The Grey Sanctuary: Branding
My main brand is dedicated to my personal projects such as Patreon, my website portfolio, my e-commerce store, and the animation and video game industry freelance projects. I focus on digital 2d illustrations, mostly pre-production for feature films and indie games projects.
Origins
During college, I felt misunderstood and unhappy, since graphic design was nothing compared to art. I had different goals that didn’t align with how I was told to be and behave. I graduated with a B.A in El Turabo in 2015, and push forward to the animation and video game industry. Yet, I preserve what I learned as a graphic designer and polish my work. As you can see, I was between the names of Juicy Zone and The Grey Sanctuary and had a dedication for crosses (baroque style), fish eyes, oranges, and blobs.
Logo Type & Branding
My logo is a combination between “wordmark” and “symbol”, though the wordmark alone shouldn’t be used because the brand can lose the essence, which makes it unique, on the blob ink symbol. The reason behind “blobs” was because they represent my emotions and after so many years of trying to define my identity, it is not about rage anymore, nor peace or fear, but more like embracing uncertainty with curiosity. I was able to pull it off, thanks to a doodle in a piece of cardboard when packaging merch for my clients.
Assets
During my years participating in conventions and working as a freelancer, I had the opportunity to create beautiful pieces while progressing with my identity. Most of these are products I created with other independent small businesses or well-known manufacturers. I also enjoy working with grids and personalizing them, whether it is for printing or browsing, so customers don’t receive boring documents.
Web Design and Client Conversion
I used WordPress.org with Bootstrap for a responsive website flow in different media ports, including the integrations of other platforms and plugins such as MailChimp, Zapier, Typeform, and WooCommerce to manage my business with clients. Because my clients come from word of mouth or friends, I’m usually working with community building for a more vulnerable relationship with my audience.
Final Results
My brand is identifiable from miles away, is very chaotic, D.I.Y (Do It Yourself) type, and sketchy style-like. I use storytelling to connect with the people and create a strategy using Human Centered Design to create creative solutions based on compatibility, accessibility, and effectiveness for an impactful experience.
Mission Statement – The Grey Sanctuary provides high-quality 2D illustrations for nostalgic genres from the 90s to the 2000s. This could range between concept art, 2D animation, and visual development.
Core Values – My 4 pillars are reliability, authenticity, ingenuity, and progress.
Target Audience – My target audience are indie game developers working on RPG/Platform games (action adventure and/or fantasy), animated feature films, and loyal fans from my communities.
Brand Voice – Humorous and chaotic but inspiring. A brand with a personality that doesn’t follow the status quo.
BTW
People always have questions when it comes to my brand, like “Why a fried egg on your head?”, “Why big eyebrows?”, “Where are the blobs?” and “Is that a hat?”, and my answers are simple, all of these are inside jokes and no, it is not a hat, it is a heavy helmet.