OUGD404 - Study Task 02 - Colour Relativity

At the start of the lesson  Danny asked us to write down our least favourite colour, My least favourite colour is yellow, I chose this because it is the colour i ever seem to use unless the drawing i am creating is of the sun or a sunflower. The point of the task was to select a colour scheme which featured and included my chosen 'ugly' colour and make it work as a colour scheme for a children's book. 

As a staring point i went to adobe colour wheel to help me visually choose colours that create an appropriate colour scheme for children's book. I choose a yellow and kept on adjusting the other colours to try find a match that was gender neutral or equal. Below are a few colour scheme that i experimented with.

The most successful one was the last one, I thought this because the colours are balanced as there is a shade of a colour that is associated with male (blue) and female (pink) as well as two gender neural colours to balance them out. All the colours work well with yellow and compliment it.

  

Studio Brief 1 Other Urban Outfitter rebrands

Below are four of urban outfitters other rebrands. All of the rebrands are completely different, but stick to a limited colour palette. 

- top left - window treatment that was done as a promotion

- top right - initial use in 2005

- bottom left - universal logo 2009

- bottom right - european versions of us logo 

A common themes between them all are 

- They are all readable, not necessarily legible, this allows for designers to play with the layout and lettering.  

- The colours are limited 

- The lettering is bold or in capitals 

Shopping bag from 2014

Shopping bag from October 2015

Studio Brief 1 Fonts used in my designs

Viking Stencil

Viking stencil is a font that i found when searching for a modern and 'urban' font style, that different to the classic helvetica and futura. The stencil look reminds me of a graffiti style lettering which is very artistic and considered a common thing to do for young 'hipsters' which is one of the brands target audience.  

High Tide Regular

High Tide is another font that i found, i liked it because of its geometric style, that is also very playful with its lines. I think it is very suited to the brand as its very simplistic but there is similarities to the font helvetica which is reflected in the things that the store sells as the style of clothing is similar to that of the 80's/90's era.

Helvetica Neue Regular 

Helvetica neue regular is used in some of my designs as compliments the fonts that i found well as it is similar to high tide and also has a nice contract with viking stencil bold letters.

After finding this font High Tide i found that Space a leeds club is also using it in there branding. This reflects my choice of the font was and shows that is appeals to the target audience of urban outfitters, as space is an alternative club with 18-30 year olds go to.

A similar font to high tide is the one in this flyer for a club night at hifi, another club in leeds.
Similarly to High Tide the font uses lines extra lines in the letter form to give it a geometric look to it.

From finding these examples of this style of font already in use in branding that are aimed to the same age range as my target audience it has clarified that they are the most appropriate fonts to use.

Studio Brief 1 Progress

At this stage in the design process of my rebranding of urban outfitters logo i have a wide range of research that have influenced my starting point of my initial designs. My design needs to be fun and playful to match the companies feel, but needs to able to still be recognisable with the brand.
To take my designs further i need to do more research into the placement of where the logo appears through the store such as labels, shopping bags an also the sign on the exterior of the store and take this into consideration when choosing my final design.

Studio Brief 1 Design ideas

After doing a few quick sketches by hand i then went to photoshop to try recreating then to give then a more professional look so i could see clearly how they worked. Just before i started designing i decided to research a few 'urban' fonts and came across two very different fonts, Viking Stencil Stencil which is a stylised stencil font and High Tide Regular which is very geometric, these fonts heavily influenced my designs.

 

- This design is from one of my initial sketches. I used Helvetica Neue Thin font for the type as it is a very modern and simplistic font. I transform the 'u' so that i overlapped with the 'o' to add a small simplistic detail thats isn't over complicated like most of urban outfitters branding has been. I also tightly kerned there letters so make a slight change to the font, 'tfitt' is very tightly kern compared to the rest as i wanted it to look like they were joined together be their strokes.
- This design consists of a mix of two fonts, Viking Stencil for the 'O' and 'U', and Helvetica Neue Thin for the other letters. Using the Viking Stencil font not only adds emphasis on the two letter at the beginning of the works it creates interest and a focus font. The two letters alone could be used as their logo/symbol on branding items. I also kerned the letters 't' and 't' in outfitters tightly again as i think the look of the strokes touching is a nice simple change to font.
- This design is a development of the one above. I decided to try combine the two ideas i have already created by simply over lapping there first two letters and adding one colour in so you could clearly see the different shapes. This worked well as the colour contrast was simple to effectively separated the letters. To develop this more i would experiment with the colours and make it relate to the current colour scheme they are using.



