OUGD403: Studio brief 2 - Typeface Design (Initial Research & Critique)

For our second brief within this module, we have to design our own typeface based upon one of Müeller-Brockmanns classic and lead typefaces. This has to effectively communicate our given adjective, my adjective being Nervous.

The 9 typefaces we have to choose from are Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville, Bodoni, Clarendon, Berthold (Akzidenz-Grotesk), Times, Helvetica and Univers.

Garamond (1530)

Comparison between hand rendered 'G' & digital 12px 'G'

Garamond is a group of old style serif typefaces that was used predominantly for body text and books due to it's ease of reading when it comes to large bodies of texts. This is due to the style of it which is very similar to handwriting with the contrasting widths of the strokes of the letterforms. But it does have it's drawbacks as it's not very good when it comes to being used for digital applications, this is due to it's small x-height and thin strokes of the letterforms.

Caslon (1725)
Caslon is a group of old-style serif font created by William Caslon. The fonts are clean, clear and easy to read and is characterised by it's short ascenders and descenders. Along with that the italic font has a rhythmic calligraphic stroke and has high contrasting strokes, very much like Garamond.

Baskerville (1757)
Baskerville is a traditional serif typefaces which is considered a further refinement of 'Old Style' typefaces such as Caslon, hence why it is under the category of a 'Traditional' typeface. The font has an increased contrast between thick and thin strokes and also the serifs of the letterforms are sharper and more tapered than typical serif fonts of that time. The font was considered to be very popular within book design.

Bodoni (Late 1700's)
Bodoni is considered a didone style serif typeface which has overall has a very geometric construction to it. Unlike typical serif fonts, Bodoni has unbracketed serifs which makes it somewhat unique in comparison to previous serif fonts such as Baskerville, Caslon and Garamond. The typeface has an extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes which can be a struggle to read on screen, which is why it's not an overly popular choice when it comes to digital applications.

Clarendon (1845)
Clarendon is a slab serif typeface which makes it unique compared to the stereotypical serif typefaces, the reason it's considered a slab serif is due to it's thick, block like serifs. Similar to Rockwell Typeface it's mainly associated with American Old West wanted posters who's style was very popular during the 19th century. The typeface was mainly used for headings and originally had no lowercase because of this.

Berthold (Akzidenz-Grotesk) (1896)
As the name would suggest, this is a grotesque sans serif typeface which is used massively for commercial use, which was released by the Berthold Type Foundry. Its use of an oblique style rather than a true italic was extremely influential during it's time. The typeface has a very folded-up appearance due to it's narrow apertures and strokes curled up to the vertical.

Times (1931)
Times is a transitional serif typeface which was commissioned by 'The Times' newspaper in 1931. This font was used in mass-market paperbacks in the US and is considered to be one of the most widely used typefaces in history. This is due to it's strong and resolute letterforms and also it's varied rythem between thick strokes and fine hairlines.

Helvetica (1957)
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque sans serif typeface which is considered one of, if not, the most popular typeface within the 20th century and potentially the 21st century. The termination of the strokes on on both horizontal and vertical lines and unusually tight letter-spacing give it a compact look.

Univers (1957)
Much like Helvetica, Univers is also a neo-grotesque sans serif typeface which is commonly used due to it's wide range of font weights and widths. The typeface is also very popular within swiss style graphic design. Some distinct features of the font include squaring of round strokes and more stroke modulation than fonts such as Helvetica.

My first thoughts when I was given the word nervous was that the font to base my 
typeface design from would have to be a sans serif font, simply because of I think of nervous as being frail/ skinny and very shy. I feel that a serif font wouldn't be entirely appropriate for this because of how the serifs on the letterforms tend to give them a slightly more robust looking, contradicting this idea of the typeface being 'nervous'.

To get more of an understanding of the word nervous I looked into synonyms and relevant words to it, in the hope that this would help to develop a further idea of how to portray my adjective as a typeface.

I also took a brief look into situations where people may feel nervous with the intentions of possibly using one of these situations to base my typeface on or in the least take inspiration from. These situations include:

• Making conversation
• Particular topics of conversation
• Approaching people to start a conversation
• Mingling
• Meeting new people
• Parties/Bars/Clubs
• Revealing personal information about yourself

The one thing that these all have in common is that in most cases being nervous is down to the situation involving other people whether you may know them well or not. This is one thing I want to get across within my font, to make it appear as though the outside world, whether that be people or the environment itself is affecting the way the typefaces appears, in the same way that this would affect how a person appears/acts.

