The problem
After speaking with the client, we learned of two distinct target groups we had to design for: the investors who would fund the project, and the people in Africa who would use the products made possible by the brand. This was not going to be easy.
The early inspiration pieces for narrowing down the feel and market of Mojo.
The solution
Our solution was to design a graphic profile that was minimalistic and slightly modern in appearance while not delving too deep into a corporate style. We wanted to develop trust between the brand and end-users while also giving a slightly playful vibe to play into the African culture prominent in the target countries.
Our moodboard that would communicate our vision clearly to our client.
Pre-planning
We began by researching how the market stood today and how other brands solved their problems. The truth is that most brands in this market were seriously lacking in terms of style and readability. It was clear that we had to do a lot of work to come up with original ideas and execute them in this project. We conducted extensive research on the types of colors, shapes, and font styles we would use and how different cultures around the world would interpret those style choices. We later applied these learnings in three separate Moodboards and pitched them early on to the clients, using their feedback to create concrete assets and a fully-fledged graphic profile later on.
All the different logos we pitched and redesigned during the project.
A condensed version of the final graphic profile that we delivered to our client.
Final delivery
In the end, we delivered a graphic profile consisting of three parts: the logo, the colors, and the fonts. We also delivered stylistic guidelines and rules for following their own graphic profile. These guidelines focused on accessibility and brand identity. We also provided a digital example of how a future website might look like, as shown at the bottom of this page, as well as Microsoft Office themes that they could use in PowerPoint and Word, which followed their graphic profile.
Learnings
As the majority of the work was done during isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to drastically adapt our communication strategies. It was certainly difficult trying to work with a client only through digital means, resulting in a few cases of miscommunication, which were understandable given the circumstances. We learned a lot about how to communicate with a client, how and when to pitch ideas to them, and how much we should show or hide from them until a later date.
Website Prototype
The entire website example that we delivered to our client.
First section of our proposed website.
Second section of the website.