Morgan Henson’s Post

I have always been fascinated by solely Typographic media. It’s likely I that I lean more toward type-focused logos and projects because I’ve never been great at drawing my own pictures so MY projects are typographic. Personally, I think the most creative works are typographic based and I am always impressed by the simplicity and beauty of them. Here are a couple examples of my favorites.

I used this one in my sketchbook already, but the Upside Down Productions logo is beautiful! At first glance the words are perfectly decipherable, but at a closer look it the letters are ACTUALLY UPSIDE DOWN! I was amazed. Some, like the ‘s’ are just the letter flipped upside down, but some are actual letters, like the ‘u’ made of an ‘n’ or the ‘d’ made from a ‘p’. When flipped the correct way, the letters are actually ‘umop episdn.’

Another lovely example of a good typographic logo is the Time Timewatch logo. The ‘t’ is made to look like a number on a digital clock, while the ‘I’ creates the semicolon between the hours and minutes. It is effective because it is easily read while still conveying the message of time. So creative!

Kara Underwood’s Post

I am absolutely in love with this ad campaign for Dove's hair care products. They've picked these well-known women cartoon characters that almost everyone will recognize, and "styled" their hair in a new and fresh way. It caught my attention because 1st: I wanted to know why Wilma or Velma were on the poster 2nd: why their hair was different on the right side (I'm so used to seeing them with the original hair style that it kind of messes with me) and 3rd: they really pop out of the white backdrop, so that helps to catch my attention. The white backdrop is part of Dove's identity; they really like to keep designs, which makes sense because they are a hygiene products company. They also keep the text fairly short and clean. It gets right to the point and states enough to draw you into the product. Because they changed the hair styles so much of these cartoon characters with distinct styles, it makes women start to think that maybe these products could actually work for them too. I think its a brilliant and fun idea; hair styling your hair is suppose to be fun, so it definitely makes sense.

Campaigns

Campaigns & Advertising Series
When working on advertising campaigns or even within design for a business or company you have to create a sense of consistency but without having everything look exactly the same.

Starbucks is a great example of a company that does this well. In these two images you can see how Starbucks keeps all their design very consistent. From the bags to the cups and then the website it all has the same feel to it. It is clean and simple and everyone can tell very quickly that it is Starbucks.This sense of consistency carries over into designing for advertising as well. In a series of advertisements you want them all to have the same feel but not necessarily exact replicas of each other. I have included images of two different ad campaigns that I think do a great job creating consistency between the ads but also keeping them the same.

social concern #2

Social Concern;

One of the things I noticed when looking over social concern posters was that they often rely upon images and symbols that we recognize and are familiar with, they then twist those images to mean something else, to bring awareness. You want to cause the viewer to question what you have said, to make them think about it carefully and then be driven to action.

There are a number of ways one can go about bringing awareness to their cause. It can be through shock factor, humour, powerful photographs, or even through offending others (though this is not always the best approach, and must be thought through carefully).

Another this is that you must make sure that you really fully understand what you are representing, that means knowing more than the surface level and taking the time to figure out what the arguments for your concern are and also the arguments of those who may oppose what you are trying to bring awareness to. Further, it is also always important to have a clear idea of who your audience is, who are you trying to reach because that can greatly impact the design and style of your poster.

The posters I have chosen as examples this time use everyday objects and stuff we see all the time to bring awareness to bring about social concern. I really like the first poster which uses the baggage tag for luggage to remind us how human trafficking. The second one is an international advertisement for concerns over fast food and the negative impact it can have upon your health. And the final one against uses a piano without its black keys to grab our attention and bring awareness to the issue of racism.

Social Concern Posters

Social Concern Posters

One thing I noticed when looking at posters dealing with social concern is that they tend me be very simple and straight to the point. They also often use clever re-workings of things we see every day in order to grab the viewers attention. Below are some examples of great social awareness posters.

I find this poster to be extremely effective, it is done

for the Women's Aid Organization. When you first see these posters you simply see beautiful women's lips.

However, the first image is really fists, and hidden in the second image are images of men beating women. It is subtle but it clearly and effectively shows its meaning. Underneath the first poster is says "Lips aren't punching bads. Nor are other parts of the body. If you know someone who is suffering from violence or abuse. please call Women's Aid Organization at.....Speak Up. And silence those who speak with their fists. Underneath the second poster it says, "Silent lips mute the sound of beatings. And muzzle unspeakable pain. Give voice to victims or violence or abuse....Deep as the wounds may be, healing begins by being heard." The simple subtle messages in the imagery combined with the powerful words create a very strong social concern poster.

This second poster is another example of the subtle message that works really well as a social concern poster. Soccer player Loco Abreu is "kicking away racism" by wearing two shoes of different colors (he also played in a soccer game with these shoes) It is just a simple image but it received a lot of feedback from the press and had a huge impact.

As you think about social concern posters think about the context and the message that you are trying to bring across. It does not need to be an elaborate poster in order for you to get your idea across.

One final example for you to look at :) Have a great Monday :)

logo design

Logo Design;

Through designing logos I have learnt that the best logo is not always the most beautiful logo. It is the logo that represents the company/client and symbolizes what they are about. Below is an article I found about the process that went into designing the very memorable Nike logo.

The origin of the mark goes like this: Knight wanted to differentiate BRS's custom product from the ones they were importing from Onituska in Japan: "...so Knight turned to a graphic design student he met at Portland State University two years earlier." One day in 1969, the student, Carolyn Davidson, was approached by Knight and offered $2 per hour "to make charts and graphics" for his business. For the next two years Davidson managed the design work on BRS. "Then one day Phil asked me if I wanted to work on a shoe stripe," Davidson recalled. The only advice she received was to "Make the stripe supportive of the shoe." Davidson came up with half a dozen options.None of the options "captivated anyone" so it came down to "which was the least awful."

Well, the rest is history. And the Swoosh emerged from "the stripe" and is one of the most recognized logos in the world.

http://imprint.printmag.com/branding/swoosh-40-years-fly-by/

- I find it interesting that no one particularly liked the logo that Davidson came up with at first, but now the Nike swoosh is well known all over the world. While perhaps Davidson could have created a more "beautiful" logo, the logo she created was memorable, it worked. I enjoy looking at the pictures below and seeing how she played with the placement of the swoosh and with how many swooshes there were. In logo design it can be helpful once you have the general design you want, to play around with it, its positioning, ect. because that can help you come up with something even better. Input from others can also help a lot!

(if you go to the website you can see the images in a larger size)

Typographic Syntax;

the process of arranging elements into a cohesive whole. The point of typographic syntax is to not rely upon illustration in order to give meaning to the word. Rather, it is bringing meaning across through the arrangement of the elements, the type.

The two logos below are excellent examples of typographic syntax. The arrangement of elements (letters) or lack of letters, helps further the meaning of the word without the use of illustration. Both of these examples show the type of stuff you should be doing for class.

In the first example, blank space the lack of the a in blank and space create an empty space,

thus bringing visual representation to the word without using illustration. Simply just leaving the letter out works great.

The second example, minus takes the I from minus removes it and flips it on its side to create a minus symbol. This combined with the the empty space that is now left from where the I was also helps enhance the meaning of the word.

An important thing to remember, which I mentioned previously, is to not use illustration to bring about further meaning. You should rely on changing the arrangement of the letters to help enhance the meaning of the word, not using illustrations.