Axiom One is a value-based cushion, providing an affordable option for wheelchair users. At the time of the project, Axiom was already a well established brand in wheelchair seating. We felt that it was important for Axiom One's brochure to fit seamlessly into the existing family of products.
The team provided the logo, written copy, and photography. My primary role was to design the layout.
With the creative brief in hand, I began reviewing the web pages and brochures for other Axiom products. I wanted to get a feel for Axiom's branding. While no two brochures were exactly alike, they had some strong commonalities, like the black and white color scheme, thin, straight lines, drop shadows, and prominent use of hexagons. I took careful notes of white space, specific hex codes, and fonts used.
Next, I sketched out several ideas using the Crazy Eights exercise - I folded a piece of paper into 8 equal sections, made a list of all the necessary elements, and limited myself to a few minutes per sketch. I then marked the elements that I liked best and combined them into new sketches made from the most successful pieces.
At this point I had two ideas I was interested in further exploring. The creative brief had already lined out that the cover page would be very similar to an existing brochure's cover, so I poured my focus into the back page.
I jumped into InDesign and created the two concepts. Happily, another designer on the team had already finished the Axiom One logo and gotten it approved, so I was able to incorporate it right away. I used an early version of the copy and borrowed photography from Axiom's other products to use as stand ins. This process in particular helped solidify our shot list for the photographer later.
I presented the two concepts to the Marketing Manager, Product Manager, and Director of Marketing. I received positive remarks for both concepts. One had a more "traditional" layout with obvious hierarchy. They appreciated how easy it was to read. The other made heavier use of Axiom's hexagon shape - they interlocked into a more dynamic pattern. Ultimately the team chose the design that they felt was more visually interesting and requested some minimal edits regarding the QR code size and placement.
The next steps were to take photography, obtain the QR code, and finalize the copy. This phase was largely the responsibility of other members of the team, and I'm grateful for their excellent input and ideas.
From their hard work, I was able to jump into Photoshop to create the composite shots and then incorporate everything into the final design.
If I could go back, I would like to tweak how I used the interlocking hexagons to allow for more white space. When generating the Spanish-language version of the brochure, I found that the frames I had created were quite tight for the translated text. It may have been better not to hem in the text in this fashion at all, and instead frame the images only.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my role in the Axiom One brochure!
