PROJECT BRIEF Choose a brand that is dead, dying, or defunct, and imagine a new future for it, complete with future brand extensions and new services or products. With this in mind, do a complete rebrand to reflect this new direction, and put together a brand guidelines book that includes the new branding and explains the new direction.

 

I chose GeoCities, and imagined a new future for it where instead of creating communities by connecting people on opposite sides of the world, it would strengthen communities by reconnecting people on opposite sides of a street. It would focus its attention on local, geographic communities and use virtual tools to provide a wide array of new services aimed at bringing neighbors together and strengthening lcoal communities. Focus would be put on encouraging community activity, developing the local economy, increasing communication, and developing relationships.

 

THE LOGO I went through eights weeks of development and hundreds and hundreds of logos before ending up with the logo above. The rounded hexagon references beehives, which as a community-made home is an appropriate reference for our brand. The hexagon is made up of five pieces that appear to be, rather abstractly, a ribbon or single shape connected and folded over at each corner. The negative space inside the hexagon forms the shape of a house, defined by the eaves that cut into the ribbon shape, and the door that cuts into the negative space. The wordmark placed below the hexagon symbol is all in lowercase, which gives a friendly feeling. The name is split in half between “geo” and “cities” by a change in color and in font. “Cities,” in blue, is in the typeface Sentinel, a friendly slab serif with ball drop terminals. “Geo,” in gray, is in custom letterforms that are a blend of Sentinel and Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk, which results in a modern looking sans-serif that visually matches with the Sentinel letterforms in “Cities.”