Tagged: photography

Branding Moodboard from Week 3

We were tasked with creating a research moodboard into an inspirational brand. Whilst I had looked previously into the Polaroid Originals brand, I chose a new brand to research so that I would have fresh ideas in my head. I chose Penguin as I love the colour scheme they incorporate into most of their marketing materials and the books themselves, using a common theme of black and orange. One thing I find interesting about Penguin is that they are such a well-known and widespread brand that they also have merchandise, such as mugs, umbrellas, and tote bags, which are easily recognisable as being from that brand, as it is a very popular brand amongst readers. My moodboard, created on an A3 artboard using Adobe Illustrator, highlights both the target audience and three words I chose to sum up the brand, and shows the various styles of covers Penguin have, from the Little Black Classics and Modern Classics ranges, to the original orange and cream covers and the premium Clothbound Classics covers. I really enjoyed making this moodboard and would like to continue to do similar work to this in the future.

Week 4: Iconography picture/sketches

Our next task was to take a photograph of an object with a function. I chose a USB stick as it was nearby and I felt it would work well. I drew some basic sketches, both of the USB and of some icon ideas, from which I would like to develop further into an icon, as they are very simple as they currently are. I like the bottom icon, with files ‘flying’ into the computer, but this would be better as a GIF or animation than an icon, as it is too large and detailed. I found this task somewhat difficult at first, but it became more enjoyable as I sketched more ideas.

Week 1: Typography in Signage

We had a task to go out and photograph examples of signs in our local environment. Our categories, from which we had to try and take at least one relevant photograph, were:

-Shop/commercial signs

-Wayfinding/directional signs

-Ad-hoc signs/posters/stickers, etc.

-Street signs

-Regulatory signs

-Architectonic (architectural) signs

-Graffiti, tags, murals, stc.

The commercial sign (left, bottom) I chose was a cafe near my house, 44 Main St, which had a nice, inviting style of text to encourage people to go in.

The wayfinding sign (right, top) was a detailed road sign showing various directions in which to go. Using standard typography shows that it is reliable and trusted.

The ad-hoc signs (middle, top and bottom) are temporary diversion and electricity signs. The black and yellow used in both are warnings to people to grab their attention and warn people that certain routes are unavailable, or that there is danger of overhead power lines.

The street sign I chose (left, top) was of a street near where I live. The text is in a trustworthy and simple style, and there is varying size to show where the street is located.

The regulatory sign (right, bottom) I chose was a speed limit sign, warning people to go 30mph. It also shows location, coming into a village. The red around the signs shows that this is a more urgent warning, as something drivers must be aware of, as opposed to standard yellow warning signs.

I was unable to find any graffiti or architectonic signs but will continue to keep an eye out any time I am out of the house.

Week 1: The Letter A on Branding/Books

One of our first tasks was to take time to look around our environment at home and find interesting examples of our chosen letter. My three collages above show the letter A I found on Star Trek books and DVDs, on packaging, and other miscellaneous As.

Two of the Star Trek ones are actually the Starfleet logo, which is called a Delta, but despite this association with the Greek letter (the equivalent, of course, of the Latin alphabet’s letter D), the book which features the first one uses it in place of the letter A in Picard. It fits well and it is immediately clear what the word says, despite a symbol being used in place of a letter.

The packaging As are from Fab ice lollies (top left), Carex hand sanitiser (top right), Alpro soya milk (bottom left), and a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. My favourite of these is the chocolate orange one, as I like the contrast of the dark blue and the orange, and the fact that the A resembles orange peel is very effective advertising.

The other As are from a range of book and video game covers. I really like the first one, as the colour scheme, despite the book’s location being Italy, reminds me of the Swedish flag. I like this collection of images as they show a range of typefaces being used, from sans serif and serif to script typefaces.