The beginning of a startup comes with many challenges, one of them is how to showcase what you want to create and contribute with minimal effort and with the most impact. In this case, a young couple from Dubai wanted a solution to this problem for their clothing startup. 

This clothing line was to be made by hand at home and it featured an affordable fashion line, inspired by traditional elements. All of this made as minimalistic as possible. The message they wanted to convey in their brand was a minimalist fashion brand with ties in tradition, therefore the following questions need to be answered:

1.Why they need this for their brand? (Why)

2.What keywords describe the brand best? (What)

3.What and how will the branding be used for? (How)

The answer for this part of the equation was that the marketing needed to be done online and that required a strong visual representation that can be associated with the products of Menakshi. 

The keywords to describe the brand were: elegant, simple, fashion, luxury, tradition, flowing, feminin, two toned, contrasting, popping, stable

After figuring out what the keywords are and what inclinations are towards the brands identity I went to work searching for answers that encompassed most of the desired inclinations. This meant that I could only use fonts for the logo itself to make it easier to be recognised in other contexts. The font type was created from multiple handwriting styles. The aim was a calligraphic logo therefore I needed to create my own font of my own handwriting. 

The brand name was chosen as “Menakshi” - as the hindu godess, therefore the name implied an inclination to a more feminin approach. The client was presented 3 to 5 choices of logos to choose from. Each had their own specific writing style. The font stayed the same only the style in which it was written changed (each keeping the keywords in mind). 

 As the logo came to life, a new challenge arises and that of creating the logo in such a manner that it would fit multiple templates of use. Since the logo itself was created as a written word of a name I used it to create a monogram “M” to go with other types of branding elements. 

After these steps I went to clean up the design and asking for feedback for the final product. This process included clearing up the letters and the negative space, the showcasing of the logo in a contrasted setup (black and white) and showing how it would look like in multiple contexts. 

Conclusion:

Even tho the startup itself didn't get of the ground I enjoyed creating this design and playing around with multiple possibilities for the brand, as well as colaborating with the client and finding the direction for their brand together.