2022 Branding Guidelines
Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................4-7 Chapter 2. Our Values ...................................................... 8-9 Chapter 3. Branding ..................................................... 10-19 Chapter 4. Illustrations ................................................. 20-23 Chapter 5. The Product ................................................ 24-29 2 | Swick
Chapter 6. The Application ..........................................30-33 Chapter 7. Advertising ................................................. 34-43 Chapter 8. Merchandise ............................................... 44-51 3 | Swick
1 Introduction
Who Am I? Ashley Rose has been a strong believer of new age spirituality, astrology, gemstones, manifestation and meditation for the past five years of her life. Learning about spirituality has been a source of comfort and relief from stress, helping her to cope with the challenges in life. Throughout her spiritual journey, Ashley started to decorate her bedroom into a place that provided her with a sense of ease and relaxation. Crystals, plants, singing bowls, dream catchers, tapestries and scented candles fill her room to provide the ultimate comfort zone. However, Ashley soon realized that all but one of these products sufficed to provide ultimate relaxation; candles. Candles have been one of her favorite aspects of setting the moon for relaxation. They provide the suitable amount of lighting, and their aroma puts many people at ease. However, for a product whose goal is to provide comfort, candles cause multitudes of house fires every year. Ashley noticed that lighting a candle in her room was very necessary to achieve ultimate relaxation, but at the same time, she was not able to fully feel at ease due to having to consistently monitor the candle. Oftentimes, she would fall asleep with a candle lit and wake up hours later to realize she forgot to extinguish it, which could have potentially resulted in a dangerous situation. When it came time to develop an idea for her senior project, Ashley wondered if other individuals have been experiencing the same love/ hate relationship with their candles. 5 | Swick
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Our Story Ashley began to conduct over 50 interviews with a wide variety of people through phone calls, facetime, in person, and google forms. The data showed that 54% of people have left a candle unattended in their home and expressed worry of one causing a house fire. 90% of those people would buy a product that relieved this worry. The problem statement soon emerged: concerned users need to ensure candle safety in the home because it will prevent house fires. As Ashley conducted this research, she felt less alone knowing that others shared her worries. 7 | Swick
2 Our Values
Our Goal The next step of the process was finding a unique solution to stop candles from causing house fires. Products such as battery powered candles exist, however they are not scented and do not provide the authenticity of a real candle flame. Wax melts are a new, trendy product where the user heats the wax and it provides the aroma of a candle, but there is no flame, thus, no light. Lastly, candle toppers are open lids with holes and designs placed over a candle that are used to provide better air circulation so the candle burns more efficiently, however it does not extinguish the flame or provide safety. Ashley’s plan developed to create a physical product that could extinguish a candle without user interference in a potentially hazardous situation. The product would also connect to an app on the user’s phone where safety alerts and reminders would be sent to the app when needed. The app would also provide the user with the ability to extinguish the candle if they left the home and forgot to put it out, as well as set a timer for how long they would like the candle to burn for. By launching her senior project, Ashley hopes to create a product that can provide candle users with the security they need in order to prevent house fires. Burning a candle should provide ultimate relaxation, and having to worry about the dangers of burning one can ruin the purpose of the product. She hopes that Swick can relieve those worries and provide its users with ultimate security. 9 | Swick
3 Branding
Our Design With a solution to the problem developed, Ashley started the process of creating a brand name and the company’s branding and overall aesthetic. The process for coming up with a brand name started with how Ashley wanted her brand to make people feel. The brand’s goal was to make people feel safe and have peace of mind as they burned their candles. The brand needed to appear trustworthy and secure for people to consider using it’s product. In total, Ashley came up with 40 names for the brand, and narrowed it down until she settled with the name “Swick”, the “S” representing safety or security, and the “wick” being the part of a candle that is lit. Many fonts were played with in order to decide on the final font for the logo. It came to a decision between a blocky sans serif typeface, or a more flowy script font. Ultimately with feedback from peers’ Ashley chose the final font of the logo as a blocky, sans serif typeface to represent stability, and the dot of the “i” is a blue flame. The goal of the logo is to portray that Swick provides the safety one needs when burning a candle. The next step in the design process was developing the branding and color schemes that would be used throughout Swick’s products. When conducting research, Ashley learned about color symbolism, and how one’s mood can be reflected from certain colors. Since she wanted the brand to provide security, safety, ease of mind, and trustworthiness, she chose shades of blue, orange, tan, and brown. 11 | Swick
Colorized Logo & Mark 12 | Swick
Reversed Color 13 | Swick
B&W Logo & Mark 14 | Swick
Reversed B&W 15 | Swick
Logo Clear Space & Minimum Size 1.5in 1in X X X X X X X 16 | Swick
Logo Misuse 17 | Swick
Header & Body Copy Cocogoose Title Aa ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 18 | Swick Arial Rounded MT Bold Body Aa ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890
Color Scheme HEX 3560ac RGB 53, 96, 172 CMYK 86, 67, 0, 0 HEX 71ccee RGB 115, 204, 238 CMYK 50, 1, 3, 0 HEX d98e04 RGB 217, 142, 4 CMYK 0, 34, 98, 15 HEX 868787 RGB 139, 135, 135 CMYK 50, 41, 41, 5 HEX 593a15 RGB 89, 58, 21 CMYK 0, 35, 77, 65 19 | Swick
4 Illustrations
