Branding Basics using Affinity Designer V1

Introduction

Hello everyone welcome to my latest class. I’m Jen Lezan and I’ll be your teacher for this course. I’m a freelance graphic designer, illustrator and educator based out of the midwest and I run Bella + Sophia Creative studio.  In addition to my creative work, I’ve been teaching as an adjunct professor in higher ed for nearly 10 years. I often teach marketing and design courses and I wanted to bring one of my favorite courses (The Fundamentals of Branding and Identity Design) to the digital space for small business owners who are looking to understand and establish their own brand identity. So, we are going to do just that in this class. Not only will you get a better understanding of branding and how it applies to business, but I will also offer insights on how I work on logo design with clients and how you can apply that process to designing your own logo and branding identity. You will also get to create your own logo in a simple and efficient way using open source assets. This class will be the first in a 2 part series dedicated to branding. Be sure to check out the next class: Elevating Your Brand with Packaging Design for Your Etsy Shop.

What you will learn

In this course, we are going to go over the Basics of branding, understanding what a brand identity is and why it is important for your creative small business or etsy shop and we will be designing a simple logo for your brand. Logos are a vital part of branding your business that will help to create recognition for your company within the market.

Logos bombard us daily. Think about clothing labels, tvs, computers, even your toothpaste. From the moment we get up in the morning to the time we go to sleep, we are surrounded by subliminal advertising and logos. A stat from the Book: Brain Longevity, that I share with my marketing students at the university that always blows their minds is that the average American sees 16,000+ advertisements, logos and labels in ONE DAY.

Reuters proclaimed in the 90s that mankind has produced more information in the last 30 year than in the previous 5000. Mind you, that was over 20 years ago and with the advent and growth of social media, I am sure that number has increased EXPONENTIALLY.

With that being said, since we are producing so much more information than in the past, we are seeing branding and logos that are increasingly similar to one another. This poses a problem for companies that retrying to differentiate themselves visually, but it also creates a fun opportunity for designers and other creatives to create iconic identities. With the advent of sites like Creative Market, it also offers businesses the opportunity to design branding in a budget friendly or DIY kind of way. Personally, as a freelance designer I don’t think these sites are putting designers out of business, they’re disrupting the industry and making us rethink our business models.

Of course, as creative business people or small business owners who might just be starting out or don’t have the traditional design chops, you may want to be able to brand yourselves in a way that makes sense to you. So, I want go over an easy way to design a logo using pre-made open source assets and apply them to a logo and then utilize that logo on a business card.

Who this class is catered to:

This class is catered to the beginner designers or small business owners who are looking to create a logo on their own or rebrand in a simple and efficient way, as I will walk you through the steps of affinity designer while utilizing pre-made open source assets. Some knowledge in Affinity Designer V1 will be helpful, but I’ll be sure to walk you through the basics of understanding the tools we will be working to create your logo.

Project:

For our class project, you will be designing a Logo – using affinity designer V1 and open sources assets form places like creative market or a website like freepik. These are meant to help you create a logo — if you already have one, you can skip this section. Please make sure you download the class resources file as it has the project you see me creating in the course – you can use these to experiment with your ideas. You are welcome to find your own assets, though.

Once we have designed our logo, we will be creating a business Business Card using affinity designer. This business card will include your Logo -website – social media and contact information that you would ok with sharing in networking opportunities. You can share a PDF of your business card and logo in the class project gallery. I’d be happy to give feedback or answer questions. The editable file of the business card is also including in the class resources file.

The tools you will need to complete todays project include

sketchpad

pencil or pen

Laptop or computer with affinity designer V1 installed

Access to the internet

Additional Resources for Vector Assets

Freepik

vecteezy

creativemarket

vectorstock

graphicriver

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have access to the course materials?

You can view and review the lecture materials indefinitely, like an on-demand channel.

Can I take my courses with me wherever I go?

Definitely! If you have an internet connection, courses on Udemy are available on any device at any time. If you don’t have an internet connection, some instructors also let their students download course lectures. That’s up to the instructor though, so make sure you get on their good side!