OUGD603: Extended Practice Overview

So you're able to see what's what, I've made this post to quick link you to the work, easily.

All briefs attempted with links to post:

• SAC Ampleforth (Identity)
• OAC Photography (Web)
• SAC Ampleforth (Web)*
• The Last Drop (Logo)
• No. 7 Antiques (Logo & Application)
• Green Spot (Packaging)
• Coffee Culture (Identity)
• Japan Rugby World Cup w/Ewan North (Identity)
• Coffee Culture (Web)
• Malton & Norton RUFC (Web)
• Dr Me (Visiting Professionals Day Brief)
• Small Brands (Logofolio)
• Intern Magiazine (Visiting Professionals Day Brief – Publication)
• Something More (Visiting Professionals Brief – Identity)
• YCN: Yorkshire Tea w/ Adam Garbutt (Packaging & Competition)
• DBA: Northern Powerhouse – Capital North (Visiting Professionals – Identity)

*(Projects stricken out have been cancelled for various reasons)

Design Publication

OUGD603: Briefs & Evaluations (Project File)

OUGD603: Extended Practice Submission Boards

OUGD603: Brief 05 - No. 7 Antiques // Collateral

Due to time constraints – not having any real time to print and produce or the funding to order items, such as luxury stock or wax seal stamps, I've mocked up the collateral for No. 7 Antiques, as a taster for the client, who can order any of these at their will. 

 Full range of collateral, pictured above. Featuring business cards, an envelope, price tag and wrapping paper. The wrapping paper would've been screen printed, bearing the No. 7 Antiques logo. Taking the branding out on the street for others to see. Business cards, as standard for networking and an envelope to communicate with other – sealed with wax, for the authentic old fashioned look as part of the brand.

Envelope close up. 

Business cards – see full design in design post. 

OUGD603: Brief 05 - No. 7 Antiques // Business Cards Development

Business cards for the collateral range, standard for any business to pass on contact details easily. 

Designed to be quite minimal, to draw focus to the information, using a simple grid system to lay out the content. The font Source Sans Pro has been used, as it's the font of No. 7 Antiques' parent company, Codex Books. 

Simple and clean, centred logo for the back side. 

Content left aligned on the front, with the owner's name in bold, and the sub information in a lighter font to develop a hierarchical system on the card, with important content being more prominent. Sandwiched between to horizontal lines, to mirror the logotype – which also uses a line underneath it. 

OUGD603: Brief 05 - No. 7 Antiques // Initial Collateral Research

After sending over the logo amends to the client, which he was very happy with – now signed off! I have been given the go ahead to develop the collateral for the brand, pushing the new identity. 

Since this project is rather small, and No. 7 is one my clients, all I'm certain of at this point is that I won't need to create any identity guidelines, as there won't be any other designers working on the project any time soon. 

I've begun to look at what other designers have created, in terms of collateral, for projects of similar scale. 

Scott Hill creating a series of simple colour oriented range of stationery. Using the orange throughout, accenting and highlighting areas. Such as the lip on the envelope and the edges on the pencil. Which helps push the presence of the identity where the logo might become lost due to size or unnecessary because of redundant placement. 

Brice Beasley has created a small collection of collateral from Henry & Co. Using patterns of the different logo variants which would be used across the brand, from the full elegant circle logo, to the initials and the clean typography version. Which might not be relevant to this particular project, as the logotype being used in this case is restricted, so it's reduction would only consist of removing the word 'antiques', reducing it to stand alone as 'No. 7', which would be used where appropriate. 

On the back of the pattern pictured above, Fuzzco™ uses objected tiled out as a pattern with collateral for this project. Using the two different tones of green to show a subtle contrast.

Looking at the business cards of Ryan Putnam, using two colours to create a sharp contrast and excitement into business cards. Inverting the colours used, the blue and the white. Which creates a bold and beautiful contrast. 

Colin Tierney has created a collateral set for a 'save the date', for his own wedding. Aiming for a rustic traditional theme, similar to what I would want in this project. Using stamps and shades of brown throughout the design and the stock, to achieve an aged look. 

