10.8.2020
One thing that I'm having a hard time with right now is colors. Colors are a very strong tool because it can change the way you feel and the way you understand the image in front of you. Right now, I am trying to decide on a base color palette for Simplex Minds. This palette would be used for future assets. Whether that's for motion graphics on a potential Youtube channel or even a Simplex Minds Magazine. Uniformity across platforms is what helps create a strong brand. The last thing you want to do is confuse your audience.
This takes me into my journey with colors. I have an absolutely hard time picking colors and knowing what colors truly work with each other. I have never taken an art class. I was a film major. So I think it's time to take the time to understand basic color theory.
(My attempt to) Understanding the Complex
Let's start with the very basics. There are 3 main components to a color.
First we have hue, which is the name of the color (red, green, blue, etc.)
Second we have saturation, which is the intensity of the color. The more saturated the color is, the more of the hue you have. The less saturated it is, the less of the hue you have.
Third we have Value or Lightness, which is the brightness of the color. Value is then broken down further into two categories, tint and shade. Tint means it's a brighter version of the hue or mixed with white. While shade means it's a darker version of the hue or mixed with black.
(I don't know how this helps me with picking a color palette, but at least I have a better understanding of colors and can communicate to artists and graphic designers in the future about colors without sounding stupid lol.)
Now we go into color theory and color schemes:
(Here's a good resource that I came across on basic color schemes)
The main types of color schemes are monochrome, analogous, complimentary, and triadic. Monochrome is a color scheme based on a singular hue with differences in only the saturation and value. An analogous color scheme use colors that neighbor each other in the color wheel. A complimentary color scheme is a color scheme that uses colors that are opposite of each other on the color wheel. And lastly, a triadic color scheme uses 3 colors that are evenly space on the color wheel; creating an equilateral triangle.
What color scheme would work the best for Simplex Minds?
Some kind of complimentary color scheme feels right for Simplex Minds. Simplex at its core is two opposing words that symbiotically work together. Two opposing colors that naturally compliment each other definitely works for Simplex.
What colors should I be looking into?
Each and every color triggers an innate sense of emotion. Whether you recognize that or not, it doesn't matter. Even if you don't want to admit it, colors do affect most people. Each color has a subconscious meaning that we are all conditioned to feel. So here's some colors and the meanings behind them.
Red - passion, danger, fire, aggressive
Orange - fun, optimistic, spontaneous
Yellow - happy, energetic, friendly, caution
Black - seriousness, boldness, power, death
Green - nature, health, medicine, fresh, reliable
Blue - confident, calming, wise, trustful
Purple - wealth, ambition, youth, creative
White - purity, truth, contemporary
Right off the bat, we can at least eliminate green. The colors that I am leaning towards are Blue, Purple, Yellow, Black, and White.
Blue for the sense of confidence, trust, and stability. I want Simplex Minds to be a trustworthy platform for young adults to confidently go to to learn more about their role models that are making the complex look simple.
Purple for the ambition, youth, and creativity. All three of which I feel is deep rooted in the simplex way of life.
Yellow for the friendliness and positive vibes that comes with it.
Black for the boldness, seriousness, and strength.
White for truthfulness and contemporary feel.
I feel like black and white are a given on any sort of branding color palette. You just aren't going to use black and white when it comes to anything text related. That leaves us with Blue, Purple, and Yellow.
I want blue to represent Simplex and be the main color associated with the brand. Purple will represent the "complex" portion and yellow will represent the "simple" portion.
Now it's just time to figure out the specific hue, saturation, and values of each.
4.3.2021
It's time to get back to this, nearly half a year later lol.
Imma be honest, the colors kicked my ass. Nothing felt right. Was I thinking too much on it? Was I considering too much?
I couldn't find a blue that felt strong but also welcoming. Then try and combine that with a color combo of Purple and Yellow was just too much and just not good. I was definitely trying too hard 6 months ago lmaoo.
In the current state Simplex Minds is in right now, it doesn't need color. Maybe a core color but it definitely doesn't need an expanded palette.
We are currently in the middle of planning. Creating a blueprint to follow. The foundation is about to be poured. With a very abstract vision for the base and loose parameters.
The colors are still to be decided. The look of everything is still to be decided. We will probably get back around to the color identity of Simplex Minds in a year or two once we are more established and have a clearer outlook on everything.
