Science lab ‘Ontwerp je eigen logo’
Pre-University 2022
This project was an education development project, that I did while working at Pre-U. The department Pre-U junior organizes educational events for primary school children. For children of ages 10 to 12, they have these Sciencelabs. A Sciencelab is an event that lasts for a whole afternoon. The children come to a lab at the university. In this lab, the afternoon is spent on a topic fitting to that lab. I was tasked with developing a Sciencelab about logos that would take place in the DesignLab. As the events take place in the Netherlands, they are held in Dutch. Therefore, the shown material of the created Sciencelab will also be in Dutch.
The idea behind this lesson is that the children would learn about logos and then create a logo of their own, one that represents themselves. To add a cool feature, we wanted to include a laser cutter and have their created logos cut out by the laser. For logistics, the lesson could only be 2 hours long, had to include a break, and had to make use of the GRIMM model.
In the end, I created a lesson plan that consisted of four phases.
First, the students would explore the subject of logos. To introduce them to the topic they would be made aware of the existence of logos and their recognizability. To do this, a handout was created on which they needed to match a logo (or part of a logo) to a brand.
Hand out no. 1
Now that the students are introduced to the topic and hopefully their curiosity is awakened, there will be a very short lesson on logos. This lesson covers what a brand is, the birth of brands, what a logo is, the connection between brand and logo, the existence of trademark laws, the use of logos, and other advertisement elements that brands use besides logos.
The students have just learned that a logo belongs to a brand, thus here we explain what a brand is.
What is a brand?
Now that the students know what brands are, it is nice to teach them about the origin of brands and why they were created.
The origin of brands
As a logo belongs to a brand, we want it to be unique to not confuse brands. We teach them here that there were laws created to make sure that logos are unique and stay up to date.
Uniqueness of logos
The students are now aware of what a logo is and that it is connected to brands, products, and companies. However, here we teach them how these logos are actually used to make you aware of brands and to sell products.
How do we use logos?
A logo is a visually recognizable aspect of a brand, but many companies use many more methods to be recognizable. Here we teach them that jingles and slogans are also commonly used methods of making a brand recognizable.
Beside logos
The overall aim of this Sciencelab is to show that a logo is an extension of a brand and that it is part of the brand identity. To introduce this difficult topic to the students, we want them to discover that certain logos evoke certain associations. The way a logo looks influences what we think the brand is like. To aid in this, a second handout was created. On this handout, the students were asked to link (hopefully to them unknown) logos with products, words, and people. The aim of this handout is to start a small discussion about why they chose the answers they did.
Hand out no. 2
Now that the students have a better understanding of logos, it is time for them to create their own. However, as it can be quite scary and difficult to create a personal logo, a third handout was created. On this handout students were asked questions about themselves, to get keywords about themselves. Then with these keywords in mind, they were asked to choose a shape and a font. This would be the base of their logo.
Hand out no. 3
During the break, these answers would be put into an illustrator file and sent to the laser cutter.
After the break, the students would get the chance to design their logo further. They would get the chance to elaborate on their chosen logo base and ideate on colors, etc. During this, they would get the chance to look at the laser cutter in action. In the end, they would be able to take their created logos home.
The first run of this created Sciencelab was held on November 16, 2022. As can be expected, the Sciencelab did not run fully as expected and planned. Putting the chosen logo base in the illustrator file and cutting them with the laser cutter took way longer than expected. In the end, the students got to take their cut logo home, but they were not able to decorate it. However, with some slight adjustments, this could be remedied.
