After several mock ups and redesigns the brochure is now complete. Here are two of my favourite spreads from the brochure

The first spread is the story of a survivor from the collapsing towers, I think the serif typeface adds to the feel and brings the 'American' feel into it. The black and white image of the man adds also creates a real attachment to him and the brochure.

The second spread is various facts and figures from the devastation of the September 11th, I have emphasized several key points and made them stand out a little more. This is also the center spread of the brochure and when opened up 210mm x 210mm it is able to lead you in and keep reading the facts

What is branding?

To understand branding, it is important to know what brands are. A brand is the idea or image of a specific product or service that consumers connect with, by identifying the name, logo, slogan, or design of the company who owns the idea or image. Branding is when that idea or image is marketed so that it is recognizable by more and more people, and identified with a certain service or product when there are many other companies offering the same service or product. Advertising professionals work on branding not only to build brand recognition, but also to build good reputations and a set of standards to which the company should strive to maintain or surpass. Branding is an important part of Internet commerce, as branding allows companies to build their reputations as well as expand beyond the original product and service, and add to the revenue generated by the original brand.

When working on branding, or building a brand, companies that are using web pages and search engine optimization have a few details to work out before being able to build a successful brand. Coordinating domain names and brand names are an important part of finding and keeping visitors and clients, as well as branding a new company. Coordination of a domain name and brand names lends identification to the idea or image of a specific product or service, which in turn lets visitors easily discovery the new brand.

Branding is also a way to build an important company asset, which is a good reputation. Whether a company has no reputation, or a less than stellar reputation, branding can help change that. Branding can build an expectation about the company services or products, and can encourage the company to maintain that expectation, or exceed them, bringing better products and services to the market place.

Brochure Mock Up

Really like the logo I have created for this project so set about getting some rough ideas together for a brochure, a mock up is imperative to get a grasp on how it might look when it's printed.

After making the mock up it's really made a difference to the things I have to redesign, firstly the die cut is far too big and I need a working grid system, secondly the text on the image is far too small and need to incorporate this into the same grid system.

Logo and Brochure Idea

I've been struggling to create a logo/marque and after several ideas that didn't feel strong enough I decided to use a square to represent the memorial pools. I then decided to put it on an angle to give it the feeling that it's still standing and the faith and remembrance have held it there.

The second image is a quick visual of a brochure design, keeping a simple but effective design with a capital condensed typeface. And also keeping the theme of the angled square. The square will be cut out of certain pages showing the image on the next page to represent a new chapter in the memorial brochure. The size of the brochure is 210mm x 210mm again to keep with the square theme.

Second Attempt

After the failure of the first logo idea I tried to move away from the ideas of trees and leaves and tried to create a typographic image of The National September 11 Memorial incorporated into a shape of two towers. This is the result after a tiny bit of tweaking.

As it's only a basic idea I will be changing the kerning and leding but overall I'm quite pleased with the logo.
 

First logo/marque Ideas

Here are the first ideas I've had for my logo/marque. I tried the different acronyms and the full title with also uppercase and lowercase text. I quite like the image on the right with the full name but I can't help but feel that it reminds me of a National Park logo not the National September 11 Memorial.

Initial Ideas

My initial ideas for a logo/marque include ideas based around either a tree or a leaf. This is because of several reasons, the main ones being the survivor tree

And the 400 Swamp White Oak trees that are planted on the plaza. Obviously tree's also have to connotations of life, roots, growth, remembrance and various others. I have also thought of an acronym for the project as I feel 'The National September 11 Memorial' could be too long to brand successfully. Maybe to something such as 'NS11M' or just 'NSM'

This will also make it easier to add to a symbol such as a tree in a circle. Here are a few examples of different ways people have used a tree to brand their company or used it in a symbol.

As for the brochure I have had some ideas for that too, I would like it to be in the proportions of one of the towers so I'm presuming it will be a square type brochure. The main aspects of my brochure will be imagery, I have already taken a few images which I plan to use in the brochure such as;

This image will take up the whole page and I will add the specific text/quotes in a mature typographical style to fit in with the brochure, each page will have a different image and the themes I have thought of up to yet are; candles, water, smoke, trees and leaves.

Here is an example of a square style brochure I could take influence from.