Ivan Chermayeff (1932-2017) was born In England and moved to the United States in 1940. He studied in Yale, Harvard and the institute of design in Chicago. In 1957 he founded Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv with Tom Geismar and Robert Brownjohn. The firm was known as one of the first to take simplistic, clean approaches in the way of designing logos for brands- this approach really took off and became very popular, revolutionising the world of graphic design we have created today. He quoted that ‘A Logo should be clean, crisp and comprehensible’.
He has been involved in the designing process for brands such as National Geographic and Mobil where we can see his approach is clear, the designs have been kept smartly simple and clear to the audience- this makes the logo easily identifiable anywhere as it is recognisable to all. Chermayeff states ‘ it is usually a two month process, but it should look like it took five minutes’.
Chermayeff has said that he does not touch computers in his design process, he ‘doesn’t have any buttons at all’. he likes to keep his designs completed by hand – his father was an architect which is where this ideology could have came from.
On the side Chermayeff also created collages which have been exhibited around the world also. His love of using found objects began when he was a young boy at school, he said he was always intimidated by the other students who could paint and draw better than he could, and that he was more fascinated by the garbage instead. He also noted that no matter what he made, his father would say it was great. He still worked making collages in his eighties, he said he was always working, even in the most relaxing places like on the beach in cape cod, he is still working arranging pebbles.
The Stone Twins is a ‘creative brand consultancy’ based in Amsterdam. They are experienced and believe in the theory of storytelling to promote a brand and the positive effects it can have on the outcomes of the advertisement. The brand is run by twin brothers, they act as the principle contact for clients- which gives a personal touch to the business. they say that this reflects their personal conviction that ‘ great design cannot happen without dialogue, passion, and personal commitment.
one of their projects was to create a postage stamp for Ireland to appeal to others around the world and connote ideas of the roots of Ireland and stereotype conventions to truly identify what Ireland is. When they got the brief they wanted to not focus soon the cliche things surrounding Ireland such as leprechauns, shamrocks or potatoes- instead, they wanted to focus on the most common topic of conversation which is the weather- in particular for Ireland this means the rain. the design they have created on the stamp is a green and blue scene with silver raindrops. if you look closely enough each raindrop is a different word for the rain in either English or the Irish language.
I think the stamp has been cleverly though out, the stone twins say that they aim to combine strategy and creativity with personality and wit which is evident in this design. I think that they have used the details of the brief well to create a suitable and fit for purpose design which will be used throughout Ireland.
Peter Saville is a Manchester born art director and graphic designer. He is most known for his work with Factory Records where he has produced many record sleeves. He has produced record sleeves for artists such as WHAM!, Joy Division, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order. He got into the music scene after meeting Tony Wilson in 1978 who got him into Factory Records. In later years Saville became a board member in the studios in partnership with Rob Gretton, Martin Hannet, Alan Erasmus and Wilson.
He is recognised for being the most famous Graphic Designer in the UK, although he says that he never wanted to be a graphic designer in the first place.
Through researching Saville, I get the impression that his work reflects his cheeky personality. for example, when designing for Lacoste, the brief was to ‘do anything you want-but don’t touch the logo’. in his response to this he wanted to totally butcher the logo and come up with many different variations of it, and that’s exactly what he did.
I really like how he can completely change the crocodile Lacoste logo, but it still resembles Lacoste in the viewers eyes. the iconic green colour remains intact and the general shape for most of them is accurate- although it is quite comical how some are just scribbles or lines and we can still identify what the advertisement is trying to portray.