Handmade Font

Handade Font are an Estonian company, set up in 2008 by Vladimr and Maksim Loginov. They aim to do exactly as their name says, they want to create unique and interesting fonts. Taking inspiration from and using whatever they can get their hands on. 

Typeface created from cardboard boxes used on moving day.

What I like about the typefaces created by Handmade Font is that they can use items that most people would see as messy and manage to create beautiful, professional looking typefaces from them.

Type made from hay

All of Handmade Font's typefaces are available to buy from their website: www.handmadefont.com

Eduardo Recife



Eduardo Recife is a Brazilian Graphic Designer and Typographer. He has been in the design business since the 90's, his website 'Misprinted Type' features his personal work. Recife has a unique, vintage style which is easily recognisable as his. He discussed his style in an interview, saying; 'old graphics were unbelievably more beautiful than what we have today. It was more poetic, and the colours were more attractive.'

Recife has done much work for large clients such as, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and the band Panic! at the Disco.

TCM/ commissioned by RayGun

Recife uses a range of processes to create his work, such as hand rendered skills, collage and photography. Techniques that I also enjoy using, which could be why I like Recife's style so much. I also like the surreal aspects of his work, I like the fact that the viewer has to work out a possible meaning behind the image, in my opinion it makes Recife's work very exciting and interesting to look at.

Verde Magazine

'Typography for me is so strong because it’s a mixture of both 'words' and 'image'. What can be more powerful than that when trying to communicate something?' - Eduardo Recife

The New York Times

Festival Research: Run to the Sun and Reading Festival

Run to the Sun is a Cornish festival, all about sunshine, sea, cars and DJs. These features are reflected in the design of the website, logo and posters.

The use of the colours green, yellow and blue reflect the ideas of being near the beach in the sunshine, whereas the grey and the grungy textures are mirroring the genre of music and its association with clubs and nightlife. The layout is very easy to read and gives plenty of information.

The logo is similar to a graffiti tag, again bringing in the genre of music.

On the hand, the design for Reading Festival is very neutral in comparison. 

This could be because there is no set genre of music, hence using the artists' own styling. This also allows for the festival to appeal to a wider range of people. However, the use of red, black and yellow, which are seen to be danger colours could indicate that the festival can get a little rowdy.

Exhibition Review

Recently the college held an exhibition displaying a variety of A Level work. We have been asked to find a piece we found particularly interesting and review it as research. One display that appealed to me was by Joshua Woodford. The ideas and concepts behind his work are what appealed to me. For his final piece, he created a bedroom.

The bedroom aimed to show how people interact with things they come across in their everyday lives, eg: family, friends, pets, objects. Along with the clash of private and public that comes with these interactions.

Having spoken to Woolford, he told me he was heavily inspired by Tracy Emins and her infamous piece, 'My Bed'. Where she reveals her most secret place to the public eye in its 'embarrassing glory' showing the world her true habits and imperfections. A concept that Woolford has aimed to recreate with his own twist.

Tracy Emins, 'My Bed'

Woolford is going on to study Fine Art at Winchester University. His blog address is: http://joshuawoolford.blogspot.co.uk/ 

New Project: Tune In

I've started a new project titled; 'Tune In'. The final outcome for the project is to design an album cover and album spread, using ideas and concepts inspired by your song choice.



'Lungs' album cover



The options are:

Cosmic Love - Florence + the Machine

Stupid Girls - P!nk

Muse - Uprising

I began by looking up the lyrics to each song and picking out certain parts that I felt I could create visuals from and then mind mapped these ideas.

For example: Stupid Girls - 'looking for a daddy to pay for the champagne' from this lyric, I had an idea that you could photograph a fairly young girl with an older man, wearing fake wedding rings or holding hands. As to exaggerate the ideas of 'sugar daddies' and female objectification and emphasise how ridiculous they are becoming.

'I'm Not Dead' album cover

After mind mapping I've created moodboards for the two songs that I feel I have the best visual ideas for - Cosmic Love and Muse. I then decided that my ideas for Cosmic Love are the best overall, and therefore have decided to use this song to create my final piece over the next few weeks.

'The Resistance' album cover

Loui Jover

I found out about Loui Jover from a fellow student's blog and having had a look at his work, I've decided to include him on here, as I really like his style and feel that I could apply that style to my current project.

Jover is an Australian based artist who primarily uses paper and ink to create his work. He has been drawing since childhood, proclaiming that he draws, 'obsessively every single day'. He says that this is why he can use a variety of styles and approaches in art. Jover has qualifications in Commercial and Graphic Art, alongside an advanced certificate in Visual Communication.


'Flying'

Jover creates a canvas from the pages of old books, then draws with ink.
From Jouver's profile on Saatchionline:

"there is a fragility to these images that I find interesting (as if the wind may blow them away at any moment) and the hand drawn stark black lines against the intricate printed words of the book pages offer a strange fusion and depth that seems to give the images a kind of 'meaning' and back story, even though unconnected in a contrived way. I never pick the image for the pages or visa-versa they just collide as chance permits, any meaning they may have is purely created by the observer and their own imaginings."



'Parisian Love Story'

I like quite a few things about Jover's work. Firstly how by using only one medium he has the ability to create such detailed and intricate pieces of art.  I also like the way in which, he uses different intensities of ink, in order to add definition and further detail to his work.

'Secret Place'

David Carson

David Carson is an American Graphic Deisgner, he is well known for his 'innovative magazine design' and 'experimental typography'. Carson's came across Graphic Design in 1980 when he attended a two week Graphics course. But it wasn't until 1983 that he decided to become full involved in it, he attended the Oregon College of Commercial Art; during the course he attended a three week workshop in Switzerland, taught by Hans-Rudolf Lutz, who became Carson's first great influence.

