Branding Project

While creating the mood board, I made an attempt to convey the mood of sleek, modern designs. I included some examples of geometric design, and designs with color to catch attention. I tried to keep the logo simple though, because I did not want to take away from the contemporary feel. Inspiration for the logo came from the Greek letters Nu and Mu, which I used because of the "N" and "M" from Neomethodos. I combined the two letters to make it appear as one, and used a drop of water to make the drop on the bottom of the logo to appear bigger and more prominent. The blue ribbon was an attempt to add some color to the grey and white logo. Weaving the ribbon through the logo makes it pop more and gives it dimension and character.

Here is an example of a business card for Neomethodos Design, that includes bleed area for when the card is cut out.:

Design Final: Design Brief

Design Brief

Ms. Underwood

January 6, 2014

Print Design Firm

Company Name:

Neomethodos Design

The name comes from the two Greek words, neos and methodos, which mean new and method, respectively. The name being in a foreign language sounds nice for a modern company, and is abstract and suggestive. It offers a name that is outside the box, and allows the company to be associated with creativity and innovation.

Describe your company:

A contemporary, modern, or industrial themed design firm, that would specialize in print design. The company would help out new business, especially local ones, and help modernize the company.

Who is your target audience?

Companies who need a new logo or print design.

Logo:

Include the name of the company in charcoal grey and light blue with a white border, and include geometric shapes and simple designs that come off of the name. Squares with rounded corners could be included for basic shapes that appear modern or contemporary. The modern or industrial theme will be conveyed through the simple, abstract design.

Colors:

A charcoal or dark grey for the primary color, and light, faded blue and white as secondary colors.

The logo and company colors used the charcoal grey, which was requested, but also include lighter colors to contrast the logo, and prevent it from looking too dark.

2Q Block Text Designs

Thinking of designs that conveyed different emotions by only using text was much more difficult than I first expected. I found that the first drafts of my designs where all very similar, and they did not capture the subtle differences between similar emotions such as fear and anger or friendship and happiness. I tired to play with different fonts, sizes, and positions of letters to suggests different feelings. Bold, dark type seemed to have a more aggressive affect that drew that eye into the design, whereas a lighter color would help represent more passive, peaceful emotions. The gray-scale design was more difficult than the one with color, because by using color, emotion was much easier to represent, because of the emotional connection to certain colors. The viewer can somewhat feel peace when there is small white text on a black background, or feel love or happiness when seeing bright colors with round letters. These same emotions are much more difficult to convey without color, since basic choices in type, size, heaviness, and position are the only things determining the emotion of the design. Overall, I feel I was successful with both designs, but I definitely prefer the design with color.

Type Anatomy Vocabulary

Baseline- The line that letters sit on.

Meanline- Another imaginary line that lies on top of lower-case letters.

X-height- The height of the lower-case letters. The distance between the baseline and meanline.

Cap height- The distance between the baseline and the top of upper-case letters.

Ascender- The part of a letter that goes over the meanline and past the x-height.

Descender- The part of a letter that goes below the baseline.

Serifs- The little “feet,” or extra stroke at the bottom of character.

Stem- The Body or main lines of a letter.

Bar- Horizontal or diagonal lines of a letter that are not the stem. They are open on one side.

Bowl- The closed circular part of a letter.

Overhang- The part of a letter that goes over the baseline because of it’s curve

Ligature- When two or more letters are combined

Finial- The tapered end of a letter.

Terminal- The end of a stroke.

Spine- The middle connecting part of an “S.”

Apex- The point or top of a letter.

Superscript- Characters that are higher than the other characters

Subscript- Characters that are lower than the other characters.

Diacritic mark- Marks that are added to letters like accents.

Counter- The space that is enclosed by a letter.

Small capital- A capital letter that is the same height and size of a lowercase letter

Proportional oldstyle numerals- Having the majority of the number on the baseline.

Uppercase- BIG LETTERS THAT ARE CAPITALIZED

lowercase- small letters that are not capitalized

This is Colossal Research

Looking through this website, I found a few things that I think a re pretty cool. One of them was a Dragon Teapot that can be found here. This includes some extreme detail, and has an ancient Chinese style to it that makes it look authentic. The head of the dragon is my favorite, because it has the detail of the teeth and inside the mouth, as well as the expression on the dragons face. Making that out of clay must have been very difficult and even more tedious.











A second design I liked was "The Dino Pet," which has bio-luminescent algae that give off light. I like how it was used in the video while someone was surfing. The algae begins to glow after photosynthesize in the day, or when they are agitated. I like the Dino Pet because it combines art and science to make a cool and different product.