During the first interim critique for this studio brief, I discussed with the group what my rough ideas are and where I aim to go with them. I got feedback from the group in the form of possible ideas of what to look into and what styles I could potentially go for with my typeface.

These included having a font that appears as if it's shaking to represent a nervous person. Also another idea was to have a scribble typeface to represent how a person in an exam, or something of the sort, would be nervous when running out of time. One thing someone within the group suggested to look into was nervous situations and how people act within them and then maybe to represent this within each letterform.

OUGD404: Study Task 2 - Colour Relativity

"There are no ugly colours; there are only ugly colours in combination."

After having a lecture on colour relativity we had to use the colour we chose as our worst colour in conjunction with black and another colour that thought would work well together.

The colour I considered the worst is pink, simply because in it's regular shade it appears too bright and not at all appealing. But we didn't have to stick strictly to the most common shade of the colour, instead we could choose a tone or hue of that colour that we liked using the Pantone reference guides.

Three Chosen Colours W/ RGB Values

As the shade of pink that I chose was relatively dull and the fact that we had to use black, I thought that a dark shade of another colour would work, that colour being green since it's one of my more favoured colours.

The idea behind this was that it would have to work as a children's book cover, hence why, aside from the black, I chose very soft colours since it wouldn't seem appropriate to have dark, deep colours for a child's book.

OUGD403: Study Task 3 - Drawing the Detectives

Task:

"Using your developing understanding of colour theory and typographic design/usage produce a graphic reinterpretation of your given Agatha Christie novel as part of the Guardian's celebration of what would have been the author's 125th birthday."

The book title I was given was 'Murder In Mesopotamia' a crime/mystery novel about a nurse who has to solve on going murders.

After having read briefly through an overview of the book I took note of several killing methods using within the novel. One of those being hydrochloric acid being poured into someones drinking water and another was a heavy stone quern being dropped from a roof top onto someone, bludgeoning them. I wanted these two key points of the novel to be portrayed within the book cover.

Initial Brief Sketches

Initial Idea

I wanted the word murder to stand out and to do this I thought of using just outlines for the letterforms, in the same way that a body outline at a crime scene would be done. But at the same time wanted the 'U' & the 'R' to take form of a glass beaker and a glass of water to represent the hydrochloric acid being poured into water.

One comment that was made about my poster at this point, by a friend, was that the Agatha Christie text seemed to big and overdone so I shrunk this down to a legible size to allow for the title of the book to be the prominent type within the book cover.

More Developed Idea

I needed a way to tie together the word Mesopotamia because it felt too overshadowed when used as a full word. So instead I split it up but used the idea of the rope wrapped around the heavy stone quern to tied the two parts together, whilst retaining one of the killing methods within the book cover.

Final Book Cover

OUGD403: Studio Brief 1 - Logotype

ALDI

13/10/15

For this brief I have to produce a series of logotypes for a rebrand of your given company. 'Using only type, experiment with scale, stroke, spacing, contrast and alignment to interpret my company'. My chosen company is ALDI. The main reason that I chose ALDI is because of the fact that their current logo isn't at all pleasing to the eye, not only that but it feels dated and is definitely in need of a new, modern logo.

I started with some in depth research into ALDI and it's background.

To accompany my research, I also looked into what made ALDI so successful, given it's in such a competitive market where there are big supermarket giants such as Tesco, Waitrose and ASDA to compete against. I've found plenty of articles giving information to backup ALDI's, so far, successful run within the industry.

2015 Supermarket Rankings (Which?)

Given that around 7/8 years ago, ALDI would struggle to compete with the likes of Sainsbury's and Asda, they now excel past them narrowly missing the top of the list by 1% to Waitrose. This just proves their success over the recent years, going from a discount store to a full fledged supermarket whilst still retaining their discounted prices, which is what makes ALDI stand out from the others. Below are a few quotes I've found from articles supporting my reasoning:

“Discount stores used to be places where people needed to shop,”... “Now people actually want to shop here.” (The Telegraph)

"The key to Aldi's success was its devotion to cost-cutting, allowing it to sell a limited assortment of goods at bargain prices with minimal advertising costs." (The Independent)

"The company grew to become a global phenomenon by spending almost nothing on advertising and by simplifying its inventory, stocking only a fraction of the products featured in regular supermarkets." (The Independent)

One main difference between ALDI and the other supermarkets and probably the biggest of them all, is that they stock a lot less lines of food. ALDI stock around 1,500 lines whereas other supermarkets tend to stock around 40,000. Not only that but 90% of the products stocked are ALDI's own brand, which means on average prices are a lot lower than other big name brands.