Illustrations Ashley has been an illustrator and traditional artist for as far back as she can remember. She started drawing the moment she could grasp a crayon. Because of this, Ashley knew she wanted to incorporate the skill that got her this far into her senior project. The illustrations through out Swick’s brand are present in the advertising and app icons. The advertisements both print and digital consist of digital drawings depicting scenarios where Swick would be a helpful product. The different scenarios consist of a girl falling asleep with a candle lit, a cat trying to play with the candle flame, and curtains being blown near the open flame. Throughout all of these scenarios, Swick could prevent a potential candle fire and save people’s possessions and lives. Since the idea of a house fire is so tragic and hard for some people to think about, Ashley decided a cartoon-like sketchy drawing style would be best to use for her advertisements. The color palette used throughout are directly from the brand’s color scheme. The app icons were inspired by the blocky yet fun design of the flame for the brand mark. The icons all have rounded corners and incorporate the fun brand colors for easy usage on an smart phone. 21 | Swick
Illustrations & Icons 22 | Swick
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5 The Product
Product Description In the initial process of uncovering a solution to this problem, Ashley came up with a few different concepts before the final version of Swick was created. She knew that a physical product that prevented candle fires was the way to go. Her first idea consisted of a candle wick that would burn in specific increments of time, which would limit the amount of time a potential fire could occur. Her second idea was to create a candle holder for any candle that would self-extinguish the candle, and perhaps be connected with an app to allow its users more control over their candles when they are not near them. Ultimately, Ashley went with the latter, and from there had to design a candle holder that would be the most effective solution to the problem. As Ashley researched her competitors, she noticed a few similar products on the market consisting of a glass container with a lid that closed automatically, and a timer that would close the lid and extinguish the candle in certain increments of time. However, all of these products were not very aesthetically pleasing, consisting of one plain design, no connection to an app, ultimately not allowing its users to have much personalization. In order to incorporate personalization into her product, Ashley’s candle holder will have options to change the light colors of the glass, and the ability to make the product into a fish bowl, moon, or soccer ball. The end product prototype was created using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. 25 | Swick
The Product Button Code On/Off Set color/ Theme Duration Set Timer Features Auto shut lid Motion sensor around opening Rubber grip base Ceramic heat resistent glass Holographic lights & themes Live camera 2:00 26 | Swick
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The Packaging 28 | Swick
Unique Code Slip 29 | Swick
6 30 | Swick The Application
The App The product would then connect to the Swick app on the user’s phone where safety alerts and reminders would be sent to the app when needed. The app would also provide the user with the ability to extinguish the candle if they left the home and forgot to put it out, as well as set a timer for how long they would like the candle to burn for. The app would be divided into four parts- the home page, customization page, motion alerts page, and article page. On the home page the user can see a preview of the candles that are currently burning in their home, with the duration of how long the timer is set for, and then previews of trending articles about burning candles. On the customization page, it shows a full view of the candles burning, with the option to click that candle, and customize settings such as setting a timer duration, the product light color, chimes, volume, and the ability to view motion alerts. The motion alerts page allows you to view all motion alerts from the past and present and the ability to clear them. Lastly, the article page allows the user access to read full trending articles from various blogs. With a connection to a phone application, Swick will be able to alert candle users regarding their candle, allowing them to take a step out of the room and not have to worry about a potential fire. 31 | Swick
The Application Home Read Articles Alerts 32 | Swick
Customize Live Camera 33 | Swick
7 34 | Swick Advertising
Advertising Ashley’s goal in marketing is to strategically market in places where the target audiences are, such as print ads consisting of billboards in the city, subway, bus shelters, wildpostings, Bed Bath & Beyond magazine, and web ads such as landing pages, banner ads, along with social media ads. Ashley’s target audience consists of three personas, the primary being The Pet Lover, who avoids burning candles due to the fear of their pets interfering with the open flame. The secondary is The Independent, consisting of hardworking young adults in careers such as doctors or nurses who are often on call and rushing out of their homes for emergencies. This target group often forgets to blow out their candles as it is the last thing on their mind in the time of an emergency. Lastly, The Hero, consisting of firefighters who have a deep interest in protecting themselves and their community from fire. They are some of the top consumers of fire safety products. The Hero persona and The Independent are constantly on the go, and travel to work each day, so the billboards in the city, subway, bus shelters, wildpostings, Bed Bath & Beyond magazine, and Facebook ads would be geared towards them. The magazine ads, Instagram ads, Pinterest ads, and web based ads are aimed towards The Pet Lover, since they are a younger generation and spend most of their time consuming media online. Marketing is important because it allows for the target audience to see the product in the places they exist in every day. Ashley’s marketing strategy consists of digital drawings depicting situations where Swick would prevent a house fire. “Peace of mind starts here” is the slogan, reiterating that by having this product, one does not have to worry about their candle causing a fire. 35 | Swick
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8 44 | Swick Merchandise
Merchandise When creating her merchandise, Ashley decided turning Swick’s logo mark into a pattern and utilizing her brand colors to create a pattern worked best. This added a pop of color to the merchandise and created an aesthetically appealing design. The merchandise has a lot to do with Swick’s physical product; a self extinguishing candle holder. Therefore, selling merchandise such as branded matches, candle lighters, tote bags, blankets, and t-shirts made sense to include. In addition to this merchandise, Swick also has its branded stationery and business card. 45 | Swick
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