Studio Brief 2 Interim Crit

Although at this stage I have a few sketches and a good idea of what I imagine Bashful to be embodied as, it is crucial to get others opinions, especially with my word as many have never even heard of it! It's most famous link is to the dwarf character named after it in Snow White for his adorable blushing and shyness. This links it to a more childlike, genuine and innocent aspect.

Definitions I got from people included:modest, insecure, self doubting and afraid.
I believe afraid may be too strong of a word as that would be more shy than bashful, bashful can be bold in its own delicate way but curls in when any attention or compliments are given.

Also discussing with the group their words was inspirational to me as I had more ideas than I had thought on each adjective to help them.

An aspect I hadn't delved in to yet was the research of each individual typeface option and it was helpful to see them all put in to context and what they would be used for/associated with.

I was very proud to have gotten very positive feedback on the manifesto of our given font to research- 'Baskerville' as I summarised it in the way I always do, in a straight to the point way with all the key points. This has reassured me my summaries are probably at a good enough level.

What I found especially interesting about John Baskerville the creator, is that he was illiterate! He was a printer who had solely focused on each letters form and embellishments opposed to how it worded well, which did work perfectly as the craft of each letter was so perfect.

Summary of Baskerville

Key Points

Garamond

Caslon

Univers

Clarendon

Times New Roman

Bodoni

Helvetica

Definitions of Bashful from feedback

These are all extremely helpful in me picking the best suited font and for future references.

Worst Colour

My most hated colour is the royal blue swatch in the centre, which apparently is a growing trend colour used by many designers in various shades. For a children's book, to lighten the colour out and to consider a gentler combination/gender mix for young audience, the soft pink works to highlight against the very dark black and blue.

Agatha Christie Competition- 'Hickory Dickory Dock'

This is my final design for our study task, in which we were given the book title by random. Before I even began I knew I wanted to do the title up and down as it is from a nursery rhyme and is a fun and playful title, but the red and shadows contrast this and show its sinister themes of murder and mystery.

After google image searching its previous covers, many had some red to represent the danger and death theme which arises in Christie's novels. Also, I noticed a lot of this muted yellow shade which I colour copied, and I think this is due to it's contrast against a lot of the red used which is readable in a not too brash way.

To make it look like a book rather than just a poster, adding the top part and using its original tagline for crime club, it keeps it looking classic. This is also why I chose such typefaces- all very easy to read, with a very classic old book/movie poster look to them. It withholds the fact her novels are classic reads.

For 'Dickory' i had used berbel serif regular, which has a retro twist to it and looked good as added variation but overall it was too thin of a typeface in comparison to these bold other ones.

The shadow idea came after I had arranged the title to be all black- I know the typefaces were working great, and I had separately kerned each one, but small detail was missing. Therefore, adding the shadows can further highlight the contrast between the innocent nursery rhyme and its sinister themes within the novel, Poirot trying to figure out what has been lurking in the shadows of mystery. I liked the changeover of colour, but then when it came to adding shadows to dock i felt like it didn't need them as it is in a much larger size and it was well composed as it was. The shadows I think really set this, and the design is justifiable. I don't think a novel with a title such as this needs any imagery, as the play on words in its layout and the amount of words is enough.

COLOUR SWATCHES

This task really showed me how much thought is put in to colour, rather than just picking one out on Photoshop which fits, which I have only done up until now! These colour swatches are very specific, and as we were picking for each theme we often got stuck between two very similar shades.

I was slightly baffled by the difference between CMYK and RGB modes which I had never even thought of before. I think this has had an effect on the outcomes of the colours we chose, as a few of the shades look a lot darker than what I thought we had picked but at this stage, still being confused, I am just going to note this as something I need to adjust in future, so I did learn something!

Analytical Interim of Boots Rebranding

It is now a good stage now that we have had feedback on our ideas and I have a clear direction I am going in for the rebrand.

Both my ideas were more on making the Boots logo look more of what it actually is, generally in it's more gifts and beauty side, as their advertising is mainly feminine and celebrates this aspect of it's reputation, and its tagline being: 'Lets Feel Good'.

A reason I chose Boots is because it is a place I go in to very often as do my family and friends, and as soon as you walk in you are greeted by very well dressed make up counter women, and you can smell the perfume and it is a place you walk in to treat yourself. I am aware the pharmacy and opticians are for a wider target audience not just aimed at women/people who like to keep well groomed- this is why I have decided to not make the type a different colour. I am keeping with the white against a dark background to keep it similar to the current logo, but I want to give it a fresh new look as the current one doesn't make much sense. It is a well know brand that is recognisable but I want to do something new with it.

To go with the feel good aspect, the type of font I want to work with is a sans serif font with circle cut outs in the middle that resemble light bulbs/lit up mirrors that would be seen at makeup counters/shows, and I want it to look welcoming to people on the high street. I am very wary, as were my critique group, of not wanting it to become tacky, as it is one of the most respected brands on the high street in its sector, if not number one. It has very loyal older customers such as my grandma, and I wouldn't want it to become tacky and put people off. It will be a challenge, but I will try out every font I find in it's style to make it look best as it can and try kerning in 5 ways. So far, I have found the 3 similar fonts: Adam Gorry, Cheerful Party and Budmo. I will continue to search for more, but so far Adam Gorry is working most as the circles aren't too large; although, I'm wary of it looking like horse shoes. Budmo has larger circles and spaces nicely but the 'B's negative space is a crescent which doesn't look correct but due to the circles within the letter it'd be hard to edit but I will try. Cheerful party overall looks too narrow in its design, even when spaced out. There are many others I'm finding but with stars instead of circles, which would make it look like a children's party shop which I'd certainly avoid! Also ones with the light bulb effect around the text, which would give it the oval frame in a different design but the font is too retro looking and it'd look like a barbers.

