showcase the colors, and the last two are designs for a possible personal logo for branding purposes.

Compositions

Redesigning A Boarding Pass

Today’s experiment is to re-design an old boarding pass from Delta Airlines.

Old Boarding Pass

There are two things I wanted to achieve in the design:
1. To have a clearer hierarchy and organization of information
2. To have a more legible text
3. To make it a bit more aesthetically pleasing

Here is my design. I edit it using Google Slides.

Edited Boarding Pass

On the larger side of the boarding pass (to the left of the perforation), I tried to split the information into two sections. On the left is information that is more important to the passenger, while on the right is information that is more important to the operations crew. The passenger related information is also duplicated on the small tab to the right of the perforation.

I also changed the text to make a clearer distinction between the labels of information versus the information itself.

2020 IKEA Catalog – Page 11

Page 11 of the 2020 IKEA Catalog

This image is taken from page 11 of the 2020 IKEA Catalog. To me, the design of this page is utilitarian, clean, and versatile. It looks good both in print media and on screens.

The grid structure of the catalog

The page is designed in a way that it reads from top to bottom. The two illustrations at the top capture the reader’s attention with a crisp, clean shot of furniture, and a warm picture of a couple indicating happiness. As the reader reads from top to bottom, more detail is provided both of the image and the furniture in a smaller text later. This shows the clear hierarchy of information from top to bottom with a classic newspaper-like grid structure.

Ever since 2010, Ikea started to use Verdana for all of their materials and this catalog is no exception. An Ikea spokeswoman mention that the decision to use Verdana is because it is “more efficient and cost-effective” and that “it’s a simple, modern-looking typeface.” While it is clean and utilitarian, a number of fans were extremely disappointed by the use of this font. To me its a good move on IKEA’s part because it gives them the flexibility they need.

Color palette of the page

The usage colors that they used in this page is also utilitarian. Most of the colors that they used are of the purplish pastel tones, which are elegant yet unintimidating. The text and diagram are printed in classic black and white to emphasize readability.

The design of this page is interesting to me because it is effective at sending the right message, and it does so in an elegant manner.