Dissertation results:
To What Extent Has Advertising Contributed to the Change in Male Masculinity?
Solid 2:1. Gratified.
Was quite worried about this, I don’t really know how strong I am at writing and I felt like I had left a few things out but couldn’t cover due to the word limit. Overall quite glad.
TJ Evolette:
I’m not too sure what to think about this typeface, a huge amount of work has obviously gone into make the complete set but I can’t really see it being used much. It might work with one or two projects but because it has such a distinct style, I wonder if people would notice it too much as being the same as some other advert that uses it. Beautifully designed and simple and really interesting to look at, maybe I’m wrong in thinking it can’t be used over a range of designs.
http://26plus-zeichen.de/en/fonts/tj-evolette-a/
Edit: I take back what I said. This typeface is gorgeous and unbelievably versatile. I am using it in my NMP and really love it. The guys who created this are incredibly helpful aswell.
BETC Paris.
Airfrance, Canal+, Evian and loads more. This design agency has produced some amazing stuff. My favourite piece of their work currently has to be the infographics designed for Canal+ that runs alongside the bear television advert. It is evident that these guys know exactly what they are doing. I’d love to work for them.
Carl Kleiners Cover for the Creative Review Annual 2012 is gorgeous. The marble cut A looks great, specially with the missing side. I’ve had a look through Kleiners other work, truly a talented photographer. Most of his work is still life, which is presented so well but I think he might be selling himself a little bit short as it looks like he doesn’t venture out of his comfort zone. Currently represented by mini-title.com, the groups work is all of an amazing standard.
Some of the basic development of the logo/name. This is where I settled on “The Modern Gentleman - A Guide”.
Long overdue, but this is a basic recap of the research I looked at after the advice Lee gave me. he told me to look at high-end, male targeted products; watches, clothing and magazines.
Ulysse Nardin is a company that produces mostly watches for men. The company has been around since 1846 and has nautical style which I think is represented well in the logo. The masculine style is pushed forward with the bold, wide set font along with the use of the anchor to give it more of a feeling of strength and sturdiness. Serifs are used probably to emphasise how long the company has been around. I’ll probably try to incorporate certain aspects, probably the bold typeface, but not a serifed one.
Everyone knows the fashion label Fred Perry, they brand their logo on pretty much everything. Similar to the Ulysse Nardin logo it uses a bold serifed font, all caps, to appear strong and masculine. The wreath is a long standing symbol of excellence which was also used by Wimbledon, relating to Fred Perrys sporting career. Nowadays people will not recognise the wreath for its link to tennis but it does promote an “upper-class air”.
Again, everyone knows the Emporio Armani name and typeface accompanying it. The typeface is the same one used in the rest of the Armani range so we can probably disregard it, but it is worth noting that again it is serifed and all uppercase. The key to making Emporio Armani more masculine is the eagle logo, obviously a symbol of strength, power and excellence, a recurring theme among these images.
There are a few contradicting logos and designs, however there is always the theme of strength, power and excellence, which is why I chose these three to look into. After purchasing my Logology 2 book, I found a few masculine styled logos I thought linked in well:
This page covers some of the logos using the palm of the hand as a key component. Either the logo looked strong and powerful or upper-class so I started considering using a hand or fist in the logo.
The logo at the top of this was one I particularly liked but I can’t help but notice it looks a bit aggressive and borrows styles from revolutionary designs. It will be hard to balance the design correctly so my logo looks strong and powerful without looking aggressive.
The second logo I particularly liked of the selection was the Birano one. Birano is a brand of pasta sauces in Serbia but I still like the design. The illustrative style along with the cuff and cufflink give the feeling of eloquence I’d like to achieve. It does lack the masculine feel in the illustration, but the typeface is nice, and it seems to adhere to the masculine traits seen in the previous logos; bold, strong, upper case but without the serif it looks alot more modern.
Received an email from Tash this morning about an internship at Eskimo creative which I would love to go for but it is over summer and I won’t be around Manchester after May due to fiscal restrictions.
Eskimo creative are a great Manchester based design company and agency. Their work always uses effective use of type and colour which I just like looking at. They have a new website in development at the moment, and probably because I’m using Opera instead of one of the big 3 browsers, their temporary website doesn’t work quite right but it still looks great. Their work that got into the Roses Design Awards was amazing. It is a shame that I’m moving home as I would really love the opportunity to work along side these guys.
Just after the print fair last week I popped into magma thinking about my FMP, with the advice Lee gave me a while ago in mind. If I’m to consider a logo for my work, I need some solid research to give me some sort of idea of where to go, this book is definitely it. Logology 2 contains a few case studies of logo development and hundreds of different logos, grouped in particular styles. I’ve already used it quite a bit for my logo development, I just need to get it up here!
I picked this up at the print fair simply just because its cutesy and quaint, but I can’t find the website or any other information on its creator, Francesca Phillipa. I’m not sure if she is the illustrator or just the person who made the card but google isn’t giving me any useful results. Still really nice.
Alex Frazers amazing hand drawn type pieces made me pick up his zine, quite reminiscent of tattoo designs. His website is nicely styled too, but I feel he needs to involve some colour, black and white works well but not forever.
A while ago, we had a pretty interesting session with Andy Golpys and Jason Mayo from Shape Design Studio, in which they showed us how to work when meeting a possible client and a couple of case studies they have been working on.
Andy and Jason went on to show us a couple of case studies about how they went through this list when in contact with a client. “The House” was a very impressive piece of work, and you could see how they worked through the design process at each step. I would love to just watch these guys work for a week or so but geography says otherwise.
Kristyna Baczynski is another great illustrator from the print fair. The level of work presented at the fair is truly amazing. The Nine Lives zine by Kristyna uses colour really interesting, wish I had taken a photo before my camera gave out. After a brief look at her website I’m really impressed at how she has maintained a canonical style throughout all her work. Worth checking out:
