Progress with Daisy's Branding

Here is my progression since last time. Daisy liked the key idea, but I thought it looked quite dated and didn't really reflect her as a designer, the key said feminine and ornate, and her work isn't really either of those things, it's quite gender neutral, or at least has to appeal to both genders. It's also not very nouveau, which is how the key was starting to look. So I spent around 3 hours without any passion left for this project, struggling to bring it back from the brink. I got no where with this approach so I needed another meeting with Daisy to reclarify, affirm my position a little more strongly and give her advice on what she needs to have for the design to put across what she's about as simply as possible.



So after this meeting I felt a little better, although she wanted me to try using a skull, I wasn't keen, her work has skulls permeating through it of all various kinds, and I don't think one skull would surmise this, it would also make her work feel very one dimensional, i.e. everything is about skulls, which is selling herself short. I started to look at the high-end fashion brands she has recommended to me as research:

Comme Des Garcons:


Vivienne Westwood:


Alexander McQueen:


There isn't enough bleed around the Alexander McQueen logo to make it look fully resolved in this image, and I'm also not keen on the logo it's self, the way the 'c' and the 'q' work together doesn't feel that satisfying. But in general terms, there is a unifying theme, type driven, black and white, despite their work being of equal degrees colourful and macabre at times, the label it's self is very simple, saying what it needs ot through the very basic communication of type-based logoform. I feel like I was over-complicating the brief before this, trying to cram too much into one logo. It was a revelation to work simply, all along Daisy and myself were both satisfied with the type or at least the direction the type is heading in.


So I took that, and drove forward, I did try using a skull, but I think my head wasn't into doing it because I knew ultimately this was the wrong way to go. I started playing with xrays at first to sort of satisfy this need for the dark. I realised that I could get this through the colour choices I made, i.e. using black immedietely has this sophisticated/macabre tone.


I started messing around with the composition in terms of where the lettering is in her name, breaking it up into D for Daisy and then SW for the double barrel of Shayler-Webb. I thought that this would provide more of a dynamic than the flat lettering and quickly got to the conclusion of using a ligature for the S and W to unify them, rather than a hyphen. I got to a point where I was satisfied and started mocking up some quick business cards form it. I quickly realised, however, that the type felt too heavy on the page. I reduced the line weight and this felt more resolved. It felt a lot more like a fashion label and less like a graphic design company, which it looked like in bold.


And below is the final logo full bleed, I decided to go with the rectangle rather than the circle, because it looked more sophisticated and classic than a circle, which to me represents a very youth (i.e. too young) orientated appeal. I do quite like the border around it too. I think it increases the sophisticated/high fashion element to it. I also think that it needs to sit in this amount of negative space or more to maintain a minimal feel that will let the quite full on designs speak for themselves.



OK so now I have to show Daisy and see what she says about them. I think she'll be quite satisfied, but I imagine she'll want more colour, so I'll have to fight my ground on that one.

Checking Hierarchy + tweaks I need to make

I printed this to test the hierarchy of the page amongst my peers. I asked about 7. Everybody seemed to read the hierarchy correctly, going from header to pull quote to body copy before looking at the fact sheet at the top and the personal account in the middle, though the order the last two were read was always different but I didn't really have an issue with this. 2 people said that the fact sheet at the far right didn't register with them, but they said that this was because they felt like it was crop/printer marks. I don't think this is much of an issue because they are quite experienced graphic designers, experienced with uncropped prints, this kind of thign wouldn't register with the average reader. The audience i think these would sit with are obviously people interested in cults, collecting things and perhaps even a broad interest in the arts and design, I doubt these things will register with that audience. The rest of the people I talked to about it didn't even mention this.



I then looked at things that might need tweaking, for example, for some reason I'd decided to do the headers all in capitals, which looked a little strange sitting next to a header that used title case. This needs changing to create a greater unity in the layout.



The font inside the peak population/death toll circles is too ligh, I used a light italic. The colour dominates the type and makes it very hard to read, given the amount of bleed certain paperstocks will have, I need to change this to a heavier font. Also, I need to avoid the really jagged edges at the right hand margin of text columns, it reduces the readability of the body copy significantly.


Finally, for some reason the little core beliefs section wasn't in italics, which it is on eevry other layout I've done. I need to ensure that the continuity of these little touches works throughout to create a really strong series.

The Raelian Church

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Following the formula I had for the rest of the cults I'd been looking at (demonstrated by my accidental inclusion of the Manson layout) I came up with a title that got to the core of their beliefs quite quickly. I started working with green because the colour immediately conjures up images of aliens from old 50's b movies etc. and the connotation is ingrained in most people's consciousness. Though the kind of Green is perhaps still subject to change, theres a few possibilities for print finishes with this one, I want to use both glow in the dark ink on the sections of the page that are green, and then perhaps foil block the title? I'm not sure. The image going over the top is reference to some crop circle shapes I'd been looking at as research.

