GRAY FOX STRATEGIC
AGENCY: BLUE ION
Services: Art Direction, Brand Identity, Print Collateral, WEB DESIGN
Gray Fox Strategic Is a business consulting/planning division of Dalberto & Graham Attorney and advisor. Specializing in helping businesses through the unknown legal areas. While working at Blue Ion, I was tasked with creating a branding system that illustrated this unknown. The concept was meant to depict the idea “can't see the forest through the trees “ the website design and print materials reflected these elements in a immersive forest scene that scrolls users through the process of finding solutions.
Discovery & Exploration
For this project with Grey Fox Strategic, I began with an in-depth look at what type of services and experiences were being offered. My goal was to assist the current state of the Grey Fox brand and develop a visual solution that would help raise the clientele market and brand equity to marketing materials.
The fox represents the intelligence and wits that are brought to every problem that is faced. Deciding to choose the depiction of the fox became evident once the name and backstory came together. While working alongside a creative writer and project manager, we developed a solution that best represented Grey Fox Solution, “seeing the forest through the trees”. This saying because the senses for what their team we're dealing with on every project.
Project Type
COLLABORATION with copy director, Web developer, and Project manager
Timeline
Feb - Jun 2019 (21 weeks)
PROCESS SKETCHES
Process overview
Round 1 concepts reviewed various marks using the Fox. Each exploration depicted different positions and angles. I wanted to demonstrate a spectrum of styles that best showcased the confidence what needed to apparent.
Round 2 & 3 begin the refinement process, this consisted of simplifying and cropping the fox down to a simple circular mark. By simplifying the mark and continue the curves of the fox, I was able to keep the graphical balance and utilize the negative space to depict a fox head. Final adjustments were later made in the eyes.
Color exploration
Final Design Solution
The branding process arrived with a circular depiction of a fox head, arranged with a sans-serif type arrangement. Subtle uses of grey and blue color tones were chosen to tie the brand back to the primary division of Dalberto & Graham Attorney and advisor.
Website development
After establishing the brand identity and style tile. My task was to develop a unique web experience that allows users to scroll through the Grey Fox story. In theme with the original fox idea, I illustrated a forest inspired design, to support the storytelling elements. I worked alongside developers, to add subtle animation and movement to the forest while scrolling through the Grey Fox process. Each animations revealed solutions and information on the type of services that are provided. The goal was to establish a cohesive experience with the brand and website platform. The website became an extension of the story, giving users the feeling of following the fox through the unknown to appear on the other side with solutions.
SUBTLE animation through mobile scrolling.
The storytelling aspect of the scrolling allowed for text to animate-in to deliver copy into smaller readable pieces. This helped keep the user immersed in the experience.
jump scroll NAVIGATION
Due to the large amount of information, navigation became a crucial aspect for referring to key points of the content.
animated illustrations for each service
I was able to utilize the wooded illustration to a parallax effect. This helped bring interest to the various forms of copy throughout the scroll.