- This design is created simply using the Viking stencil font and changing the colour of each part of the letter. This gave the design a playful and fun feel which reflects the atmosphere in the stores. The colour scheme of green, blue, red, pink, yellow and purple is playful but could be considered as too much for the eye and may not work well on different scales o could possibly limit the legibility.
- This design is a development of the design above, i reconsider the colour scheme to only three colours, pink to represent female, blue to represent male and a green as a gender neutral colour. This improved the legibility slightly but seemed to loose the playful feel that the other design has.

- This uses the font Bilius Regular, i thought it best represented one of my design ideas if joint writing in a handwriting style. This design looked very relaxed with the fluent curves of the letters, which reflects the clothing brand store it is representing. I used the same orange as the store is currently using for their store signs as i wanted to keep some part of the design the same, and the orange is a very playful and fun colour in my opinion so worked was with the font.




- This is a design i developed for a few of my initial digital designs, using the same always of out 'U' and 'O' in the Viking Stencil font and combining it with another from that i found called High Tide Regular. The geometric style of letters is very modern and edgy just like the company is known to be. I altered one aspect of the font as i wasn't completely happy with the look of the letter with the rest of them.

- The 'T' on the right of this image is the original 'T' from the font, but i wasn't happy with it as compared to all the other letters that have lines within the letter form that join onto other parts of that individual letter, the letter 'T' was topped with crossed lines and looked separate to the rest of the font. For these reasons is decided to create my own 'T' to add to the font, the letter on the right, similar to the other letter styles i used to straight lines that joined arms of the 'T' to the stem.
- Add the newly redesigned 'T' to the letters made the font look more complete. The mix of the two deterrent fonts is playful and creates interest by the contract of the two. To develop this design more i will play with the arrangement of the words and also the colours to see if it changes the impact of the design.

study task 2 ysp

YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK

From the day visit to yorkshire sculpture park i took photos of the most iconic pieces of work and also buildings as they are the things the park should be noticed for and would be most useful to influence my logo design.

From these images i did a few quick sketches so i could get the feel of the shapes and only using lines to recreate the complex detail. This will made it easier when recreating them on photoshop and making them into a logo.

 From these sketches i created a few design ideas that used only think line to create minimal detail without the image being compromised. By creating designs like the logo will be able to be used on any scale and still be visible and not distorted.

These three simple outline drawings represent two permeant sculptures at the park and the main gallery building. These symbols have enough detail so they are recognisable but they are still very basic. Once i had these designs i experimented with colours and how well they would work on different backgrounds so that they would work in all YSP publications.

This experiment showed me that the building symbol and the rabbit crawling were the most successful and transferable design. Those two symbols were visible on all the colour tests and the detail was still clear. The sat up rabbit symbol wasn't a successful as the block colour of black was too powerful and took away from the design.

From here i needed to see how well the symbols would work with text this would help me decide on the symbols effectiveness.

this is unsuccessful because that black background takes the attention away from text and makes it irrelevant, and is the most important park of that design is must work along side text, not without it.

This design does that same as the one above, the background is over powering.

Unlike the other symbols above this one works well with a back ground as the symbol is white so there is contrast in the design. there is also a resemblance between this symbol and the current YSP logo design as the symbol is also in a black circle.  This adds links between the old branding and the new rebrand to maintain some consistency.

This design is successful as the building is easily recognisable and the main part to the sculpture park. The design is made from just lines so is easily transferable onto different coloured backgrounds, but could be considered too detailed to be a symbol.

This design is also successful in similar ways to the one above but is also successful because of its basic design and also shows one of this permanent sculptures of the park and gives the viewer an idea of that they could expect to see in he park.

After evaluating the successfulness of all my designs i decided that the rabbit in the back circle was to be my final, as the design works on different backgrounds are it is and would not need changing, as well as the fact that there is a link between the new and old symbol.  

OUGD404 - Study task 1 - Colour

We were set task were we given specific genres in which we must apply a stereotypical and alternative colour to using the colour swatches, picking out pantone numbers.From the list of genres we chose chick lit first. We decided on the stereotypical colour of pink, this was because we considers pink being associated with females, and is socially associated as a very feminine colour, this was relevant the the genre as it is aimed at females. we choose the pantone number EB67B9.

