Saturday, 16 May 2015

Practical Evaluation

This brief was fun and really interesting to do, it was good to learn that you have to think if a style is appropriate to a certain brand.

My drawing of letters has improved, however I still need to work on being able to use typography pens because that skill would of opened up the experiments more. I should have organised certain periods of time where I know I would experiment with the logos, so I could spend more time on working with different tools. 
I'm disappointed that I didn't have time to paint any of these up, but that may be a summer project for myself.

Logos that did work were the four that I finalised. At the beginning of this I thought that all of the logos would of worked, but as a designer you have to work out if it's appropriate or not. The design has to communicate the business and with companies such as BMI the logo already worked well has a digital design.






Practical - Lidl

Lidl is widely known as a cheap shop and the logo matches this. The colours are gaudy and very dated. Recently, Lidl have been trying to move away from the cheap shop stigma and become more a luxury looking shop. 



I looked just at the type of this logo and left the circles and square. I experimented with different styles of font but script font worked the best. Since they want to look a bit more classy, I played around with the script more. 
 This was quite an easy logo to redesign because my ideas were clear, they want to look less cheap, so working with a hand rendered script is appropriate. I kept the original colours in the final logo so that it isn't totally different from the original.





Practical - The Co-operative

The Co-op is a big company that covers a lot of sectors like, money, holiday, funerals and food. Working on a logo that would be appropriate for all of these was difficult.


I experimented with using sans serif and serif fonts together and separately. This logo didn't work because the original works good enough. Making the logo look older didn't work because the company is quite modern and very current. Script didn't work because it doesn't communicate a trustworthy bank etc. This logo was not appropriate for hand rendered type.



Practical - Best

 Best is a countrywide vintage shop company. They have their own online shop with their own clothing as well, however the logo doesn't work, it's quite boring and for a creative clothing company it could be more exciting.



I began by trying to draw the letters throughout era's and work out what was best. I tried 20's, 40's, 70's. After looking through them I decided the victorian style of text with the lined drop shadow worked best. There's a vintage style to it and with some detail which makes it more interesting to look at. I then experimented with colour and media, coloured pencil worked best for blending and neatness. A simple purple and grey which complimented each other added a burst of colour to the logo.






Practical - Home Bargains

I chose to look at Home Bargains because it is quite opposite to Waitrose. The design here is full of colour and is quite bold, which is similar in a lot of cheaper shops. I wanted to see if hand rendered type would add a luxury element to the store.



I began with changing the styling completely by using a traditional serif font. This did work for it because of the old style of it. I also tried a script font, which developed my pen skills and did work for the store as well.
I began to mix the two types, to communicate a good family company with the serif font and a modern current store with the script.
I then deiced that I was only finalising it because I wanted to. I don't think that this logo would work for the store, the original logo does work well. A hand rendered logo adds too much detail and confusion for the company so it wouldn't be appropriate.

 



Practical - Waitrose

Waitrose is known for being a posh shop. The original logo is a clean and clear design. However, because it is 'posh' I wanted to make it look posh. 



I began by trying a couple of script fonts, which do look more luxurious but wouldn't work in context. I tried uppercase to see if that would be more legible and it did remind me of their very successful packaging they have. I then went to try a classic old serif font, which did work nicely but I decided that Waitrose had a good enough logo. It doesn't need anymore detail or a hand rendered version because they carry this design idea throughout their shops.




Practical - IBM

IBM are a big faceless corporation. Even trying to read about them is confusing but I understand they are to do with computers. So the original logo works quite well already, even though that is true I still want to experiment with it.

I began my simplifying the logo, then attempting a classic script style, then without the serif to see if any of it worked. After a few experimentations it was clear that IBM does not suit a hand rendered kind of logo. The logo now is totally appropriate to the company.



Practical - Aire Bar

Aire Bar is a local bar along the river that values home cooked food from the local area. The current logo is quite an odd one because of the very dark green they have used and modern sans serif typeface. Since this bar is all about good honest local food it has a traditional standing behind it, there for a home made (hand rendered) serif font may be more suited.



Began by looking at the original and trying to add some detail to make it a bit more interesting to look at. Which then developed into the idea of joining the words up link them all together like the Canal does on which Aire Bar sits upon. I chose to stick with the green as it makes sense to the natural quality food they have an offer, but updated it to more of a lighter friendlier tone. The Victorian style drop shadow is to reinstate it's traditional, local, home made food and drink ethos.







Practical - Etsy

I began with Etsy, it was recommended to me in the crit and I thought it definitely could be drawn and played around with. Etsy is an online shop that values home made, natural materials and organic apparel for men and women.

This logo doesn't demonstrate what Etsy is, the Serif typeface is old fashioned, it has a odd detail that the serif is slightly curved which looks clumpy rather than smooth. 


I began by looking at what's not needed and then playing around with the detailing. A hand rendered script really suits this logo more because it does look home made etc. I thought about adding natural detail like flowers etc but this could of been too gender specific and not communicate the fact it is an online clothes shop.






I chose to go with the curvy script style letterform and water colour it green. Watercolour is a more gentle way to colour something and I think the green as well communicates the natural organic ethod Etsy enjoy




Practical - Research

I looked at a range of books and online websites during the experiments for inspiration and ideas on how to finish some letters etc. 













Practical - Initial paintings

Initially I planned to paint logos, possibly change them and analysis if a hand rendered version of a digital logo adds anymore value to the design. 

I started with Aldi and Intel. Two simple logos from different industries.
However, after painting these up I realise that simply painting them won't add anything to the logo. So I needed to revise my ideas.



After Crit

After Easter, we held a crit which really helped my direction for this brief.

New Brief

The aim of project is to work out if any digital logo can be turned into a hand rendered logo, by drawing them up in different ways and it keep the same message and identity. The logos will be from a range of industries, this is an ongoing investigation.

Originally, I wanted to paint a lot more but with this style of investigation it easier and more time efficient to be sketching up my ideas, and finalising ones that are appropriate in an appropriate media.