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I then designed the poster (unfortunately I again accidentally included a manson family one). I think this one is quite witty too. We believe in Jesus is what will show up at first, and this seems fairly normal, when it's unfolded to reveal alien, it feels quite funny. It also sums up their views quite nicely. With this one, I'me tempted to use glow in the dark ink and then foil block the lettering. I'm definitely going to use the glow in the dark ink, but I'll test the foil blocking and see if it's too much all together.

Open publication - Free publishing

Here it is in a different green. I'm going to pay around with the green a bit till I get something that works, this one is a little too dark, me thinks.

Feedback from Daisy on different directions:

Essentially, she likes the key direction the best, whilst I'm not convinced that it appears genuinely gender neutral, it feels pretty feminine. I'm still keen on the arrow one, so I'm going to fully resolve the key idea (it feels a little unresolved right now) and then look at the other one and see if I can transform it into something a little more her.

I also had a discussion about what she needs it applying to:
-Business Cards
-Tags
-Labels inside garments
-A press release document with some examples of her work
-An invoice/letter design
-A mocked up website ready to take to a web design specialist

Then I have the 2 designs for garments to look at too. It's safe to say that my book for the book fair has pushed the deadline for this back, I'd like this brief out of the way by the end of next week though. Same goes for the cults brief. That gives me three weeks to do my last two briefs and prep presentation boards.

Feedback from the crit and my talk with Joe Gilmore

Ok, so here's the notes from my crit, I also presented some work for Daisy's logo and stationary. The feedback from the cults brief was that the fold was clever but I need to work on a layout that means the folds don't interfere with the content, which meant looking more carefully at the way I gridded things. They also suggested that I carry that fold and it's themes through to the rest of the work so they all work as a series. Initially I resisted this idea but then I thought perhaps I could do some really interesting things with that fold, having phrases that seemed fairly reasonable or perhaps non-sensical with the words in the middle revealing the real meaning of the phrase in an almost comical way.


I really liked the Baskerville header from the scientology booklet and tried applying more of the stylistic choices from that to the peoples temple stuff I worked on. It seemed much more sophisticated and the Bebas stuff started looking a bit cheap to me.

Whilst doing this, I had a chat with Joe Gilmore who saw what I was doing and saisd that whilst the layouts were adequate, they were pretty simple, like a standard magazine layout and that I should be striving for a little more, he said he liked the way the fact sheet ran horizontally down the side too, creating something a little more sophisticated. I realised he was right and began playing around with what I could do, quite quickly I came across the idea of having more copy running horizontally down the middle of the page in the same colour/finish I was using on the rest of the document, whilst playing with a second pull quote. I realised that it would be ideal to have a personal account running down the side because the main article is very objective and it would be a nice contrast. I played with it's position on the page because I was worried the pull quote was too far away from the main quote. I decided it was best where I started with it aeshtetically, and because it runs the same way as the main article, as a pose to the rest you look at it first over the article running the wrong way next to it. I also changed from helvetica neue regular to light because then it's less likely to interfere with the standard hierarchy of the page.

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To get the layout not to interfere with the fold or visa versa I divided the page into 3 gutter-less columns and then divided the middle one into half. I then added further columns till they aligned with these and had enough robustness to get enough words per line in the body copy (which turned out to be the ridiculously high 34 across an A3 page. I also divided the page into 4 rows to accomodate the facts running down the side. This came in handy when arranging the further body copy that runs horizontally down the page.

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I then applied this layout as a standard template because I thought it really worked, this allowed me to look at using the poster format across the entire range of cults. If I use a standard format, I can also do more than 4 cults and try out a realy diverse range of print processes. Here's what I did with scientology, I still used the picture of Tom Cruise, but half toned it under Joe Gilmore's recommendation that it look a bit edgy like that to suit the subject matter. I then experimented with the pull quote covering his mouth to symbolise the rstrictive nature of scientology that the quote talks about. I now realise that Katie Holmes, Cruise's wife, would be a better choice, because it's a commonly held belief in the media that she is being supressed by her mental scientologist husband. So I'll make that change.

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I applied the format to the Manson stuff I was doing, including an interview with biographer Vincent Beugleosi in the weird format. I tried a few things in terms of the overlay for the pull quote. At first I tried a blood splatter using a splatter brush, but it looked really tacky and cheesy compared to the sophistication of the rest of the article, so i tried the geometric tear drop shape I'd been using earlier and I think I'm likely to go with a variation on this, but I'm going to need to ask peoples opinions about it first.