The alternative colour for this genre was a light blue, we decided upon this colour as historically blue was a colour originally intended for females, and is light and not to be taken seriously, similarly to some of the stories in chick lit. the pantone colour code for this blue was A1D8E0.

The second genre we choose was fantasy. We decided on a primary colour of deep blue to give the feel of mystery, and loosely related to deep space, one of the many settings of fantasy books. The pantone colour code for this blue was 005293. We then decided that the alternative colour for fantasy should be a teel. We came to this conclusion as a group because it is similar to the chosen blue but has more depth to it and can be related to a range of different situation, which is reflected in the genre as it has more different settings and story lines.

Our third genre we chose was western, our primary stereotypical for this genre was a light brown, we associated this with dirt and the colour of old wooden saloons and cowboys. The pantone colour code for this was B06F00. The alternative colour for this genre is an yellow gold, we chose this colour due to its association to goldmines and also sheriff badges that appear in many of the western movies. 

Our last genre was horror. for the primary stereotypical colour was chose the pantone colour P 54-8C, a very deep red, we chose this because of the strong relationship between horror films and the association of blood. For our alternative colour was chose a dark grey, we chose this because horror films as usually set on a night or in dark places to make it scarier and we though black was too obvious so chose and alternative grey with the pantone colour code of 423132.

Studio Brief 1 KernDown

We were given 5 san serif letters that we had to create a word from, and lay them out and kern them in such a way that it created a meaning :

By kerning the letters SOVOJ tightly and on a curve we thought this best represented an ice-cream company, as the curve follows the shape of most upmarket ice-cream tubs. The tight kerning gives it a modern and professional feel to if that would reflect an upmarket ice-cream company well. 

We kerned the letters with tight even spacing. We thought it best represents a well established car company because of its set letter style, that gives it a professional feel and that has been taken into great consideration about its simplicity.

We kerned the letters with equal spacing, spreading them out over 3 lines, and on the bottom line just the letter 'J' on its own. This created an interesting compassion that we through best represented a new modern wine bar or up market pub, with its edgy layout.

We decided to tightly kern the letters and put both 'O's above each other, one touching the ascender line and the other the descender line. The layout of the letters we thought would best represent a 

clothes brand aimed at young adults, as it playful yet simplistic with its san serif lettering.

30 second Kerndown

This was our response to the company that would be a luxury car firm. We kerning the letters to give them large spacing and all inline as we thought this gave a simplistic, and the most professional looking layout.

This is our response to how we would kern the letters to best represent a student club night. We equally spaced the letters to give is some form of structure, but then played with the alignment of the letters to make it fun to reflect the expected atmosphere of the event.

This is our response to what would be used for a pest control company. We tightly kerned the letters as we thought this gave an over all serious feel to the word/name as the company needs to be taken seriously and not as a joke. 

This is our response to what would be for a condom company. The letters are loosely kerned and also uneven, we thought this worked best for this company as its not too serious and wanted the customer to notice this from the start and not think it is a very formal and unapproachable.

This is our response to what would we the title of a new Quentin Tarantion film. The letters are kerned in such a way that they are evenly spaced, the 'J' that is on its side was placed like that to represent a run as most of his films contain a lot of guns and are action packed.

This is our response to what would be a children's animation series. The letters are evenly kerns and kerned in such  way that they create a curved shapes line. The light curve of the letters creates a playfulness to it but is still readable. Over complicated design layout may confuse the younger viewers. 

Studio Brief 1 SHEET issue 8

SHEET 

Sheet is a paper produced by beach london for urban outfitters, that show cases creative students design work, and is offerend in stores for free. 

"Beach London is a gallery and agency in Shoreditch, London. They specialise in working with, and exhibiting the artwork of, commercial creatives; graphic designers, photographer, animators and illustrators."

Above is the quote from the first page of the paper, and to the right is the art work that is on the inside of the front cover, it is a double page spread.

The paper is made up of numbers A3 pages of design work students have sent in on a brief that beach london has set and asked for submissions on. Below are a few of the pieces of art work this issue features

At the end f the paper they give you details for the next submission brief and where to send them.

This paper is a great idea as it gets the creative shopers involved with something that goes on in stores, and is also aimed at the target audience as 18+ are the kinds of people that create creative pieces for publication as they are constantly creating them at university or even as there own practice.
The publication is fun and well reflects the atmosphere in the stores.


As well as this creative publication in store i also found a wall in that had the leeds college of art logo on (and possible work from students), this shows that the company supports being creative and fun and also of local institutions.