Initial logo concepts for the Closeup pitch

 Initial logo concepts for the Closeup pitch

My role for the pitch is to create a logo for Closeup; we have already discussed prior that we want the visual identity to be very simple and clean in order to place more emphasis on the films of the event. 

Research 

In order to gain an insight into visual branding within the film industry, I took a closer look at examples that could inform the visuals of Closeup. In terms of film festival branding, I looked at Studio Lowries' visual branding for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival; the identity takes a much more symbolic approach to design, through keeping a central focus on the visual concept of a beam of light coming from a film projector. The shapes featured within the project all communicate and reflect the way ones' eye reacts to the sun/ light. 

Sundance is extremely relevant to the Closeup pitch, as it embodies the idea of community and exploring independent films. The ethos of the festival is centered around storytelling and embracing different cultured around the globe. As well as this, Sundance itself has been running as a non-profit event, thus really emphasising its values to showcase films and keep it as purely that. Inspired by this, we wanted to ensure that the Closeup pitch was giving back to the Leeds film community, so all the profits raised from ticket sales would be given to Hyde Park Picture House. 

The two words that Studio Lowrie used to describe the ideas that were integrated into the visual branding were 'connectivity and celebration'. This was very relevant to the ethos that we wanted to explore with Closeup, as even the name itself was all about the idea of exploring the Leeds film community and connecting people together through independent and student films. 

Mubi is an on demand film subscription service that showcases 30 different films a month, with only a month long expiry date. The ethos of Mubi is to explore independent and foreign cinema, and is carefully curated to bring new films to different countries. The concepts behind Closeup were also very inspired by Mubi, as we wanted to have this focus on independent films, with a focus on student films in particular. 

The visual branding of Mubi was created by Spin Studios; the logo design focuses on minimal approaches reflecting elegance, sophistication and sharpness. The M used in the logo is somewhat reminiscent of the M used in the Metropolis poster, and the shapes used are symbolic of the seven circles. The concept behind having such a clean logo was with the intention of making creative freedom easier 'having a clear identity actually gives you more flexibility ad creativity'. 

What stands out with the Mubi logo in particular is that it has such a simple sense of voice, yet features a lot of symbolism and playfulness. I definitely want to embrace these attitudes to logo design in the Closeup pitch, as I want to create something that can be minimal but versatile. 

To keep a clean and minimal tone, I played around with abstract shapes and forms to create some logo concepts; this one above takes inspiration from shapes of a cinema ticket, as well as using semi circles to form the letters 'c' and 'u' to represent the title of the event. I like how despite being very abstract, the minimal design of this idea communicates the tone that we wanted to portray; through subtle shapes it represents the notion of film through visual referencing, whilst maintaining an allusive sense of voice that intrigues the audience. I used Helvetica for the design to keep it professional and clean; as a logo I think this typeface is most fitting as it creates a refined undertone. 

This logo concept uses the same shapes, but feels a lot more loose by dropping the ticket shaped silhouette. I don't really like this version as it feels a bit too generic and flat; the ticket shape definitely works better in relating the the idea of film. 

For experimentation, I thought it might be interesting to create some hand drawn outcomes to play with shapes more. I like how the hand drawn type used in these outcomes reflects the concept of student film, in the sense that its more rough around the edges, but overall I think its a bit overdone to the point where it feels a bit too messy and unprofessional. These hand drawn versions definitely lack the clean and more sophisticated tone we wanted to communicate. 

This logo concept concentrates more on the literal meaning of 'close up', by having the 'c' and 'u' letterforms somewhat personified in a way that reflects the idea of community. I think conceptually it works, as again it reflects the tight knit community within Leeds, but I feel like it might be a bit too abstract and unrelated to the idea of film. 

I also wanted to experiment with custom typefaces, so I quickly created these logo outcomes that involve type that is crammed together to reflect the concept of community and closeness within Leeds' film industry. The main limitation of these concepts is that they are definitely illegible to some extent, which is obviously an issue in the context of logo design. 

Overall, after speaking to my group in our group chat, the general feedback is to go with the first logo design, as everyone agreed that it fit the sense of voice we wanted to convey, as well as linking to the semantics of film through abstracted shapes. I definitely agree that this outcome feels the most refined and professional, so we're going to run with that version. At this stage in the pitch, I'm technically finished with my contribution, but I am still going to stay in contact to communicate ideas in order to make sure the visual branding remains consistent.