Brand Me: Visual Identity Ident

So with my logo sorted, it was time to create an ident. And again I decided to not overthink this but I still wanted an ident that looked very professional as I would like to use it on almost everything I make for the foreseeable future. I looked to what my fellow animators were creating and they all seemed to be developing idents that represented themselves in someway, whether that be their name or aspects of their personalities. Well I knew if I was going to create an ident it had to be traditional animation as that is basically the way I work. Furthermore if I was going to show this to an audience that knew my stuff the ident had to represent a great deal of the stuff I make.

This was a struggle to come up with because I don't really think I've found my visual aesthetic. I've always really liked the ident for Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is so simple, using Walt's signature handwriting for the name and Mickey Mouse, the most recogniseable part of the company and the mascot.

I decided to take inspiration from this and use the girl on the swing from my Swinging Through Time animation that I have been working on since the Processes and Production module in first year. The reason for this is because this animation has remained a constant throughout my working university life. I still always get asked about how the progress of the animation is going, and it's almost become a running joke that I'll still be working on the animation when I'm 70.

Furthermore I decided to use the girl as the logo because she is drawn in a way that other animators and other people recognise as my own work, e.g. the way I draw eyes. Plus I like the way she jumps off the swing, it's playful and fun and also like she's jumping straight into the screen ready to run off into a new adventure.