The main reason behind wanting to rebrand ALDI is the fact that they're such a successful company, that I feel this needs to be put across within their branding as I don't quite feel that their current logo branding represents this. This is down to the fact that it feels very overcomplicated and doesn't feel very suitable, especially when you consider other supermarket logos that are, for the most part, purely typography.

Current Logo

Current Colour Scheme

The one thing I want to take from the original logo is the colours, purely because this is one thing that people would be able to make the link back to ALDI with, regardless of how the new logo would look. Aside from the colours I want to change ALDI's look to something more contemporary and distinct, much like some of the logos below.

Competing Supermarket Logos

ALDI's current logo is much different to other supermarket logos and in my opinion it is probably the least appealing out of the group, due to it's complex mix of contrasting colours and obscure composition. Especially when you consider the other logos, which are predominantly type with 2/3 colours rather than ALDI's current 5 colours. This is one thing I will aim for when redesigning the logo, limiting the colours and shapes used within the logo, so that it doesn't become overwhelming. 

15/10/15

To begin I took photographs of one of the ALDI stores within Leeds and also of some of their products, so that I would be able to get a feel for how they portray themselves within their product designs and also their stores.

With most supermarket logos these days, even if you just walk down a high street, you would be able to recognise most shops just out of the corner of your eye.

This is down to their simplistic logo, using typography with only roughly 2 colours, meaning people can instantly recognise it upon first glance. This is how I want ALDI's new logo to be like, modern and recognisable.

I believe that ALDI's current branding is one reason why so many people choose to shop elsewhere, as it comes across as a cheap and dated supermarket. Especially considering so many people care a lot about their image, what they look like, what they do, where they shop etc. I think that some people would rather shop somewhere that physically looks nicer, even though it could result in spending more money in there than they would do in ALDI.

In support of this I did a questionnaire of 30 people within my class. The question being, 'Disregarding how the company works and what their produce is like, based entirely upon aesthetics, which 3 supermarkets would you choose to shop at?'.

Questionnaire Results

The main reason why I asked people of a young age rather than adults is that younger people tend to care more about their image and what they do compared to adults. This questionnaire I think proves my point exactly, as previously stated I said that compared to other logos, ALDI's feels cheap and not very appealing. 

Mixture of Initial Research & Sketches

One of my first thoughts when designing the logo is to keep it either all upper case or all lower case, this is just because of how ALDI stands for Albrecht-Diskont and so wouldn't make sense to have with an upper case A.

Some Initial Font Choices

Selection of Initial Ideas

First (Somewhat) Finalised Logo

The two logos above are ones I felt confident with, in that they could serve as a replacement to the current ALDI logo. This is because of how simple and legible they are, I feel they would be versatile enough to work on any products and also would stand prominent if placed on the font of ALDI stores.

The concept behind this logo is that the 'I' doubles up as a very simplified person, almost like a stickman figure, as if to suggest that it's a supermarket for everyone, not any particular class of people or race. I feel that the roundness and softness of the type creates a welcoming feeling as opposed to a big uppercase type that could be seen as too blocky and in your face.

We had an interim critique in small groups, in the hope that it would help people with their designs as we would get several peoples opinions on what we had done so far.

Feedback from Critique Session:

-Completely redesigning the logo has been effective, keep trying at it.

-To make the whole logo match with the roundedness, try slightly rounding off every letter.

-Consider different concepts for the logos

-Make sure every letter is aligned with the next, e.g. the stem of the 'l' and 'd' to match the height of the 'i'.

For the most part, the critique session was helpful as people pointed out certain aspects of the logo that I would never have considered altering and also gave me some ideas as to how to approach creating other logos.

