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Browsing through Communication Arts' website, yet again, I found a very interesting and inspirational article under their "Exhibit" tab.  The inspirational part I will get to later; the interesting part is that an ad agency--Colle+McVoy, created a print campaign for the RBFF or Recreational Boating &Fishing Foundation  for those of us non-outdoorsy people.

The magazine touches on the organization and their message to get people to fish, but it also provides the avid fishers with pertinent information like hot spots for fishing, campgrounds with fishing lakes, etc.  The creators used every inch in the magazine to provide as much facts and unique design details: a fish getting "caught" by the staple in the middle of the spread, page numbers also signify a fact at the bottom of each page.

This was an inspirational piece because it is what I aspire to do and hope to do on a daily basis in the future: making everything beautiful.  This ad agency took something very, in my opinion, boring and what might only appeal to a select group and made it appealing to very different people and groups.  Their fresh, snappy layout and quirky design solutions (such as highlighting the word fish in an article), allow anyone to become engaged and pick up a tip or two about fishing...or perhaps instill a need to go fishing.

I appreciated the fact that this tiny article was image dominant: several pictures such as the one below were lined up and down on the left side of the site while the text took up a third of the space and was located on the right side.  Links to both the ad agency and the fishing organization were found at the end of the piece. Again, this was a small article but I found it engaging and I even went to both of the websites.  

Small but impactful.

 



http://www.commarts.com/exhibit/recreational-boating-fishing-foundation.html

PIC 5

FORM & CONTENT 4

 I came across this interesting website from the news feed section of the Communication Arts' website.  This is a great website: it is free and open for the public to browse as well as design, their goal is to make sense of our world through data and design.  Because we had just wrapped out our typography portraits, this instantly caught my eye.  Maywa Montenegro is the author and Rozina Vavetsi is the designer of the map below.  While the article begins talking about a new language that was recently discovered, Koro, in India's northern most state, it then starts to discuss the globalization of language.  The article is short and sweet, and not too scientific so anybody without an anthropology degree can understand easily.  And it is pretty amazing that in this day and age when you think no stone has been unturned, people discover new languages. 

I like how the Vavetsi's map is the first thing you see in the article, it draws the viewer in.  The article follows and then there is a National Geographic video showing natives speaking Koro.  Off to the right, is a side bar listing the other articles from this Maywa.  The heading is clean and modern using a grey and bright yellow scheme. The text is also clean and modern, overall it is a simple, honest website which drives at this organizations message of providing unfiltered information using data and design.

The map is really amazing, you need to go to the website below and click on the full screen, the designer created a map of the word using only the names of languages found in the countries.  Not only does this display how vast and varied our world is but how nice it is to see a map that is not comprised of lines designated territories and states--just words.  If you zoom in on certain parts of the world like Turkey or the middle east, it is fascinating to see how many different languages are spoken in one small area.

Not only is this a really cool website but the design is amazing and allows the viewer to get a different perspective on the world instead of learning about it through statistics and figures.



Languages of the World



http://www.visualizing.org/stories/visualizing-languages

Typograpy Portrait

PIC 4

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!!!Big news!!! Gap has changed their logo: Gap with a small blue square overlapping the top of the letter P.   Hmmm, not too sure about this, the logo looks like something for computer software, I liked the look of the denim blue square hugging the little word.  Enough of my opinions for now, I found out about this at the Communication Arts website, there was a little blurb about Gap changing their logo just this week.

The full blog can be found by clicking to the hyperlink at the bottom of my review.  Insgn announced that Gap wanted to change their look--they have had their same logo since 1969.  Due to a public outcry, Gap is offering a "crowdsourcing"project by allowing people to submit their ideas, even though Gap had stated that they are happy with their new logo and helvetica font they are welcoming other designs and will make a comment/decision on the crowdsourcing project.

This was a very interesting blog and it immediately grabbed my attention as the content is relatable to our current logo and brochure project.  The blogger had designed a very interesting page on this story as well, the first thing you see is a big headline in red announcing this historic logo change.  Below the headline both the new and old logo are ready to duel as they are placed side by side ready for the reader to start thinking about which one is better.  Then a couple of paragraphs follow the images; links and quotes are in red allowing the reader to click on to source the original article.  It is a great way to highlight the most important parts of the story as well as allow the eye to weave through the paragraphs.  And in natural blog fashion, there is also a video at the end that shows a brief history of the Gap.  Below the video clip is a forum for readers to leave their comments.

