OUGD 503 - First Artist Bank

The brief was taken from the talenthouse website:

"First Artist Bank (FAB) is a global creative community bank built by artists for artists that is being launched in the 3rd quarter of 2014. FAB is seeking help from the creative community to help design their logo. "

I want to avoid the way in which other bank logos look, as this is 'a bank for people who hate banks'. I want to try thinking of imagery that successfully represents the bank and the part they play within the lives of their customers. This instantly made me think of a hand holding a plant, as this is something I have always seen as being protective and nurturing. I also think that the plant is very representative of growth and life. I began by trying to figure out how I wanted it to look, which meant drawing it out quickly on some paper:

From these, I have an idea that I want to make digital in order to see how it looks:

At first I thought that I liked this, but I changed my mind quite quickly. I think it looks too heavy and isn't what I would think when I picture a hand. I decided to try drawing something straight on Illustrator that I thought was a better representation of a hand. I got this:

I think that this shape is getting better, but definitely needs a lot of work. I went back to the drawing board and tried improving on what I have, and came up with these sketches:

From this development of sketches I have managed to come up with a much more aesthetically pleasing hand that I feel works much better as a logo. I have then drawn it out on Illustrator:

In order to get the shape better I decided to draw the hand using simple shapes at the start before refining it more and more. I ended up going through three stages of development before finally refining it to the final outcome.

Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

The image above shows the penultimate design, which was then refined and altered slightly more to create the final outcome. Once I had this, I created four different variations which are each slightly different. I also changed the colour to orange, as after having done some research I found that orange represents creativity and success along with other things, which are vital elements of this brief. 

This is my final outcome that I have submitted to TalentHouse:

Submission:

Title - Mother Nature

Description - "The hand holding the plant symbolises the protection and security that First Artist Bank has to offer whilst also being a symbol of growth and nurture. The colour orange has been used as it symbolises creativity and success, two vital aspects of First Artist Bank."