Nothing is set in stone yet. I don't want to lock in a color and have the brand grow and outgrow the color and have to go through a "rebrand" early on. We'll see where we grow and what color best fits our identity. We'll keep it simple with black and white right now. We don't need have everything set right now. This is a journey.
Core Color ETA ~ 2022-2023
April 1, 2021.
This is now a very important date to me.
We have a team now.
It's not just me on this project anymore.
feels kinda wild.
I finally said fuck it and reached out to the people I've been wanting to add to the project.
I'mma be honest, reaching out to people on an idea you've been nurturing is tough. You don't know how they'll react. You don't know whether they think it's a good idea or not. You really just expose yourself and hope that it's not laughed at.
In the past couple of weeks I reached out to a few friends. Very talented friends. And I put myself out there. Hoping they would be down for the idea. I didn't know if they would say yes. I didn't know exactly what their reaction would be. But I did know they would add great perspectives.
A few text messages sent.
A few meetings set up.
A couple hour long pitches.
And one group orientation later and we have a team.
The great thing is that they are down for the idea of this project and what it stands for. One thing I didn't really want, was for them to be involved simply because of our friendship and/or they wanted to do me a solid. I really just wanted them to see value in the project for themselves.
I understand and appreciate the sentiment if they would just want to help me out, but it just wouldn't feel right for this project. I want the people involved with this project to want to be a part of this project because of what it aims for and what it could be.
I really just want this project to have soul in it. I want this project to feel like you're listening in on our thoughts. I want you to be able to see our different personalities in this. I want you to feel like you're along the ride with us.
People who would do this project as a solid wouldn't be able to do that. Their purpose would be to just help provide me with content and that's it. I mean that would be cool and all, but it would feel a little empty. If there's no soul to it, why wouldn't I just read a textbook or watch a tutorial on how it was done?
I've always viewed longevity through authenticity with this project. We are all young creatives in different fields trying to step our game up and make it. We don't know where we will end up. We don't know what kind of work we will be making in the future. But this whole thing we're going through right now, is our journey. Why be fake with it? Why not try something new? Why not geek out?
There's so much value in being authentic with your journey. You can watch so many interviews from people who've made it.
Do you know their true journey?
kinda...
Are you able to jump into their thought process when they were in your shoes?
not really...
Would you like to?
I'm not saying we'll be these huge figures for whatever we do in the future.
Is there a chance? Perhaps.
But, what if one of us does make it big?
Well then you get to listen to a younger version of ourself trying to figure it out. Not some callback story reminiscing on the events, but our actual thoughts at the moment it's happening.
We aren't necessarily where we want to be right now, but we'll get there.
Now I will say that I am not forcing this upon my team members. I am giving them the platform to share what they want, they are allowed to share whatever they are comfortable with, but it's not a requirement.
I will at least let y'all know my thought processes through the different choices I make and the different things I'm trying to understand. It's tough to be fully transparent on different things you're going through. To be honest, I haven't even told my parents and those close to me what I am doing. But, I find value in sharing this with whoever wants to read this stuff.
This is really a personal public journal for me to be able to go back to, read in the future, and gain perspective. I know I will make it somewhere, somehow. I want future Troy to remember where I was at and be proud of my growth.
Hopefully over time, the others will allow y'all into their journey as well. Just don't put those expectations on them, opening up takes time and everyone goes at different paces. Like I said, it's tough to be transparent.
For now, you'll just be able to read my thoughts.
What they will do tho is provide their personal insight on artists/creatives they look up to. They'll go into why they think that artist's work stands out. They'll do their best to explain it to you so hopefully you can take away some new knowledge. They have some great perspectives and it's going to be interesting to see the artists they decide to write about.
It's crazy to think that there's a team around this concept now. A team willing to do this on their free time. They really could be doing anything else in the world, but they decided that they wanted to join me on this portion of my journey.
You really don't know who's out there that's willing to help you out. You don't know how many people are out there that is willing to listen to your idea. You don't know how many people are willing to support your idea. You just have to put yourself out there.
I don't know how many people we will reach. I don't know whether or not we will be successful in building a community. I have no clue where this project can take us, but I know we will grow. We will allow ourselves grow.
If nothing comes of this project from an outsiders perspective, that's okay. At least I'm finally taking these steps to execute on something that has always been some far out dream.
April 1st, a date synonymous with the fake is now associated with turning an idea into a realistic, tangible goal. Unreal.
