RYAN PAYNE

The Famous Archives of AIGA

DESIGNERS I KNOW

Who better to start with than Linda Powell, professor at Ferris State University and long time designer for Herman Miller. Linda’s Work

Stefan Sagmeister is a very odd designer who uses a lot controlled chaos in his work which I love because you don’t see that all to often.Sagmeister’s Work

Herb Lubalin was an inspiring designer who had his own company named Herb Lubalin Inc. and created the typeface known as ITC Avant Garde.Herb’s Work

DESIGNERS I DON’T KNOW…Yet

Imaginary Forces is a design agency that… well this what they say;

“We research, we write, we draw, we design, we paint, we photograph, we sculpt, we program, we talk, we argue, we collaborate, we pitch, we imagine.
What do we make?
Film titles. Commercials. Interactive spaces. Television. Live action.  Broadcast design. Virtual destinations. Experience Design. Graphics. Branding. The list goes on.”

David Levine is an artist who creates illustration that are… pretty silly lookin but amazing at the same time at how great they are.

Lawrence Ratzkin is a designer who created a lot book covers and some of his work is… pretty interesting.

Designing Brand Identity: Practice

Playboy Magazine was founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953 and has become the leading gentleman’s magazine today. The company has since developed into a multi-faceted operation that handles publishing, entertaining, licensing, online sales and publishing. Although it seems as if a gentleman’s magazine wouldn’t be at the top of the list for a well know brand, but today you could show almost anyone the logo and they would know exactly what it means. 

The Logo depicts the image of a hare which implies a funny and sexual connotation at the same time, and keeps it playful and sophisticated with the bowtie. Studies show that by 1959 the brand was already so well known that when letter were sent with incorrect address to the Playboy business they were successfully directed to the correct location. 

Advertising has never been an issue for playboy. As they first started out they really didn’t have a lot of competing magazines and by the time other magazines were being released they had built up such a recognizable look that they really didn’t have to worry. Today the brand has come to popular that the bunny is not just looked at sexually, but has in a way become a fashion trend. Today they have put their brand every where they can think of from clothing to renting out the playboy suit in hotels of Las Vegas. 

You ask what does this have to do with advertising because you realize they don’t put up billboards or T.V. commercials, but they have been able to strategically place their brand in so many places that you could just walk down the street and see someone wearing one of their T-shirts. This is very smart because not only do they make profit off selling the T-shirts but they get lots of advertising that way. 

The magazine started off focusing their attention on the audience of men over the ages of 18 who can actually purchase the magazine. Today the brand has become so popular that they appeal women who wish to be apart of the magazine and those who just like the logo, so they purchase clothing with the brand showcased. 

The only controversy that the magazine has is the fact that it is for a gentleman’s magazine, so their target audience has been adults over the age of 18, which completely takes anyone who is under this age out of the picture. But remember that you don’t have to be a certain age to buy a T-shirt with the logo on it so really they can still appeal to the younger audience. 

Overall this company is all focused around a gentleman’s magazine but all that put aside you can’t deny just how popular they have become and everyone is going to still hope one day they get a chance to hang out at the Playboy Mansion. 

Sustainable Architecture

With 1/10 of the global economy dedicated to buildings which include the construction and manufacturers of equipment and furnishings. This activity can use anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of the world’s wood, minerals, water and energy, which would mean destruction of farmland, forests and rivers, air and water pollution and overall climate change. So I believe it is safe to say that converting to a more sustainable way to produce these homes would be a very smart investment. 

With the earths continuous heating at a more rapid rate than ever if you continue our traditional methods of construction and energy use and the overall lifestyles, we are going to continue to cause damage to forests, the marine ecosystems and agriculture. 

Another concern that was brought to our attention is the rapid growth of the “McMansion’s.” This is what many people believe to be the good life, if they have the biggest and best house. Although what they don’t know or just don’t care what it is doing to our environment. What they also don’t realize is the fact that the companies that produce the houses are using the cheapest materials, which in the long run will cause them to replace and overall cost them more money than if they were to spend a little more for better more environmentally friendly materials in the beginning. These new homes are built better with a higher quality, renewable and recycled materials, which are great for the environment and provide the home with a unique look. 

Designing Brand Identity: Process

THE PROCESS  is what it’s all about. 

THE RESEARCH - Some believe this to be the most important part of the entire process and should never be skipped or even taken lightly. The goal here is to gather as much information about a specific subject as you possibly can and once you’ve done that you need to do some more. The research gathered is used to understand the customer, gain awareness, and understand its overall behavior. Throughout the entire process the research is being used and is a great thing to always keep around for those time when you get stuck. 

A great place to gain research is of course going to be the internet, with its growing search engines it has started a new generation which makes the process easier. Although this is a great place to look you can’t ever understand everything through the internet, you always should try to get yourself into the customers business or environment to completely understand everything you can. 

THE STRATEGY - During this phase all the research that has been gathered begins to narrow and you combine the important facts and weed out the not so important, also known as narrowing he focus. Overall devising a strategy after gaining an overall idea of what the problem is and how you execute it. 

Brand Brief is and agreement about the brand essence and attributes. It contains the; vision, mission, brand attributes, value proposition, key beliefs, target audience, key markets, key competitors, competitive advantage and stakeholders. 

