To me, Stylescapes are like my map & compass. It has all the parts to what makes a brand and what a brand looks like. Let's imagine I am a pirate and I am ready to go on an everlasting adventure, in search for my true treasure, success. Wether I want to travel down the grand line like Monkey D Luffy or find the fountain of youth like Captain Jack Sparrow. I'm going to need a map to take me to where I want to be. Here, take a look at these two Stylescapes that we at Dijcom created.
A Stylescape is to help you and your client understand what direction the brand is heading. Just like Gibbs said to Jack Sparrow, "Where to next Jack, What's our heading?" I like to ask myself the very same question if I am rebranding or redesigning a brand. It is like a mood board but more of you painting the pathway for your brand. This is more like a starting point for me before I start on the branding project. A clear sense of direction and what the vision is for the brand.
How will this make my audience feel about my brand? What kind of interactions do I hope to receive?
Do you remember how Jack Sparrow's compass kept spinning around when he didn't know what he wanted. Because his compass only shows what he wants. That will be your compass, spinning around all the time if you don't know where you are headed. Want to know how to solve that problem? Let me give you a hint, Stylescapes. Just like in life, you have to know what you want otherwise you are lost. The same principles apply in business, design and everything else. You name it.
Even though you might have a mood board, so why would you need this? But as a designer you should be doing everything you can to make the process faster to solving the problems. When doing Stylescapes your clients will now have an idea what the finish product will look like. The logo, typography, colour scheme, user profiles & content creations are the main parts to the Stylescape. Mockups of products and just mockups in general are a perfect way to showcase how the brand design will look on materials. This is key because your customers will be interacting with that before they even talk to you.
That is all I can say for what is a Stylecape, not much to it. Maybe in the next blog post I will talk about the process to creating a Stylescape. That will be a much longer and intense blog post so be ready for that. So grab your compass and map, mark the spot with a X & let's get going. Our treasure awaits us beyond the deep blue sea and the misty islands.
