Scott Gericke Brand Identity Award

Applications are open to students currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in the design, illustration, or digital media disciplines.

The award is intended for students currently enrolled in a part-time or full-time post-secondary program at an accredited community college, four-year college, or university in the St. Louis AIGA region. This award is granted once per year and cannot be awarded in combination with the annual AIGA Student Scholarship.

Scott Gericke was instrumental in bringing AIGA to St. Louis, held numerous board positions, serves on our Advisory Board, and became a Design Fellow in 2007. He has taught design at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Washington University in St. Louis, Webster University, and is currently a professor of design at Loyola University in New Orleans. Scott’s been a strong advocate for our profession and has built a successful career creating brand identities for clients around the world.

This annual award is focused on recognizing a junior or senior in good standing who demonstrates a skill for creating a logo/brand identity system that displays exceptional design and tells a unique story.

A brand identity is the unique set of characteristics that define a brand and differentiate it from its competitors. For this award it is the sum of all the elements that make up a brand’s visual voice and personality. 

The Brand Identity submissions will be evaluated on the following 3 criteria:

1. Communicates a brand experience.

Brand experience—an integrated visual design approach that combines elements of user experience, customer experience, and brand identity all in one. 

2. Demonstrates a cohesive color and typographic system.

A brand identity includes color and typographic standards for the mark, as well as accompanying color guidelines and typographic families used within the system.

3. Demonstrates the presence of the brand identity’s communication in visual interactions with consumers.

The visual expression of a brand is an important part of how the identity comes to life. Typical applications include packaging, letterhead and business cards, websites, apps, advertising campaigns, wearables, signage/environmental graphics, animation/motion, and social media presence.

Interactive media (Figma, Sketchup, Motion, GIFs, etc.) must be submitted with a link to a cloud-based archive, with shared permissions.

Submission Guidelines:

Submission must include…

1. a creative brief that responds to the writing prompts provided.

2. representation of the mark in black/white and color at various sizes

3. applications of the brand components that display exceptional presence as a system when extended to various applications. 

Typical applications include packaging, letterhead and business cards, websites, apps, advertising campaigns, wearables, signage/environmental graphics, animation/motion, and social media presence.

NOTE: Interactive media (Figma, Sketchup, Motion, GIFs, etc.) must be submitted with a link to a cloud-based archive, with shared permissions.

Creative Brief

Write to all of the specific prompts below in sentence form, grammatically correct.
Exception—descriptors can be a list. Suggested 1-3 sentences per prompt.

Background

• The purpose of this logo/identity is:

• The audience for this project includes:

• In creating this identity, I wanted to: (not software or specific skills—what is the design strategy?)

Design Thinking 

• The organization/company/product is all about:

• Six descriptors for this logo/identity:

• I wanted to create: 

• Current uses designed for: 

• In the future I envision it being used:

Challenges:

• It was important that I create something for the organization/company/product that:

Favorite details: 

• I am proud of: