Critique: Logos are hard

Logos are hard.

I had to say it twice in case you thought I was kidding.

Last week, I got a little commission work from a grad student to make a logo for her grant project that she's working on with the Health Department. It's for something called Health Impact Assessments (HIAs). Basically it's a mitigation tactic for minimizing health risks associated with building new infrastructure and stuff. So like if the city proposed to build a new road, they would conduct an HIA beforehand to evaluate how it would affect people's health (i.e. transportation to hospitals, digging up stuff, etc.).

It's kind of an abstract issue since you could have an HIA with anything. But mostly it's about the community, environment and health. So she wanted the greens and blues, kind of natural colors. I'm supposed to come up with 3-5 concepts by the time we get back from break and it's been gruesome just trying to come up with one let alone multiples. I'm not really good at multiples. I kind of come up with one concept and then either build on it or continue to bend and shape it until it becomes something completely different and hopefully better. So this will be a challenge, but hopefully one that will teach me to expand my conceptual thinking.

Here's what I've come up with so far (this is the first one I've done today so bear with me...is it bear or bare? I like thinking of bears rather than naked bodies so we'll go with that):

I wanted to do a kind of overlapping effect since it involves so many different aspects. Then I attempted for the road imagery in the middle to point to a specific area of what they do and the A can be seen as like a big infrastructure or something. I'm trying to play with the H to make it some kind of community imagery or something. I think the black may be a little harsh in the middle, maybe I'll lighten it up to a shade of gray and add a yellow line in between, but I don't want to be too bombarding with the concepts. I'd rather it be subtle. I like logos that make you go "omg I didn't see that!". We'll see if I get to that point of logo work...but look at that Helvetica. So soothing, yet authoritative.

Response: How Am I Designing? Call 1-800-CS54EVR

There are three people's opinions that truly matter to me when it comes to design: Jan, Theresa and my boyfriend (a graphic designer). Not to say that your guys' opinions don't; it's more I actually get nervous having to show these three my work. 

My portfolio review went way better than expected and that is seriously reassuring. I still feel like I'm in that weird transition period of ex-writer turned designer and thus, still feel amateurish. I'm really going to focus on pushing myself these last few weeks to produce some designs I'm truly proud of. At least I've got some self-esteem to ride out on. 

With the opinions of everyone in the class now mixed with the feedback from up top, I feel like I can finally move forward and have a better idea of what I should improve and continue to develop. This is seriously the first time in four freaking years that I feel like I've learned something valuable from the J-school and that someone really does care about me going somewhere after graduation. It kind of makes all the frustration and nights spent crying on the phone to mom worth it. I'm ready to finish up and get out of here with my head held high. I want to say thanks to everyone for everything so far this semester. It's been the best experience I could have hoped for. /end sappy sentiments 

You Can't Miss: Eye Candy and Display Type

I'm sad to say that I feel like I've been stuck in a rut design-wise. I feel like I'm producing the same content over and over. I needed a good dose of beautiful inspiration to cheer me up and this post from Design Resource Box is helping me get back on track. I found this from the InDesign Facebook page; if you guys don't already "like" them or whatever it's called on fbook now, I highly suggest it. They're always posting cool shit. Like what we're supposed to be doing. Here's some samples from the post that particularly caught me drooling:

From grain edit this week, there's a super cool new display type that was featured called Alicia. I love the mixture of both the mod and the vintage feel I get from this font. While I don't feel like it could work for an entire title or anything, it'd be great for a standout letter or word. And of course a typographic illustration or poster art. Check out the Hype for Type foundry too; some pretty neat stuff on there and some demo versions that are free to play around with.

Response: Heil-vetica and More

Helvetica. Is. Everywhere. See? 


I remember when I first discovered Helvetica (I was a late-comer...so un-hipster of me). It was at my job and they finally gave me a Mac and there it was in all its wonder. I was obsessed with Helvetica-Neue UltraLight. I wanted it everywhere. So I can definitely see why it took off and people used it in mass production the way they did. 


