Loiseau créatif

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Introspection

First, a little introspection is needed to identify the values and trends to be conveyed, which characterize my state of mind.

Here they are, grouped by typology :

• creativity, intuition, passion, colours, a touch of madness
• precision, codes, mastery, rigour, methodology, rupture
• concentration, calm, serenity, flexibility, optimism

Colors

The mind now better focused, I define a color universe in accordance with these values.

I have a good idea of what I want, overall a clean and balanced universe that inspires modernism and serenity. I opt for the use of a duet of colours used sparingly.

The main identity colour is blue, which is my favourite and reflects my temperament.
In secondary color I opted for a complementary salmon tint, imaging the other more extroverted facet of my personality.

Then I decline a palette of grey including a subtle percentage of identity color that reinforces the overall harmony.

For the definition of the exact color codes I usually start from a standard reference color, chosen from a Pantone color chart. Pantone blue 284C is here the starting point to define the other shades.

Graphic system

This phase defines a minimal set of basic graphic forms, support of creation to then realize the iconographies and dress codes of the project.

Following my intuition, I limited myself to three basic elements: the circle, the triangle and a vertical hatched pattern.

For colors I use a gradient between the two major colors, which can be oriented without constraints.

Typefaces

A delicate and very important choice for the visual impact of the contents and the pleasure of reading.

I chose to use the open source typography catalog Google Fonts. It is free and offers a wide choice of good quality.

Playfair Display

A striking typography for the titles and highlighted, elegant and “retro-modern”.
Designed by Claus Eggers Sørensen, its finds its inspiration in the fonts of the late 18th century.
Its contrast and delicacy seduced me.

Hind

A typography for common text, with good legibility on all media, and that fits well with the previous one.
Designed by Manushi Parikh for the Indian Type Foundry, and especially for interface design.
Its brings a “human” look with its alliance of horizontal & vertical curves and sticks, in accordance with our graphic system.

Designed in 2010 by Steve Matteson on a Google order. It has an optimal rendering both on the web and in printing or on mobile interfaces.
I used it for my title next to the logo, and on the business cards.
I appreciate its very clean and straight look, inspiring seriousness and professionalism.

Logotype

It is the image of the brand, its visual reference code. It must be attractive and well reflect its values.

By analogy with my family name, I chose to make a small bird (and not I was not inspired by Twitter 🙂 ).

It is an animal that also fits me well, taking flight to get inspired at altitude and scan the world keeping its distances, curious and fearful, but who also knows how to play the brazen at the right time.

At the construction level I used a set of equidistant circles, juggling with the junctions points to adjust the lines.
The eye is set vertically with a ratio based on the golden number. A harmonious vision is still better!

Overall the rendering is pretty cute to me, while conveying notions of straightness, accuracy and precision. The colours are there to warm up and humanize the whole.

Iconography

Useful elements to illustrate the contents or to serve as visual identification. They are created from the basic elements of the graphics system.

This part is evolutionary.
For now I have created pictograms to illustrate the four main notions described in the “About” section : passion, creativity, methodology, inspiration.

RESULT

Happy !

This is a personal project that marks a milestone in my career as a designer. I think this is an exercise to be done regularly. Nothing like a good introspective check-up coupled with a portfolio update to refine your style and image, get back on track, find a guideline.
The adventure continues !