Influencer - Rebrand Project

It's exciting but also always a little nerve wracking when any company or entity with a passionate and strong following as you to rebrand them!

It's a given that some people with love whatever you design while others will have strong negative feelings. Hey, one of the scariest aspects for most is the idea of 'Change'.

So, when I was asked by one of the UK's biggest motorcycle influencers, Bruce Smart AKA TeaPotONE to redesign his logo and then rebrand all his social channels, website and apparel, I knew I had to get it right.

With all my logo and rebrand clients I ask them to complete an in depth questionnaire, which ask some tough questions. But the doc gives them a chance to really express who they are, what their 'brand principles' are, even to express their ideas and thoughts about their ideal target audience. Basically it's a roadmap that provides me a starting point.

Our initial conversations had led me believe that Bruce was up for something very different, a design that lent towards making Bruce focus of the new logo. The first concepts also played towards Bruce's fantastic sense of humour and his imposing personality.

I created a series of caricatures based on Bruce. Scroll down to see check out my favourite design.

OK, now while I like the graphic, Bruce and I both felt that it was just to whimsical, to juvenile. Any kind of cartoonesque design wasn't going to convey the knowledge, authenticity and driven passion that Bruce imparts into each of his films and videos.

I needed to rethink!

I'd asked Bruce to describe the 'feeling and sense' that he wanted his 'new' brand to project. It was clear very quickly that he wanted to move a long way from the red retro badge that had he used so successfully to launch his brand. It wasn't long before we we were talking about his life, his passion for anything two wheeled and his professional background as a police officer, where 'Teapotone' comes from. But that's his story to tell.

I felt that dark greys and blacks would work for Bruce and that I wanted to pay homage to his police backstory. I created several concepts, but they felt too much like I was rebranding the transformers.

Scroll down to check out a few of the concepts that I produced.

As I looked at the last simple white amalgamation of the letters 'T P and the number 1' I began to see the inspiration I'd been looking for.

I wanted to produce a standalone graphic that pulled together the 'T P and the numeral 1', but in a way that felt organic. I also liked the idea of bringing a spartan esque and military edge to the design and that somehow incorporated Bruce's iconic face fluff!

After way too many iterations the final standalone graphic was shown nervously to Bruce. He loved it! See the design below.

With the standalone graphic element created a I needed to focus on the logo itself. I went through half a sketch book and half a dozens pencils (yes I still sketch stuff out before going to the laptop) before coming up with a simple and clean text layout the incorporated the word 'one' and the numeral '1' built into the design.

It was then a simple case of highlighting the numeral 1 in red to visually connect with the red eye of the standalone graphic.

The power of any good brand is in its ability to be flexible. I feel that any brand needs to be consistent, but also has to offer a degree of flexibility, due to the numerous physical and digital requirements that are asked of today's graphics. Scroll down to see how the TP1 logo and brand can be used in numerous arrangements.

With Bruce's channel blowing up and his subscriber count growing daily, we knew that the new logo and brand was going to need to stand the test of time and stand up to some very diverse usage. Check out the new Truck wrapped in the new design.

I've also included a few sneak peeks into Bruce's new social media headers and soon to be released merch range.

I hope you've enjoyed the quick preview into my process in developing new brands.

If you like my work, would like to work with me or would like to learn how I can help you brand visually communicate more effectively then drop me an email at: simonthomas@2ridetheworld.com

Thanks for dropping by.