Holiday Card Project

Post-Assignment:
Thinking of ways to incorporate the Gloucester Education Foundation hands into a holiday card that was neutral to all beliefs was difficult at first. I started by just adding the hands to the design, and then moving them around, and I decided to put them around the "Season's Greetings." I was going to have all the hands either holding something or doing something instead of just being there, but it would have been to much going on in the card I think. I made one hand hold mistletoe, which I think adds a little color to the design and makes it less boring. The starry background also goes with the winter holiday theme but does not favor any one belief. The second card I made, I wanted to be brighter and use more color, so I started with a gradient background that looked like it was sunset, and then went on to add things that I thought of, when I thought of winter. I made the snowman and reindeer out of geometric shapes with sharp corners first, and then added a similar style tree and sled. I used the outline of a dove I found that was not copyrighted, and still looked similar to the rest of the card. Choosing a font that fit that style of he roundness of the snowman and the geometric shapes that I also included in my design was difficult. My selection was not too big, but I managed to find a font that I think works well. The only problem I had with the font was the dot above the "i," which was very small and off-centered. I decided to take it out and replace it with a snowflake, because that was winter themed and looked better. I did my research for the project while working on the project, because I had an idea of what a holiday card is supposed to look like. I did most of my research one my second card, because I needed to know what certain things looked like and I needed ideas of things to add to my card to make it less empty. I think that I filled up the space of both my cards well, and they do not look overcrowded. After seeing some other people's designs, I think I could have incorporated the hands better in my first card. I think they could have been doing something more, but I wouldn't know how to do that with the design I started with. To get the hands for the first holiday card, I googled "Gloucester Education Foundation," and found a large photo, but it wouldn't let me save it. Instead, I took a screenshot and pasted it in Photoshop to select the hands and copy them into my design.

Pre-Assignment:

Holiday Card for the GEF

You will design two holiday cards for the Gloucester Education Foundation.  One of the card designs will use their logo as an element in the design. The second design is open to your creativity.  However there are some 'rules.'

1. The holiday theme must not be any one faith, for example you can't use a Christmas Tree, because not everyone celebrates Christmas.

2. If you use an image you must make sure that it is a copyright free open source image or you get permission from the owner of the image.  For example if you have a talented friend who can draw, you can ask them for art work to use in your card.  Or if you find a photograph you love you can email the photographer and ask for permission to use the image. If you tell them it is for a non-profit organization, and you are a student doing the design for them they often will let you use it for free.

3. The card size must be 5.5 x 7.5 inches and you must have a .5 image free area around the whole image.  This is the cut zone. When the card is printed and cut, some of the image area will end up on the cutting room floor, make sure important information is not cut off.

Advice:  Choose your font wisely, some fonts will 'break up' when they are printed, for example TRAJAN PRO serifs are so thin that they will not print and the words will break apart. Also make sure you choose the right font for your message.  If it is a playful image find a playful font. If it is formal, like "season's greetings' make sure you use a formal font.  ASK ME WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN A FORMAL AND PLAYFUL FONT IF YOU DON'T KNOW.

Designing with Type

Here is my type design of a passage from The Tragedy of Macbeth:

Research:

A point in typography is the smallest unit of measure. The printer’s point used to vary, but is now standardized, by making the point 1/72 inches. There are 12 points in every pica, regardless of which system is being used. The EM of a font is the size determines how large the typeface is. Not all typefaces are the same height. A grid is a structure, that is usually two dimensional and serves as a guide and to structure content in design. Grids helps organize elements of design. Josef Muller-Brockmann was a swiss graphic designer and teacher who studied arcutecture, design, and history of art in two different schools. He opened a studio in Zurich that specialized in graphic design, exhibition design, and photography. Here are some examples of his work:

                                    

A typeface, or font family, is a set of one or more fonts, each composed that are composed of glyphs that have similar features. Each font has different styles and attributes that makes it unique from other fonts. Fonts are the variations of typeface like the shape and size of text. A typeface is a set of fonts, or the whole family. In the family, there are different fonts that differ in size and weight. Glyphs are organic graphic elements that make up typefaces. They are individual marks of writing that contribute to the letter or word.

Pre-Assignment: 

Designing with Type

http://typeneue.com/inconsolata-normal/

Read through this blog on type.  Outline some of the key points on your blog.

What is the smallest unit of measure in typography?

How many points in a pica?

EM square -- ask me about it it's confusing in this article.

In graphic design, what is a grid and how is it used?

Who is Josef Muller-Brockmann? (find samples of his designs, and post on your blog)

What is a typeface?

What is a font?

How are they different?

What are glyphs?

What is interesting about this blog is that it repeats the same information, but each month they use a different font.  It is a great way to visually experience different fonts.

For your assignment you will find a favorite passage or poem in a book -- find an online resource where you can copy and paste.  Create a work of art, 8.5 x 11 that highlights three different typefaces.  Think about how you will combine the three typefaces of the same passage into one design.  Will you use different shades of grey overlapping the type? Will you use a color? All different colors?  The only rule is that it must be readable.

When you work in photoshop make sure that each of the three typeface passages are on separate layers. You will have to turn off layers to change the text of one, I'll demonstrate this in class.

Have fun with this!