While the blog is a little sparse, it presents the story in a clear, concise, exciting way.  The composition is centered and the use of traditional font and big, bold, red letters create interest.  I thought the images and video clip were well placed and the message about the logo changing was reinforced.

http://idsgn.org/posts/gap-turns-to-crowdsourcing/

PICS 3

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Reading through some articles found in Communication Arts' website, I found an article entitled, "Five Young Typeface Designers and Their Former Careers". It is presented in an easy to read format with examples of each of the designers' works, the link is found at the end of this blog.

Allen Haley, the author of this piece, explores the brief background of each of the 5 international typeface designers--which all but one had a graphic design background.  He then has the designers explain their inspiration for their typefaces, which all mainly derive from either 1920 to 30's old type to literary figures such as Franz Kafka.  Aside from being typeface designers with pretty similar backgrounds, they definitely shared one thing: passion.  There was no large amount of money, or client involved with the designing of their fonts just pure obsessive passion for developing the look and feel for their own typeface.  If you check out the link, you need to see Mister K--the designer even includes 600 pictograms.  Definitely a labor of love!

Aside from being an interesting article, the designers' examples were in color and spaced throughout the article--which invites the reader to continue reading beyond the first paragraph so that you understand the connection between the article and the examples of font.  The format was a blog style or vertical composition: paragraph then a picture in the center, and then right into a paragraph again--which allowed the emphasis to be on the picture. As in the previous piece I wrote about, the font is also grey and the type, while small, is easy on the eye and modern looking--it looks like the text is Verdana.  Again, a very simple composition but effective for the reader for ease and for the piece itself because the focal points are the examples of typeface.  The hierarchy of the article enforces this as well--small, muted-color, type gives way to the bigger, colorful, and crisp pictures. 

Another good example of form and content.


http://www.commarts.com/Columns.aspx?pub=4239&pageid=1384

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More signage from all the places I drive around to in Akron:

FORM&CONTENT I

While browsing Communication Art's website, I came across an article from Pantone announcing the color of Spring 2011.  Honeysuckle.  Pantone collects the forecasts of several prominent fashion designers, interior designers, and other fashion forward taste makers to determine the colors of the season and year.  Along with honeysuckle, they have rounded out a very bright, springy palette consisting of warm and cool toned colors found in exotic locales such as Africa, India, Peru, and Turkey.  Many of the designers had cited that these countries are the place to visit but other countries such as China and the Middle East are in our current events and, therefore, making an impact on our daily lives. 

Even though the blurb about Pantone's spring color was unassumingly listed on the right side of CA's website, it was the word FASHION  that caught my eye and made me click on it. (Fashion Week in NYC has started!)  Plus the little blurb did not mention the color and it piqued my curiosity.  I was directed to Pantone's website were there was the bright color of honeysuckle and the sketch of a model with a dress that made me click on the actual article.  Bright colors command attention, making the viewer stop, if only for a second to look at what is sticking out amongst all the same, neutral, blah background.  The article was actually created as a report, outlining the designers who gave their forecasts; one designer per page.  Each "designer page" had the same format:  a sketch featuring their signature piece on the left, and then a short interview-broken up into four sections-to the right, along with a profile picture in the middle.  The background consists of white but the main text and borders were given a color from the spring palette, allowing each designer to have their own unique page while maintaining a consistent layout for easy reading for the viewer.    Because Pantone is a color producing company and the report was about color, the designer had included color on each page and the text remained a soft grey in a pleasing Verdana font throughout the report.

It was through bright, pleasing colors, and an straightforward composition that caught my attention but kept me interested as well and made me read the whole report.  Content and form were completely interdependent in Pantone's spring color report: it was the color that inspired the report and was used as the constant theme on each page. 

Check out the full report at:
http://www.pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/FCR_SPRING_2011.pdf

Photo Batch: Signs Part1

There is an incredible amount of time to spend taking pictures while waiting at a red light:

First Day of Class

Need to create blog. check. Need to create roughs for 8.25 using pencil. And then need to start taking pictures of "real" life typography. See you after work.