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Here is the poster layouts I started developing in response to this. I really like the kool aid one, and the Manson one doesn't feel fully resolved yet, but it's heading in the right direction. I'm going to do the Raelian church tomorrow and see where I go with that before reviewing them all.

I also need to print out some of these pages just to doube check the readability and the hierarchy. If it's too distracting then I can maybe whack the tint of the writing down a bit to make it sink into the background more, so theres always solutins if it isn't quite working how I want it to.

Cults development work

Firstly, I decided to start looking at the scientology brief. They often say 'we are not a cult' and the question as to whether they are a cult is a large discussion that surrounds them, I thought of this fold that hides the word 'not' in the centre of the page. I personally feel that this is quite a clever idea and quite a unique fold, it leaves quite a nice square format too. I want to roll with this:




So then I spent some time designing it, it came together pretty quickly, I've coloured it gold here because I want to use either a gold foilblock or a metallic ink to represent how wealthy they are an how respectable they want to be. I've used a serif font because of it's traditional connotations of respectability and tradition that echoes their intention quite well. I started with Times, but changed to Baskerville Bold, The weight that it takes up on the page and the shape of the letters is much more flattering than the quite angular times, so I stuck with it. Below I put a definition of cult and simply 'A guide to the church of scientology. I think this both defines the subject and the specificity of the content inside quite well.

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I then began designing the cntent inside, I decided to take baskerville bold to the header fonts inside to create some continuity, then essentially I started playing with the layout and the font sizes. I got to a point I'm reasonably happy with, but it's far too simple, it needs something else, so I'll se what happens with the crit feedback on this one.

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Above is some different font sizes for the body copy to check readability, I was quite happy sticking to helvetica because it's a nice clear sans serif that contrasts with the serif header pretty well. Also it's the font I've currently got going with the People's Temple body copy and it would create some continuity in spite of the different styles and folds I'm thinking of right now. I tried a few different sizes ranging from 6pt (that literally made David gasi cringe, up to 8 pt. I settled for 7.5 pt in the end under the advice of a few of the more type competent members of the group. I have to agree that at 7.5 pt it does have readability without being too large. I'm always very aware of making body copy too big as a pose to too small, because when I see body copy that's too big, I feel like it's insulting my intelligence or it's patronising me a little.

Below is the product where it's at in development, printed in colour for the crit.





I also started the Manson family stuff, and here is my development for that, I was wanting to create a leaflet in a similar style to the qubik leaflet that I showed in a previous post. It feels a little content heavy though, it occupied too much of the page and didn't have the negative space that I really liked in the Peoples Temple work that I'd been doing. I tried increasing the leading and linespacing to make the content look a little less heavy, and it did work, but it still felt to heavy to look at, to I'm going to have to look at a different solution and the crit can perhaps help.

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Open publication - Free publishing

Below is some prints o look at readability, I looked at futura and gill as well as different line spacing, leading and point sizes. But it didn't matter what I did, I knew that this wasn't a good direction to keep going in, so I'm going to ask for some help on this in the crit. Things I do still like include the blood droplet shape and the continuation of the little facts bar running down the side.

Manson Family progression

Here's some more development I did around the idea of 'now is the time for Helter Skelter'. the command Charles Manson gave his followers to murder Roman Polanski's wife along with other celebrities.

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Initially I wanted to do just the slogan but it looked a bit bland by it's self, so I put in the picture of Charlie Manson, even though it wasn't working before. It started to work better with this typography over it though. I started working with the idea that it was a command for bloodshed and started with quite an over the top response with blood everywhere. I thought it was a little too much and in your face, so I decided to tone it down, using geometric shapes to create a wound and blood drips, which seemed a bit tamer and a bit more intelligent.

I think the most successful response to the brief is the single droplet of blood central to the image with the word for within it. the smaller for creates a bit more of a dynamic around the type, and the centre align works well. It also works conceptually because the command is to begin the bloodshed so a singular drop of blood really works well. I think because everything is central, the composition seems to be working well, also.

Below are the more final versions of what I've been doing, as I say the last one, where everything is centrally aligned with one blood drop works the most successfully.







And finally here it is as a flat slogan, I don't think it's as successful as having the photograph at all. The flatness of it is just a little bland, and without the photo of Charles Manson (which I'd lambasted in an earlier post about my work) it doesn't seem to say as much about the cult. I asked a few of my peers and they seemed to agree. The photo of Manson is ok, and it does tie this one to the koo aid one, thematically, I'm juust not keen on the photograph, I just can't seem to find one bigger. I'm going to go to Leeds Mets' Library to try and dig some photos up though.