UMD Graphic Design

Famous Letterheads

jgordonumd — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:28:20 +0000

Thought this find was fun, seeing as you seniors are working on your letterheads. Take a look at what has been designed for letterhead for those famous, over the years at designer-daily.com.

Wow, Talk About Obsession

jgordonumd — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:56:30 +0000

Check out this website, Swissted. It’s all about copying the Swiss International style to create music posters. Found it interesting, especially in the light of SOPA and copyright being such a big issue.

10 ideas for Kopimism

jgordonumd — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:02:26 +0000

poster_process

Rhythm and Balance

jgordonumd — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:39:50 +0000

We could say much here about how balance plays a role in this poster. The designer employed many tricks of the trade here to show weight and create balance.

http://www.ourtuts.com/40-creative-examples-of-music-posters/

I can’t help but look up band or music posters to look for rhythm. I love the diagonal movement of the abstract forms that show rhythm here.

Keep in mind the idea of stability versus variation when working on books. Grid helps create stability while use of graphic forms and type help to provide the surprise and visual interest.

My Latest and thoughts on line

jgordonumd — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:36:59 +0000

I have been working on various materials…a whole identity in fact, for the Duluth Community Garden Program. My latest task for them was to do a poster for an upcoming fundraising dinner. As I hand painted vegetables for the poster, I thought about line quality and how it can easily determine variation in weight and direction.

Looking at the poster, I think about the line quality of each of the typefaces I chose and how that changes the emphasis and even the character of the information.

Symbols

jgordonumd — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:48:06 +0000

Just took a quick look out there today and found some great icons for a subject I am interested in…Healthy Food. This guy, Patrick McComber (southyall.com), did these great icons for what, I don’t know exactly, but I get the idea that it is for something healthy. And, I like the idea that you can describe one thing with so many different icons, that are all in one visual family.

Point, Line, Plane

jgordonumd — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:38:34 +0000

What does Point, Line and Plane mean to me? In many ways, I see it as a journey, whether it be in the mind, with the eye or with the whole body. The captured archive of that journey can be described with the point, line and plane. Everything starts at a point, leaves it, arrives at another point, and that journey between the two points is either a line or a plane. The difference between a line and a plane is that a plane has a surface. The whole surface in which you travel, including all those lines, is also the plane.

What I like about the design of this book and why I think it represents point, line and plan, is that it’s main graphic is made up of points that make lines. And the entire plane of that surface resembles a wafer both symbolically and figuratively.

I have to remember victionary.com…because I have to get this book and peruse others that are published here.

It makes me also think about my obsession with food and cookbooks. I love the idea of doing recipes in a more unique way (like on good.is)

Design for Good

jgordonumd — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:18:54 +0000

This semester I will be exploring some personal research in the area of Design for Good. It’s an exciting new area … well, not new exactly … designer’s have long been interested in using their talents to do work for social good. What’s new maybe is that many public policy thinkers are starting to think designers have something to offer in the way they approach problems.

As a part of my research, I will be doing many things. I will be reading—Just Design, by Christopher Simmons

I will be looking at many websites:

Project M

I will be visiting some people/places doing good things:

EPIC: Engaging Philanthropy / Inspiring Creatives

Moving Design

I will be working with the AIGA: Minnesota, hopefully, starting the Chapters Design for Good work

Urban Design

jgordonumd — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:03:12 +0000

I love the idea of urban design and the potential we have as designers to make a difference at such a big level. We don’t just design posters or cd covers, we create beauty and usability in landscapes.

Check out these resources for urban design:

Urbanized is a new movie by Gary Huswit, the same director to do Helvetica and Objectified.

One the artists/designers he interviews is Candy Chang whose work include street art in urban design. Her ideas intrigue me because she includes the people and the ideas on the street. Check out Candy’s work.

Design Presentation + Spirit Book

jgordonumd — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 06:26:51 +0000

What should your design presentation look like…

Remember…this is what it should contain:

Vision
Mission
Big Idea or Brand Essence
Brand Attributes
Value Proposition
Guiding Principles/Key Beliefs
Target Audience
Key Markets
Key Competitors
Competitive Advantage
Stakeholders
Driving Force

Your look should have personality and be cohesive…you will work on the Spirit Book and the Presentation simultaneously, so it the spirit should be seen in the presentation as well.

Provide us with a show…sell your ideas…what do you like as a presentation? Not just words but visuals, right. I’d say your presentation should be mostly your visual findings and ideas while your research data is told to us.

Show us what the product looks like…the truck, the comics, the restaurant, the key..this may have to be your own creation as a prototype or from images of what you would expect it to look like.

Use your typographic skills to show us the important words…like the Big Idea, the Vision and Mission, the Brand Attributes and the Value Proposition.

Use information design or infographics to present the data. Help us to understand the data you present in a visual way. Especially your comparisons and Competition information. What does that include, you might ask.

Remember to look at both direct and indirect competition.
What does the competition do exactly? How does that compare to you?
What does the competition look like? Both in terms of physical and brand. A chart of the different brands you compete with.
Who are there key audience members? How does that compare to you?

http://www.good.is/infographics

Use illustrations and photographs with an idea of the style you would expect to see with this brand.

Think of alternative ways to present you data…

Flash Presentation: Linney Connect

Motion Graphics: Technicolor, Asics

What is a Spirit Book / Brand Book?

A Brand Book, sometimes referred to as a Spirit Book, describes the essence of a brand, either through images, text, illustrations or some of the above. As seen with these examples, books are used for many different reasons to show many different stakeholders what the brand is all about.

The BMW Brand Book shows the image of BMW through all types of photography, showing the consumer, the road, the product, and the emotional response through various macro shots.

The Hi Brand Book, a Dutch telecom company, uses a variety of different media to create their book, much like a scrap book.

Carhartt’s Brand Book unveils a new market with their book. They use stories of consumers, history and images of the old and new styles of clothing.

SOS is a service in England. This Brand Book describes in many pages, through words and images, styled in many different ways, what this service is and who it is for. The_SOS_Brand_Book

Your identity will not be set in stone at this point, but you will be giving them ideas about what they could look like. The spirit book will try to capture the spirit you see for this brand. It doesn’t necessarily express itself as a mark yet or as a logo but you will explore type that could suit them, symbols/illustrations, photographs.

Other Resources:

Studio North’s Identity Work for Parasol

http://issuu.com/golike/docs/tsa-rebrand