Create goals for visual identity system from design studio and interviews w/ designers

[jenniferthibault]

@noahmanger to help review this ~5/5

[jenniferthibault]

Work in progress goals on Google Drive here:

[jenniferthibault]

Goals for the FEC’s Visual Identity System

The FEC’s visual identity system should…

...be built for web, print, and environmental use. That means that things created by the FEC should look consistent, no matter where they are found, and readily incorporate best practices for each field of application.

...help viewers understand what the FEC does. That means that visual elements should be tied to what the FEC actually does, including colors and images.

...have ready-to-use or easy-to-build style patterns that make the default design the best design. That means that there will be plenty of clear examples of styles and applications to draw from when designing something from scratch.

...encourage information to be visually presented. That means subscribing to the “show, don’t tell” philosophy, and creating opportunities to decrease the amount of text needed to help viewers understand what is being communicated. This can be accomplished through relevant imagery, template patterns, or iconography.

...act as a foundation for all of the FEC’s visual design decisions. That means that the stylistic elements (colors, fonts, image styles) can be used freely as the system recommends, and should therefore relieve pressure from “designing from scratch” each time

...be able to be built upon for future needs. That means that the design elements should not be built with very complex, time-consuming methods. The system should be flexible for future components, and the visuals should able to be built with ease. For example, it should be easy for a designer to make a new icon that matches the rest.

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A consistent brand system is as much about the elements you create as the environment in which it lives and is used. In the FEC’s case, the research showed a few organizational and cultural areas of tension that the visual identity system will need to clarify in order to be successful.

Dependencies to these goals:

• A shared understanding of who governs the visual components of the FEC’s brand.
• A clear guide for using, maintaining, and expanding the design system so that the design team feels capable, confident, and proud of stewarding the new visual identity system.
• A shared understanding of what the FEC actually does, in order to build a mission statement and values that can guide coherent visual identity system choices.

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Next Steps:

• Create moodboards of visual identity options, & present to FEC team + designers for comments. Use InVision. Narrow down/iterate. Each iteration moves towards selecting real visual elements (fonts, colors image style etc).
• Identify patterns in UI and visual elements from the brand audit and new wireframes. Support from @onezerojeremy @noahmanger and @andrewmaier needed.
• Use moodboard feedback & iterations to apply visual system to patterns.
• Use visual patterns created to make higher design fidelity wireframes of specific elements and home page.