Personal Branding

I have been meaning to redo my branding for a while so I think this summer is the perfect opportunity for me to do this. I really don't want to get out of practice especially with the software and so far I have not had a lot of time to spend with my computer! I have spent some time looking at new fonts - I particularly like this one, "Masana". I like the freestyle element to it, but also the control and the composition of the letters. The size difference between upper and lower case is quite dramatic, but I think this contrast works well creating an interesting composition. I have chosen to base my new self branding on this type face as I feel that the style and aesthetic suits my design personality. My work and usual choice of subject matter is mainly playful and decorative, like this typeface. 

I did some sketches to kind of redesign the letters roughly in the way that I wanted them :

<images of sketches>

I then used these and the original font to start vector drawing my redesigned version.

I actually did a lot of it free hand rather than tracing through the layers.

This dot below the "o" is an alteration that I came up with. I think that raising the "o" creates a more interesting composition, and the dot adds some decoration to the negative space.

I decided to play around with a variety of different shapes.....

With dots :

With dot and triangle :

With triangles :

With crowns :

Further experimentation :

I'm happy with the progress so far but its not quite there. Obviously colour choices will need to be explored. I am currently developing my website designs and having this branding a little bit more complete will help me with the website aesthetic and layout decisions.