In 1984 Carson was appointed as the art director of Transworld Skateboarding, during his time as art director he developed his signature style of 'dirty' typography and non-mainstream photographic techniques.

Carson's cover design for Transworld Skateboarding

 

 Carson has worked for many clients, such as: Armani, Yale University, Barack Obama and Quiksilver.

                                                                               

  

Campaign poster for Obama, 2009

Whilst I like Carson's signature 'grunge' typography, I think that some of his pieces where he has used a more simplistic typeface look equally as good and are just as affective as when he uses his raw, distressed typefaces. I also like how he intergrates the image and the typography, rather than them being two separate aspects.

Cover for 'Monster Children' magazine.

Packaging Analysis: J Lally

In this post I'll be analysing packaging that I particularly like and find interesting, along with possibly using it to inspire my own project. 

The packaging I've chosen is for the brand J Lally, which produces snack products.

This packaging was designed by Retail in Motions, a company that focuses on travel retail in particular. A combination of photography and illustration has been used to create interesting, travel inspired visuals out of the product itself. Die cuts have also been used to help create these visuals, but another benefit of them is that the buyer can see the product. These images give a fun, childish feeling to the packaging. However the neutral colours and the simple, subtle typeface retain the feeling of sophistication needed to get buyers to trust the product rather than ignoring it because it looks silly and utterly ridiculous.

I think that because these products are sold on plane and ferries, they have designed in such a way that they appeal to everybody. The illustrations/photography will appeal to both adults and children because it is simple but still engaging and a pleasure to look at. Whilst the colour scheme will appeal to adults particularly because it gives the product an air of maturity.

Brand Research and Comparison Continued: Clarins

This is the second half of my brand research, which is focusing on Clarins and how their visual style appeals to their target audience; higher earning women in their late thirties or older.

Like the Benefit Cometics logo, Clarins' features the company's name and its city of origin. Again, it uses what could be seen as an 'ordinary' typeface, but could also be considered as a 'classic' typeface. The wording being entirely in capitals, gives the logo a feeling of sophistication, which fits in well with the inclusion of 'Paris' which is a city seen to be sophisticated and to be extremely fashionable.The curved lines around the typeface, give the logo an eye-like shape. Many  cosmetics are for eyes, so these lines could be reinforcing that Clarins is a brand of make up.

Clarins logo

Unlike Benefit, Clarins do not have their own shops, rather have counters in department stores. For example; Debenhams. All counters have the same colour palette, red and white. Red has connotations of love and passion, and is often seen as an older woman's colour. Whilst white is often associated with innocence and youth. This choice in colour could be a representation of what Clarins aim to do, give women a youthful appearance with the use of their products. The counters have a sleek, modern appearance which is a vast contrast to Benefit's vintage look.

Clarins counter in a department store

                                                                     

Clarins' packaging gives their products a feeling of sophistication, this is achieved through the use of metallic colours and classic shapes. The metallics used could also be associated with wealth, indicating that Clarins' target audience are higher earners. By embossing the products with brand name is also another indicator of the target audience.

Clarins makeup




Clarins packaging



Brand Research and Comparison: Benefit Cosmetics

This is the first half of my brand research, in which I'll be analysing how two brands (Benefit Cosmetics and Clarins) which sell similar products, but have different target audiences, have targeted their audience through their visual style. This part is all about Benefit Cosmetics.

Benefit Comestics aim their products at younger - mid 20's to early 30's, higher earning women, whilst Clarins have a target audience of high earning women, who are in their late 30's or are older.

Firstly Benefit's logo, despite being simplistic and using what could be considered an 'ordinary' typeface, it has certain features that give it a 'fun feeling' which makes it more appealing to their younger target audience. For example, having 'Benefit' entirely in lower case, mimics how younger people might text or email their friends. The elongated 'F'  which has been tilted to also function as the dot of the 'I' that adds an interesting but simply done quirk to this logo. Having the company's place of origin within the logo, could also create appeal for the target audience because San Francisco is a popular place to visit, especially with young travellers.

Benefit logo

In contrast to the simple, timeless logos, Benefit 'boutiques' are designed to appear very retro, even down to the smallest details, for example the seats.This idea of things being designed to appear retro is very much in fashion at the moment, particulary with younger people. Some boutique exteriors have little, normally pink awnings which were typical of the 1950's. Inside the 1950's style continues with the use of pinks, peach and cream colours to decorate, along with vintage detailing.

Exterior of a Benefit boutique

Interior of a Benefit boutique

The retro vibe continues into the styling of the products' packaging, with the use of bright colours and 50's style pattern, or even with inspiration of everyday items of that era, such as vinyl records. 



Packing inspired by a vinyl record

Tim Marrs

Tim Marrs is London based illustrator whose career spans over ten years. He is a BA graduate of Humberside University and Master of Arts post graduate of Central Saint Martins, London. Marrs has produced much work for famous clients, for example: Top Gear magazine, National Geographic and Nike. Much of Marrs' inspiration for his work comes from American pop culture and pop art. His work contains a mixture of drawings and photography, along with photoshop techniques.
 
What I like about Marrs' work is the contrast between bright colours and dark, high contrast images, along with the hand rendered appearance of his work. I like that the images in his work, look realistic despite his influences coming from pop art.

Book cover for Elmore Leonard's Mr. Perfect



National Geographic

Album artwork for Rise Against's Appeal to Reason

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog all about Graphic Design.

Here I'll be posting work that interests and inspires me, in particular I am interested in typography and collage. I will also be posting research for my college project, 'Project Object'.

By Craig Ward, a typographer whose work I find inspiring.