Alan Brooks

Professor at TCNJ

Brief Bio

• first place in an art contest
• SVA- School of VIsual arts, high school never gave him a lot of direction
• he was at first intimidated, but stuck through and was named best graphic design student
• advertising, not a fan, but he didn't know why.  Then he found graphic design, because it was art and not just business sketches.
• not just creating a concept
• all marker drawn.
• envelopes 

CBS TV

• typographic titles
• age 22 using all different services
• vendors were then catering to his needs. Lots of staff when working for a big company
• Movie ads, only a few hours to complete.
• training to work on your toes, work faster.

SHOWTIME

• literally the art department
• freedom and open to his ideas
• left after a short time, quit

FREELANCE WORK

• networking with other channels and old bosses
• took an office in mid town, with a person from showtime and a person from CBS

BROOKS CHAMPION INC.

• dont have 3 designers start a business, needed more diversity i.e. accounting or business
• computers were beginning to come into play
• Transition to the first macintosh 
• tutortials for his computer to learn how to use software.
• TV shows 

MOVES TO NJ

• Princeton NJ
• Allen Brooks Design
• different cliental 
• Transition to corporate, get in the middle so it looks different and not like ever other pharmaceutical annual report 
• Expand the business- partner who knows marketing and sales
• VERGE180
• every company is on the verge of something, failure, success, change. Help these people see the new marketing and advertising ideas.
• never to specialize in any area of design or any industry- because he never wanted to be pigeonholed.
• Branding Company
• What is a brand identity? Outward impression of the brand

register the brands and logos that we see everyday

When logos change.. the branding changes

CASE STUDY

• Tower Water Management
• new logo
• protects pipes and heating and cooling infrastructure through proper treatment of water
• Cut out management.. first
• every competitor uses blue
• Pipes and water make the best element
• not just the logo, give it an environment 
• 3- 6 logo designs

CREATIVE PROCESS

• Laborers 55
• green materials for old homes
• sketch 
• keep sketching because the ideas come out and just keep going. there is a lot of nothing but the more you work it out the better ideas can come
• look at references
• sketch more
• then hang on a wall and do further development
• you need a sense of where you want to go

DISCOVERY

• Do your research
• the project almost designs itself, so you learn what they like and what they dont want
• MESSAGE?
• BENEFITS?
• AUDIENCE?
• PERSONALITY?

McGraw- HIll Federal Credit Union

• Credit union, like a bank 
• financial services
• most ambitious of their logo

How do you build your cliental?

• word of moth or referrals, weekly networking group. events.
• cold calls- least effective 
• Linkedin- effective but tedious 

How to rework a logo without totally changing it, keep it new but referencing the old?

•  present it in a way that everyone is on the same page, then you expose it to the customers 
• nothing bad happened, its not that things are changed just an upgrade.