The most interesting part of the documentary, I thought, was the multiple opinions on the font. People either wanted to do everything to stay away from it or praised it for its pure genius. I've never heard so much passionate talk about a typeface before (and the geek inside of me loved it). I believe it was the guy who created Gotham that was talking about how you can say anything in Helvetica and it takes on that meaning. Then David Carson went on the rant about how Helvetica can't possibly be "caffeinated" or "explosive", etc. It was great to see so many different philosophies about typography from such talented people. This was also reassuring that there's no right or wrong way; you just have to be good at what you do. And now some Helvetica hilarity:

The first chapter I read in Just My Type was Chapter 12 about naming fonts you see around you. This chapter spoke to me because I always try to do that and it frustrates me when I can't figure it out or even come up with a guess. It's amazing the little details in each typeface that can giveaway or rule out a guess. I found Marker Felt on a No Parking sign once and immediately sent a picture to my graphic designer friend. Of course, I'm not nearly well-versed enough in the ever-expanding font encyclopedia to have any right to be making my rudimentary guesses, but it's still fun to me. And I'm glad there's a whole community of people who are tickled by the same fancies. 


The next one I enjoyed, coincidentally, was the next chapter (13) that talked about Erik Spiekermann, his fonts and philosophy on typography, and the history of German fonts. I thought it was interesting how he said that he never wants people to pick up an editorial piece and say "what a cool typeface", he wants them to say "what a cool article". I think that speaks true to what we do as magazine designers; we're there to communicate to the reader, not to create arrogant design. I also liked his "messy" approach to creating typefaces. He makes imperfect fonts that work. "We have to create warmth in a digital world," he says. The latter part of the chapter goes into the history of the identity of certain fonts (like the gothic fonts with the Nazi Party) and I thought it was incredibly insightful when Matthew Carter was talking about fonts losing their cultural identity in today's society. He talks about how he could have been blindly taken anywhere and know exactly where he was based on the typefaces on buildings, restaurants, etc. But nowadays in the digital age, a font can cross the world in a matter of seconds and never gets a chance to be associated with an origin.


Chapter 16, which is about pirates and clones, was another one of my favorites. I never knew there was such controversy surrounding Arial. Can you see the differences? I think the book is right about how once you do, you can't unnotice them. 

It was also quite interesting how in order to protect your font from copyright infringement, every single letter in every single weight and form has to apply for its own individual patent (obviously an expensive endeavor for fonts that aren't Helvetica or Arial). I thought there was more protection for something that is used everyday. I feel bad about downloading from dafont now :/ Protect our typographers! 

Critique: Vox5

I've been wanting to do the Vox5 forever now. The iPad means bold colors, big text and luscious photos. When Rachel emailed me about doing it she said that they wanted to start pushing for more typographic/illustrative covers instead of just photos. At first I thought, why start this push for pure creativity with me? I was kind of dreading it because I didn't want to let anybody down when they found out I'm not THAT creative. But then I accepted it as a challenge to my abilities and went in with my chin high and my magic mouse charged.

So I think I've mentioned this before, but I freaking love concert posters. I hope to one day possess the amount of skill it takes to execute one, but a lot of them rely heavily on hand drawn work, a talent which I will most likely never possess (elementary art class was hard). So to those of you artists in the class, if you like music, DO A CONCERT POSTER. Because I'm jealous and you should be using your talents and creative minds to their fullest and I can only imagine great work would come of it.

This relates, I promise. So the music section was about Matt Nathanson coming to the Blue Note so I decided, hey, what's more illustrative/typographic than concert posters? I brought my giant book of gig posters with me for inspiration and began trying to emulate the style. I think it turned out looking like more of an album cover or something, which is ok with me, but I'm happy that I at least tried something different for me.

I picked Futura because 1) it looks great in all caps and 2) it's legible enough that I can have effects going on with it. I always liked the overlapping style and thought it worked nicely to give that poster-like effect. I didn't want to have a whole lot going on with the illustration part since the logo and the text still had to be there, so I just went for a cutout of his hair (and nose ring...a guy with a nose ring?). I wasn't sure if this would make sense since he's probably not that recognizable (like if I did Slash with his tophat, everyone would know what I was doing). So to make up for that concern I tried to create a cohesive texture between the typography and the illustration to give it identity. I like the contrast of the grungy texture with the clean, uniform lines of Futura. I think it creates a nice push and pull with the typography and the art. There's also texture in the yellow background (I don't know if you can tell since it's just a screenshot) which creates another layer of contrast/cohesiveness with the bold color vs. the texture.

I think I could have pushed myself to do something more complex, but I'm pretty happy with the overall effect that I managed to conjure up.

You Can't Miss: Iconography and If Superheroes were Hipsters

This week for you I have a combination of my two favorite things: cute shit and funny shit.

From grain edit, I bring you adorable icons made by Dutch designer Tim Boelaars. These are clean and bold and actually kind of funny. They're just so happy looking. I love the quirkiness of it. This is a perfect example of when flat design works; there's no texture or effects but it's still presenting a message/tone that works. Who knew guns could be so cute?