I am pretty set on the white against a dark shade of purple, whichever shade that may be! Rather than making different versions linking to different departments like I had mocked up and showed to my critique groups, it overcomplicated things and indeed looked a little tacky. I will just keep this as a concept to push the idea, but I am going to keep everything simple and focus on the typeface and its kerning.

It is definitely going to be in capitals as I want it to have that wow factor and may stand out more than the current hand rendered logo. I considered hand rendering, however I am cautious of my own drawing of the typeface not looking solid and professional enough so I am going to stick to basics; however, my final branding will be different and stand out thats for sure. I am so keen to highlight its warm, friendly, approachable, feel good atmosphere that it is celebrated for.

Another point to consider is- Do i keep it italic? Keep the oval? I will experiment with this and see if it works, but as I am not keeping the outer wrapping detail it may not look balanced enough, but it is something I certainly need to consider as it is know for being a detailed unique brand. Also very important to remember is it's transferability, which I don't think will be too much of an issue as I am keeping it quite simple.

If we were to start again, I would have taken this route, or due to the respectable name of the brand and it's surname I would have gone for a vintage font such as the 'Mendl's' typeface in Grand Budapest Hotel, rather than being quite out there and considering lit up wire fonts already. However, I think that would be the very safe option so I am glad I am opting for a very modern rebranding.

Studio Practice Workshop

Morning- a reminder to describe our aims, thorough research (which I have overlooked I have to admit), documenting feedback, just a few things I believe I already have done in my blogging but we forget how crucial and important it is for grading and there has to be an even balance of all. Also, having a list of very professional words is good if I am struggling to describe something, although I don't often find this an issue. It was cool to see what blogs people looked at as I only really look on Instagram, Tumblr and Dazed digital which I see as some sort of holy grail of all quirky art subjects across all the spectrums.

Afternoon- We were asked to think about the Whitney rebrand and how it works and the first thing that stood out to me on the ad was watching how the w forms, which obviously represents the 'w' for Whitney but is geometric and kind of looks like it is hopping/bouncing across the page which could represent the abstract shape of the building itself.

Also on the website it explains it's designs and shows a range of how it adapts for each exhibition- it is good that it is so simple and has the continuity throughout the building.

It can also be quite ambiguous: could represent the new building, the 'W' in different forms in an adaptable way which are either symmetrical or elongated to fit the name of an exhibition, a zigzag for it's 'ever-changing' nature and complete new rebranding and building, to be more contemporary and modern in its character and for new audiences. I haven't seen a branding such as this before so it would be well recognised, and its simple black and white theme with very clear typeface is keeping it basic but doing the contemporary very simplified, sans-serif style I see a lot of with people in our younger graphic design age.

Its structure is very thin but due to negative space being so large, it is still a recognisable shape to the average consumer from far away, and the bold text can be seen from further away. The shape itself also could be seen as a plinth for the work displayed in the museum?

In conclusion, we agree that it does quite have a lot of thought and depth to its design as shown in all these points, but despite its ambiguity to use as graphic designers, to the average consumer they will see it as a very contemporary complete rebrand that represents the ideal the museum want to portray and even though it is very basic due to its boldness in negative space just as its typeface, it works as a whole.

'Kerndown' and Intro to Kerning

1st- Very close together, makes an impactful brand, would work on as a big bold nightclub sign even if the sign is short for a basement club.
2nd-  More spread out kerning considered for coffee cup holders/advertisements/sign is usually wider for the whole establishment. Also, still looks very funky due to capital/non capital mix so would be a hipster like coffee shop. Removal of the dot above the 'i' makes it more of consistent level for wider range of audience.

3rd- I wanted to play about with the level of the letters and it looks as if its all balancing on eachother, quite confused and is less commercial to do, which I thought could represent teenager style phases and confusion, and think this would look great on a clothing label as they are usually quite long anyway.

Our final 3- all very different, just by kerning!
Club/Hipster Coffee House/Teen Clothing Brand
I knew we were going to have a workshop/game on kerning when I came in on Monday but I just thought it seemed like a pretty simple/easy concept, was there much we could go in to depth with? Until this though I didn't realise how much it can really change the whole look of type!

 The game went really well, words picked at random by me the team leader worked out by adjusting letters as 'Wire', which is actually a pretty good club in Leeds. The letters weren't originally working but I decided by flipping the a and making it in to an 'e', and having a mix of capital/non capital made the word look unique and already have a quite contemporary funky look to it.

The second part was a lot harder when we had less time to make the text look like, for example, a Tarantino film title, but it was a game and really showed me kerning is indeed simple, but very effective. Now I want to crack on learning more about InDesign, as we can do metric/optic/manual kerning more accurately.