Anthony Lane, similarly to Putnam and Hill, uses the red to highlight areas of the design. Which helps push the presence of the identity further, where the logotype or icon would lack or become lost. 

Melodie Eve Pisciotti has created a vast range of collateral for Street Car. Using the blue strongly throughout the design of every entity within the range. Creating promotional items which will be used by customers or staff, to represent the brand everywhere. 

OUGD603: Brief 05 - No. 7 Antiques // Further Logo Development

In continuation from an earlier post, I'm tacking the 'Q', which previously looked quick out of place amongst the other serifs and and blocky typographic elements. Trying to add some size and some character, or at least, making the descender of the 'Q' fit into the rest of the typography. 

I began by demolishing the previous descended, which was built into the typography. 

Using the existing anchor points on the letterform, I mirrored them to create a perfectly symmetrical and fitting base to attach a new custom descender to the Q. 

Mirroring the weight of the serifs used across the rest of the logotype, I added a simple descender to the Q. Which looks better, much stronger than previous, which had a sort of taper to it. However, the length of the descender makes it look thinner in comparison to the rest of the blockier serifs. 

I also tried adding a serif to the base of the descender. Hoping to achieve the same blocky look as the rest of the serifs within the logotype. It just looks bad. 

I had a crack at rotating it, having it sit at 90 degrees to the descender, which is at 45 degrees. This works better, it look slightly more aesthetically pleasing, however, I'm still not a massive fan of it. It has to go!

Removing the serif and reducing the length of the descender. This allows the descender to appear wider and better fitting on the logotype. Similar to the original descender, but weightier and shorter, without a taper. Which looks much nicer, as it fits in with the structure of the logotype. 

OUGD603: Brief 5 - No. 7 Antiques // Further Logo Development

Following sending the logo variations to the client, I presented the selected logo at a crit session, last week. (Participants were Sam, Jasper, Joe, Sean and Myself). Looking for feedback on the construction of the logo and how It could be further developed. 

Luckily, Joe is quite a type geek – he knows his stuff, so I knew I would benefit from his knowledge. To reiterate the feedback, it went as follows;

• Fix the Q, looks weird.
• Add some additional serifs to really develop the aged look.
• Remove the texture for now, it must work without it.

Added serifs to the E, which really puts the logo into a more traditional, aged light. It feel heavier, blockier – Which was the look we were going for. 

Also, upon review, I noticed the kerning was slightly off between the I and the Q. Adjusting the space, tightening it created a consistent spacing between all the letters. Which is important in a logo which is entirely typography.

Adding additional serifs to the T, to further create the blocky traditional look. It works, it's added to the logotype. It looks more vintage, rather than sleak modern type. 

I will be tackling the Q's descender at a later date. 

OUGD603: Brief 5 - No. 7 Antiques // Presentation Boards

After completing phase one of the design process, conceptualising the logos for No. 7 Antiques. I've presented them to the client – five of the logotypes which I felt were the strongest have been pitched to No. 7.

Awaiting feedback from the client, which will give me a chance to push forward with some other briefs for the year.

OUGD603: Brief 5 - No. 7 Antiques // Logo Development 03

On the back of previous logos, which have already been developed. Speaking to Ewan, whilst looking for some quick feedback, he suggested that four logos might not been enough – perhaps a fifth would be beneficial, giving the client more options. 

Basing the design from the font Lust Display, which is a very stylised font, very elegant and sophisticated with engaged elements such as the main stems within the typography. I began by making slight adjustments to the type. Lowering the glyph, shifting the baseline, so it sits within the typography. Which allows the 7 to sit in line with the Q, adding some fluidity into the title – rather than a striking cap height number. 

I also removed some of the thinner strokes, doing this uses negative space to suggest the shape of the typography. The stronger, thicker lines which still remain hold up the shape of the type – this is successful as the type still legible. 