16/10/15

One thing I always think helps when it comes to narrowing down logo designs to just a few, is making them black and white so that the only determining factor is their composition. This allows me to pick the better logos out of a selection and then make further adjustments to these.

The concept behind logo 1 is that the A & I encompass the L & D almost like the L & D are products within a bag or shopping trolley. I thought this would work well as it would create a unique logo in comparison to other supermarkets as it actually captures the idea of shopping within the typography.

In logo 2 I separated the AL and the DI because of how it stands for Albrecht-Diskont, I wanted to show this rather than have it all as one continuous word.

With logo 5 the idea behind it is that the 'I' doubles up as a pinpoint as if to suggest that ALDI is the place to shop. On the right are a few different types of pinpoints to see how different sizes and shapes would work with the rest of the type. In my opinion only the first and fourth style would work simply because of how bulky and obscure the middle two styles look.

19/10/15

Further Development of Logo 1 & Outcomes

I made further adjustments to one of my logos simply because the concept behind it wasn't immediately apparent upon first glance. The only problem I had with some of the outcomes is that it started to become more of a symbol than purely typographic like the brief originally asked for.

Unused Logos

These logos went unused simply because of the fact that I felt that they weren't as strong as my chosen 5 final logos. For the two logos on the left I thought that it was too rigid and evoke a welcoming feeling like the others did. As for the remaining other three logos, I thought that I had maybe over stepped the mark with these as they started to become more of a mark as opposed to a purely typographic logo.

23/10/15

Final Resolutions

My final colours that I settled on, were chosen because I feel they work well in many different environments whether digital or out on the street on advertisements. Also they're the only colours out of ALDI's original colour scheme that aren't too harsh or misleading, as I wanted to use refreshing colours that would catch people's eye at a glance just like most other big supermarkets do with their colour of logo. 

Evaluation

We had a final critique on the last day of this brief and I received plenty of constructive criticism that will help with evaluating this entire brief.

"I see potential in the bottom right, but needs context"

Had I done several mockups on shop fronts, trucks and advertisement windows, people would have been able to get a feel for how the logos would have looked in context to see which, if any, would be most appropriate.

"The rounded edges seem a bit childish"

This was one thing I was worried that this design decision may have been perceived as. Although I was aiming for a soft, friendly look with the roundness I think had I done it again I would have strayed away from it being too rounded and childlike and instead gone for the neutral ground by having something in between.

"I think this typeface is the most appropriate, it looks stable, reliable and powerful"

As far as powerful logos go, out of all of my designs, I would agree upon this one, but as previously stated I did want a softer look to it, not too industrial looking. Maybe a combination of this and one of the more rounded logos would be more appropriate.

"The design with the trolley may be a bit confusing"

Although, myself I don't personally see this, I could see it being a problem with customers as it's not entirely obvious what the underlying concept is within that design. I did try to amend this in one of my previous, unused logos by creating a more obvious trolley shape but felt this took away from the typographic element that the whole design is based around, by changing more into a mark.

"Colours appear too youthful for the target audience. So brighter, stronger colours may have worked better"

This is one thing I did consider but almost immediately dismissed because the colours were the one thing I wanted to keep from ALDI's original branding. I wanted to retain the equity of the company rather than completely scrapping and redesigning their original logo.

"I think your colours don't work entirely well. Supermarkets generally are powerful colours so they can be recognised from a distance"

To some extent, I agree, simply because of the likes of Sainsburys and ASDA who have thick, bold colours unlike my not so forceful blue and yellow. But I feel that the chosen colours do stand out well, although they may not be powerful, they are still striking and eye catching which is key when it comes to a supermarket logo.

"Looks like a child's toy company due to the colours"

I could see this maybe being a problem if people are unaware of who ALDI are, but maybe to solve this a slightly darker shade of these colours may have worked better in not giving the impression of a toy company.

I think that overall, my final resolutions were appropriate and in reference to the brief, were successful designs. This is because of how I undertook this brief, by manipulating type in such a way that makes for a much more refreshed and more suited branding to an already successful company, that I feels only place of weakness is it's branding. I feel I responded appropriately to feedback given in both feedback sessions, by responding and adjusting my logos accordingly to the formative feedback I received in the interim critique session but also by taking into on board the summative feedback I received in the last critique session. Most importantly of all, I think that in terms of my original aims, I stuck to them and created designs that coincide with the aims I set out to achieve.