At the time of writing this, it is March 19, 2021. Momentum is beginning to build a bit for this project.
A little less than a week ago, I caught up with my old roommates that I've spent half a decade with. We reconnected on Zoom, catching up and enjoying this time we had each other. In the past year we have only been able to physically see each other once and that was months ago. On the zoom call, we decided to play some drinking games, relax, and just get back to what felt somewhat normal.
Since we are all physically distant and don't have the ability to talk to each other like the old days, everyone has to eventually answer the universal question.
"What is going on with you?"
If you've read my other posts, you realize the anxiety this question gives simply because I answer back with more question marks.
"Well I'm trying to..."
"I have this project I want to..."
A lot of ideas. A lot of hopes. A lot of dreams. Not a lot of results.
But recently, these ideas and hopes have been feeling more and more feasible.
The thing with Simplex Minds is that I have to be more open with it, if I want it to be anywhere close to what I envision it.
So, I began to talk about my vision with Simplex Minds. (The liquid courage did help a bit lol.) I talked about how I envision this platform. How I want this platform to be a place where people can go to to humanize the hardships in their life. How I want to use this platform to build up and promote artists. How I want to be able to fund projects and give artists full creative freedom.
It got late and a lot of my ex-roommates had to tune out and head to bed, except my friend Joseph. We've known each other our whole college careers. We actually met at orientation and little did we know that our extra curricular life would mirror each other and become lifelong friends.
He showed interest into my project and ideas. He decided that he wanted to help with this project.
Wasn't expecting that.
Now that I have someone that actually wants to help collaborate and push this vision I've been having these past months, I really have to begin to push myself too. Before I was just on my own schedule. Able to go as fast or as slow as I wanted. Having the comfort of always planning and not actually putting myself and this idea I hold so close to heart out there.
This is actually kind of intimidating...
It's time to step up and truly build a strong base that we can grow with. It's time to put myself and Simplex Minds out there. Put it out there for critique. Put it out there for judgement. Put it out there and be vulnerable.
The beautiful thing about Simplex Minds is that it at it's core is supposed to be transparent.
In so many different situations I would want to read about what was going on through different founder's minds in the infancy of their brands and companies. I would want to transported into their thought processes, to their conversations, to their obstacles that they had to succumb to or overcome. I would want to know how they were dealing with the unknown. Not knowing whether or not they were going to succeed.
So let's be transparent. Now I need to work on the core values, purpose, and mission statement of Simplex Minds. The soul of the company.
Sorry it took a while to get to this section of the post, but I felt like it'd be a disservice to exclude context.
The goal right now is to take all of the ideas and thoughts that I've had with Simplex Minds into something clear, to the point, and easily digestible. If I can't understand those ideals myself, how am I going to be able to try and get other people to understand themselves. How can we work towards something together if there is no direction.
Thus begins the "Simplify the complex" portion of this project.
What do I envision for this platform?
I want this to be a place where creatives can humanize their struggles and understand that things take time. I want it to be a place where we can promote and learn from creatives/artists that are creating at that next level. I want it to be a place where everyone is pushing each other to get better and that it is okay to mess up from time to time. I want to be able to invest into creatives and allow them to develop their individual styles and give them the creative freedom to do what they want.
Draft 1:
Core values:
- Process orientated
- Invest, develop, and promote the creativity in people
- Community based
- Transparent
Purpose:
The purpose of Simplex Minds is to invest and develop the creativity of different people while promoting a behind the scenes perspective to humanize the hurdles we go through as human beings.
Vision Statement:
To promote the ups and downs that comes with life and career choices through an inclusive media platform. To normalize the journey a person takes when moving towards where they want to be. To help lift up the community and push creativity as a whole.
Are these all accurate in the technical sense? I have no clue hahah. From the research I have done, it feels like these describe these terms. But in reality, I could be putting these terms and descriptions in the wrong places. I'm a broke 25 year old with no one guiding me. Give me some slack.
BUT
Those statements above is what I believe is the soul and core of Simplex Minds. When I tell people what this platform is, that is what I am going to tell them. When I tell them what I envision Simplex Minds to do, it will be some variation of the purpose and vision statement above.
This is the beginning of the base that I want to build. The beginnings of taking this project from concept to a tangible product.
There are many more ideas and goals to get to. It's time to build the team a bit. I can't do this on my own.