Case Study 01The benchwarmers mag
Overview
The inspiration for this project was to fill a void within a community I have close ties to and a high level of interest in. I aimed to work within a new medium of sports design, brand identity and print design within my niche design industry positioning. The project spanned 10 weeks, to create a brand identity for a magazine we would print.
Problem to solve
The primary objective was to research and find a gap within a market for a demographic of a specific community that would have and find use of a physical media asset such as a magazine. The ultimate goal is to produce a physical piece of media that fills the researched market gap and that would have a place in the real world for the selected demographic to enjoy.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
To inform my design decisions, I researched and gathered information from individuals within the community but from various different demographics to learn what types of physician media is used by whom, if any at all. I learned the older generation would benefit the most from my project, my selected demographic was New Zealand Basketball male nerds aged from 30 - 50 who are in love with the game, the ones that want the niche facts, personal insights, historic articles which is all generated from a sense of nostalgia when they were growing up in the 80s and 90s.
Key insights were that the information had to personable and personal, uncommon stories and articles that haven’t been heard yet, a focus on New Zealand Basketball players and New Basketball overall.
Design Process
Throughout the design process, I aimed to create and capture a sense of the basketball scene during the 90s to really embody and invoke the sense of nostalgia. Bold colours (reds, golds, blues), strong type, different design styles for each article that reflects the information being provided.
I learnt numerous new skills during this process in Illustrator as the logo and brand identity had to fit perfectly with the demographic in order to earn their trust as a go to source. The branding was the face of the project.
CONCLUSION
The Benchwarmers Mag project taught me how to develop a completely new brand identity using research and passion as key sources to relate the project straight back to the demographic. Along the way I learnt how to design and publish a print ready magazine created in InDesign, I learned particular skills in order to capture my desired outcome of my branding especially the Benchwarmers logo.
A project like this has opened doors for me within the New Zealand basketball sporting community for the likes of Basketball New Zealand and the Southland Sharks where I have been able to implement my current and newly acquired skills. Both companies are based in New Zealand.
