Monograms and Lettermarks
This week’s lecture was all about developing monograms as the next part of our brand development.
To start, we were given the task of writing our names using letterforms made only out of geometric shapes like circles, squares and triangles. We were given 1 hour to do this. Here is a link to the blog post with what I did and my thoughts on the task: https://blogs.ulster.ac.uk/laurabfoy/2021/02/07/ixd103-week-2-turning-geometric-shapes-into-letterforms-task/
After that we took quick look at some resources and references to look at for research.
We then went on to look at monograms and letter marks. I learned that a monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters to form one symbol. we looked at some examples like the monogram of Albrecht Durer and Paul Rand’s iconic brand for IBM. I didn’t really know what a monogram was exactly before but now thinking about it, I see them all the time. In particular, as a fan of k-pop I’ve realised that majority of groups and artists have their own unique monograms. Here’s a couple examples:
Then we looked a couple case studies being Lw Theatres and Gatwick Express. For the Lw Theatres it was interesting to see the cohesion of all the monograms for each of the different theatres and they all express in some way, the spotlight concept of the primary logo.
It was also interesting to see the facelift given to a previously out dated logo by creating a sleek minimalistic monogram. I really like the hovering serifs on the x.
After that, we started looking at letters. We looked at axes and symmetrical and asymmetrical letters and things to consider with them. We also looked at letter abrstraction like the task from earlier and how letters are all based in some way on geometric shapes. The Hp monogram was a great example of abstraction since it’s essentially just a line now but you can still distinguish it as the brand (well kinda).
Before lunch we were given another task. This time it was to gather inspiration and make a monogram mood board. I couldn’t really leave my house and find real life examples do I used Pinterest for this. Here is a link to my board: https://www.pinterest.ie/laurabfoy/monogram-mood-board/
The lecture ended with the Monogram design Brief and this weeks task which is to sketch ideas.
For this week we are only meant to explore form so not colour yet. Not gonna lie, as someone who loves colour that kinda hurts but I understand that it’s necessary to do it this way.
This Week’s Tasks