OUGD603: Brief 5 - No. 7 Antiques // Logo Development 02

OUGD603: Brief 5 - No. 7 Antiques // Further Logo Development

Following the logo development in a previous post, I began to make more tweaks to the logo, in a similar style to before – duplicating a logotype, making an alteration and then duplicating it again. 

I first added in a sense of alignment to the logo, how it sits on the page. The spacing displayed above using a gird system to show how it works. 

I then tightened up the kerning across the board, making the spacing between the 'No' and the '7' tighter, and tweaking that of the 'Antiques'. 

Adding a serif to the 7, which worked in another variation of the logo, and it seems to fit really well here. It adds a rustic old feel to the type, pulling it away from the modern clean san serif font. 

On the back of wanting to create more of a distressed look to the typography, I added a distressed texture to the font, which created worn look – giving the logo some history, like the antiques which would be sold within the shop. 

OUGD603: Brief 5 - No. 7 Antiques // Logo Development

Since I've not really touched this brief in around a month, I decided to have a quick logotype critique.  Looking at the logotypes with fresh eyes, I should be able to spot any issues pretty quickly, before I go back to make any changes. 

Issues with spacing, the kerning between the I and the Q needs tightening up. The spacing between the zero and it's stroke need sorting, perhaps making it half the spacing of the vertical space between the N and the zero. 

Because of the angles of the 7 and the A, are both leaning to the right, the kerning need tightening up a lot, so the space between the two letterforms appears equal. I'm not sure the block filled EST works either, as it's very overpowering. 

Perhaps making the close together serifs into a ligature, which would perhaps make the type flow better – something which I picked up from Chris Murphy during the Work in the Web workshop. 

Adjusting the spacing between the veracity aligned, centred logos so they work coherently based of some sort of formula. 

More kerning tweaks – the spacing between the 0 and the 7 need tightening up. 

No massive overhauls, just small things which could be altered to improve the overall aesthetics of the design. 

OUGD603: Brief 5 - No. 7 Antiques // Initial Logo Development

Following a slight change in direction for the year, I've swapped on of my briefs – POG, and replaced it with No. 7 Antiques. A brief I originally attempted in the responsive module during second year, however due to the lack of time, and ability, almost. I really wasn't happy with the finished product. 

In relation to my design process, I decided to try a different approach to how I would design the logo. I'm always looking for different design process, I think they're really interesting. Seeing how overs work, seeing how their process differs to my own, comparing the two - add seeing how I can implement elements of other's workflow into my own. In a way, this brief is almost experimental in that sense. 

I found Aaron Draplin's video on how he designs a logo. 

I've attempted to implement elements of this into my design process, mainly the initial development, writing out the logo over and over again, making alterations to each variant, as you can see below. 

I first began to write out the name of the business, No. 7 Antiques. Changing the weight, the case, the spacing the alignment the font style, to see if anything sparked, if anything stood out. The raised zero, which was then aligned to the cap height using a stroke raising it from below, looked quite vintage, which fits with the brand. 

Further developing the look of the logotype, working with how it will sit, justify and align. The use of typography decoration has been applied to see if it might add anything to the logotype. Particularly liking how the logotype third down on  the left looks, using a stroke to almost underline the logo – which may look better aligned with the No. 7, but I'll tweak that when I move to the machine.

Finally playing with tag lines and subtitles in the logo, trying to find some way they can work together. Also exploring framing, content boxes which the logo might sit within – not that these really work, but it's better to get them out the way sooner than later. 

I then took the logos into illustrator, taking the few which I think worked or had potential, initially. I created the first logo, and then duplicated it, made a slight change, developing a small aspect of the logo and I then duplicated it again, making another change – and so on. At this stage, a lot of the design decisions are based on 'what if's, like what if we made this bold, or increased the spacing. 

Then creating another set of logos in a different typeface, you can see how I've moved from one variant to the other. I added a hanging serif to the 7, which gave the typeface a fuller look, whilst also adding a vintage feel to the logo, as opposed to a modern clean typeface.