Mockups

To put my work into context as a few comments from feedback said was missing, here are a few mockups of, what I believe to be, the strongest logo out of the selected 5.

OUGD404: Study Task 1 - Colour Theory

Shortly after having todays lecture on colour and all things related to that such as hue, shades, tints, tones etc. we went on to do a task in small groups. For this we had to choose four Genres from the list below and choose a colour from the Pantone colour guides; one that we believe would represent a typical cover colour choice and one that we consider to be a less conformist yet still interesting option.

-Chick Lit
-Crime
-Fairy Tale
-Fantasy
-Historical Fiction
-Horror
-Humour
-Mystery
-Romance
-Science Fiction
-Thriller
-Western
-Young Adult

Purple, we felt was an appropriate colour for science fiction purely because it feels alien like, more often than not we associate aliens being green or purple or a strange combination of the two colours, hence why we felt purple was suited to Sci-Fi.

On the other hand, given how bizarre and outrageous Sci-Fi can be, we felt a colour that would work well would be yellow given how much of a distinct yet obscure colour it.

Given how western books are related to cowboys, shacks and all things in that era, brown is a typical colour that would be used within western books such as in the examples shown above.

Green on the other hand is not often a colour associated with western times, but I feel it has a bit of rustic shade to it, such that it would work appropriately within books, given it was used in moderation to avoid the book cover becoming overwhelming.

I would say that in most cases of mystery books, black is a colour that is widely used due to how dark and in itself, mysterious it feels. It evokes a feeling of not knowing, in the sense that it feels like the colour is hiding something away behind it's darkness.

But not all mysteries are dark and gloomy, and that's why I feel this like cyan colour would work well with some books, as it could be used as a child's mystery book or something of that nature.

As with horrors, red is a typical colour to use, as it's the colour of blood and more often than not with horrors, blood is involved somewhere along the line. As shown in the two example books above, red works well contrasted with other dark colours to create a horrifying look.

Green is not really a colour you would normally associate with horror but we felt that it could maybe work with maybe an alien related horror, something more of an obscure horror rather than a typical bloody horror.

OUGD403: Whitney Museum Identity

We were asked to analyse the Whitney Museum identity and whether it does or doesn't work well as an identity, with analytical reasoning to back our statements up.

There was roughly a half and half split with our group in terms of who thought it was an appropriate branding of the museum. I personally think it works well as the thin stroked W offers versatility for the logo to work on a range of products, whether that be building frontage, promotional material or information leaflets as it can be adapted to fit around the content as shown in the above image. This is one key point of this mark that makes it unique, as it still maintains the museum's identity, staying consistent yet dynamic.

The simplistic style of this mark means that it is very functional as it can be applied in many different applications but won't take away from the advertisement itself, as some brands more often than not do.

Sketch for a possible Whitney bus shelter poster 

This image supports my previously mentioned point. The branding of the museum is clearly visible, not overshadowed by the content of the poster and vice versa. Due to the fact that the mark is simply one colour, it allows for the remainder of the poster content to be the focal point of the advertisement. This is a prime example of how the responsive W works within promotional material, it can fit to adapt to any given content, as opposed to it consistently having it's own contained space. As like with some logos, where it's just thrown into a blank space that remains on the poster after having already positioned the majority of the content. Thats exactly what makes this branding so unique, in that it forms as part of any content or material, almost as if it is part of the displayed promotional material within the first place.

Another point to make is that the contrast between the thick, bold text with the thin W, makes for a contemporary and sleek mark. These two, coupled together, make for a unique and versatile identity that can be applied to almost anything and still not appear out of place, as is the case with some brand identities.

Example of Whitney Promotional Material

Analysing this identity has helped me to realise how much more in depth my analysis of, not only my work, but also other artist's should be.

Along with this task, another task we had was to read through several creative blogs such as Aisle One, Colossal, Creative Review and Sight Unseen to pick and make a list of words that are used to analyse work with. Below are a few of the ones we, as a class, came up with:

Muted, Robust, Distinctive, Engaging, Immersive, Enhances, Dynamic, Adaptable, Excessive, Energetic, Intricate, Conceptual, Iconic & Versatile.

Both of these tasks have given me a better understanding of how to analyse work to ensure that the correct terminology is used rather than using words such as good, nice etc.