Creative Brief synthesizes what the creative team needs to know in order to do responsible work aligned with the overall objectives of the project. It contains; goals, functional and performance criteria, SWOT’s, Positioning, protocols, benchmarks and presentation dates. 

Naming is a complex, creative and iterative process finding a name that can e legally protected. This can not be taken lightly and sometimes can be very harsh and exhausting. You need to come up with many possibilities and pick the perfect one. 

THE IDENTITY -  This is where you can finally start designing. Whether your doing a redesign or completely starting from scratch, you must keep in mind a few things such as; color, typography, sound, motion, applications. Keep in mind that it is difficult to design something that is bold, memorable and appropriate all at the same time. 

Symbols & Wordmarks are complex ideas that can be reduced at many sizes and will hopefully last up to twenty years or more. In this phase a keen strategy, attention to detail, and rigorous testing is required. 

Color is used to evoke emotion, express personality, and stimulate brand association. In many cases the companies primary brand colors are used for the symbol and the secondary color is used in the logotype, business descriptor, or tagline. Although color is can play a major role it is always a good thing to make sure it works in black and white because eventually it will be used without color. 

Typography is usually the core building block of any identity. A unified and coherent company image is never possible without unique and legible typography. It also must be stustainable, and not just a fad. 

Sound is growing very quickly as is being used more and more in brand identity. A distinctive sound can add to any brand. 

Motion in animations also can be a great addition to any brand. 

THE TOUCHPOINTS - Every design can always use proper refinement and continuous development is the key to keeping a brand up to date. This is when you decide on the typeface, color palette and if any the secondary visual elements are finalized. 

MANAGING THE ASSETS - Although this phase may be over looked in many cases this is a very important part of the process. This requires a long-term commitment to building a lasting and successful brand. After your brand has be finalized and you think you can just put it behind you, you realize that your never complete. You must always keep your brand up-to-date to keep people interested in the brands identity. 

Designing Brand Identity: Perception

When Designing a new identity there are a few things that you must work through before even thinking about designing anything, such as the positioning statement and the message. 

First is the Positioning Statement which is a short, pithy, powerful statement which drives the brand strategy. They summarize a promise to the customers, and represent the company’s vision of the future. 

The next thing you must think about is the Message, or Tagline which you need to keep in mind throughout the entire process. The message must be memorable, identifiable, memorable, free of negativity and centered around the potential customers. Keep in mind that they should be clean and clutter free, only say what needs to be said and don’t ramble on nonsense. The overall goal is to reinforce the name and concept of the organization. 

Brandmarks:

Wordmarks are a freestanding acronym, company name, or product name that has been designed to convey a brand attribute or position. The best ones are legible but contain distinctive characteristics. Using either abstract or pictorial elements.

Letterform is a design using one or more letterforms that acts as a mnemonic device for a company name. 

Emblem a trademark featuring a pictorial element connected to the company name. 

Pictorial Marks use a more literal approach with recognizable images which are sometimes simplified and stylized. 

Abstract & Symbolic Marks are visual forms or symbol that convey a big idea, and embodies strategic ambiguity. 

Linda’s Radical Sabbatical continued

Linda is back and this time she’s talking about designing Herman Millers holiday card. She explained that this is the type of design that nobody really wants, due to all the political baggage that comes along with it.

THE PROCESS – Brainstorming was the first step to her design process, with a nice word list of how the holidays make you feel. Even during this step she started to narrow the focus on the words that are more powerful, which she took and started to play with typography. She then came up with a design of having all the words starting off pretty spaced out but then getting busier towards the bottom with having “world peace” at the bottom. Once the design was made she started to play with some color. At this point she got a new wordlist from her writer but still didn’t like them because they were to religious. So she decided to make a new list about all the warm feelings you get during the holidays. Once everything was settled and the design was right she decided to just throw red on the back to finish it off.

The last thing that Linda designed was called “Invest in the Mark.” She had to design the layout of the presentation and show how the Herman Miller logo has evolved through the years. Starting with a logo that has the name, but hopes that in the future people will be able to just look at the circle log with no name and people will be able to recognize who it is. What makes the logo stand out? Size, space around it, different color options, contrast options, relationships between name and logo. Making sure you look at all the options is the overall goal that she is trying to get across. 

Web Tips

So your personal web page is very user friendly, works great and is very visually appealing. But do you have an image gallery, an blog section or even a sweet domain name? Well if you’ve been wondering how to do those things then here are a few tips on hopefully getting you started.

A great website to upload images is called FLICKR. First you need to set up an account which also requires a Yahoo account. Then you need to create a set by choosing upload photos and follow the instructions to upload the photos, but be sure to set the images to public before proceeding. Once you have your set created you can use PictoBrowser, wich is a freeware application that creates a gallery of your images. Enter your Flickr screen name and choose the set or tags and create your gallery and be sure to customize it to your personal preference. Once your gallery is created Flickr will provide you with the code that needs to be imbedded into a DIV container.

TUMBLR is the place to go to ad a nice blog section to your personal website. By integrating the blog into your site by inserting one simple line of javascript you have your new blog section very quick and easy.

Your DOMAIN NAME is simply the name of your website One of the top places to create a name is GoDaddy.com. Each domain name purchased comes with server space, and an FTP client (File Transfer Protocol), which is how you upload content to your server space.