And now, from College Humor surprisingly, I bring you a wonderful little series: If Superheroes were Hipsters. There are a bunch of these series out there, but I found College Humor's to be particularly hilarious (obvi). I thought they did a great job of interpreting each hero's costume (is that the right word?...don't mean to offend comic book connoisseurs) into a hipster uniform. The PBR Iron Man is cracking me up, but the pose of Spiderman (and the witty Peter Parker photog reference) makes him my instant favorite.

Critique: Black and Gold

This past week I haven't done anything for class besides department pages on Sunday, but I don't have the PDFs for those so I figured I'd shake it up. If that's alright with y'all.

I have a marketing assistant/graphic design position at the School of Information Science & Learning Technologies. It's a division of the College of Education here at MU. Did ya get all that? Yeah. Try putting that name on third of a page info cards.

I generally love my job, but sometimes it can be frustrating. Especially when it comes to the marketing stuff for our services and master's programs/degrees. EVERYTHING HAS TO BE BLACK AND GOLD AND HAVE A STACKED MU ON IT. So. Much. School. Spirit.

It's also sometimes hard to be creative with typography and layout because it has be official looking or whatever. Not to mention I've got 10 different opinions floating around in my head from cool people like my boss and then from stuffy academic professors. I've learned a lot from this job about how to communicate and problem solve to fit other people's ideals with my design style.

So I work in the section of the office with the web guys, who are awesome. My latest project is designing an info card that explains what the web department does and what services they offer. And of course the #1 guideline: it has to be black and gold. So I figure if I have to make an info card about something complicated like computer programming and it has to be a boring color palette, I'm going to make it fun. Because the guys are fun and although what they do isn't glamourous, it's essential and keeps the department running virally. So I wanted to spice up their info card and make it special. We'll see how that flies...Here's what I've got for the front so far. It's simple, but believe me, simple is so much better than the amount of text they usually make me cram on a single side of a card.

I just wanted to make it attention grabbing on the front and then put all the info on the back. I wanted SISLTweb to stick out because obviously that's what the card is about. So it kind of looks like a title to the card, plus integrates into the question. I'm banking on my use of "you" to get people on my side (marketing people love direct address to the customer). I'm hoping they'll be pleased with the freshness of it. Then maybe I can redo everything else in this style so that we have a cohesive theme throughout our materials (which are just a mess of different styles, sizes, layouts, colors, everything). We shall see. You guys think editors are bad...try dealing with one of those bosses that think "synergy" is a real thing.

You Can't Miss: Gorgeous photography and Font humor

So I really love photography. I like pretending to be able to shoot magazine-worthy photos but I am totally ok with just sitting back and letting the professionals do it.

It's kind of sad because nowadays with phone cameras (phonetography) and easy to use high-quality cameras, everyone thinks they're a photographer. Some of my good friends are photo-j kids and my favorite rant they go on is about "momtographers". AKA a mom who got a cheap SLR and now thinks she can professionally take pictures of your babies and families. There are Facebook pages abound for these mommy dearests with kit lenses, bless their hearts.

So this stuff from Patrik Lindell may seem simple, but I've taken photo classes here and holy Batman is it hard to get the exact right composition to make a visually beautiful photo. I mean technically everything is art, right? But you know the difference between mediocre and fabulous. I trust you guys have taste.

I could stare at that grey building forever. Something about it is so....right. His ability to see beauty in everyday architecture and patterns is incredible. Just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous dahling.

So for some comic relief, I found an article from Cracked about fonts and what they really mean. It's just a good lighthearted piece that actually makes some valid points along the way.

Response: PortfoliOHs

My "portfolio" hasn't been reviewed yet so I can't tell you how much I appreciated your input, but I can preemptively do so because I saw how seriously everyone took the reviews so I know I can expect some valuable advice :)

I can however comment on how friggin' awesome it was to see everyone's culmination of works. First of all, holy shit. You guys have done a lot. Kind of says something when it's a group effort to layout and clean up a portfolio laid out on a table. And to see everyone's stuff from things other than this class and basic design was really cool because you can see how people are applying their style to other kinds of design like ads and logos.

I really loved giving critiques on people's pieces because 1) there were so many good things to say and 2) you get to hear (or read) someone else's opinion/take on something which can help in redesigning and solving problems. I know we've all been there when it's 2 am and you're staring at the screen knowing something's just not right but you can't see it.

I hope that I was of some help to you guys. Everyone's stuff was gorgeous and we can only get better from here :)

I am the 1% of VOX (aka the cover)

Here's a picture of my final cover!