Grid Case Studies

My first grid case study is this front page of The Times newspaper.
As you can see the title of the newspaper 'The Times' is spread across the entirety of the page as the top. This is in line with the typical grid format for a newspaper. This is then followed by the date and edition underneath, again which is in accordance to the grid. They have then displayed a headline underneath this which covers the page from side to side and also is accompanied by a picture. Underneath this is a headline which accompanies the main picture on the front page (which spreads the width of all 4 columns of writing at the bottom of the page). underneath this is the paper's main headline, with the title and tagline spreading the width of the grid, then followed by 4 columns of writing for the article.
All of the newspaper's features are in line with the grid format that would be in place for this kind of front page, with nothing breaking that. This provides consistency, structure and rhythm for the front page as you know exactly where to look and when. You are firstly drawn to the picture and then the main headline, this is how the layout should make you look at it and where you should look. It enables you to understand the different stories and what they're linked to and so therefore you know where to read and when. This then allows the reader to know whether or not they want to buy the newspaper as they are then aware of the main stories that they are covering.


My second grid case study is a magazine spread from Natural Wonders. You can see that the double page spread consists of 2 columns per page, which is unusual as normally it would be at least 3, maybe 4 per page, but they have chosen to have wider sentences.
With they have set their grid shows that they have not broken it with any type, however they have inputted pictures that break the grid on the second page of their spread. They have 4 pictures  that are not all in line with the grid layout and cover the width of the page. This makes the layout more interesting and breaks up the text a bit. The first thing you are drawn to is the main picture of the rock formation and the title 'Natural Wonders' as they are coloured similarly and are spread across the first page. You are then able to see the beginning of the story where they have placed a drop cap at the start of the sentence. They appear to have one pull quote, however they have inputted this in the grid layout, which is possibly because of the type of magazine it is.

Breaking the Grid - Magazine Spread

In this weeks seminar, we were given the task of creating a magazine spread using materials we were given. We were put into groups, where we had to pick a set of material each and decide on some rules of design that we all had to follow. Our rules were as follows:

• 3 columns
• Title font - Helvetica
• Title colour - Black
• Title size - to fit length of page
• Body size - 9
• Body font - Baskerville
• 2 page spread
• First paragraph bold
• Pull quotes size - 16

As you can see above, I have followed all of the above requirements for the magazine spread I have produced. 

As the theme of this weeks session was 'breaking the grid', I ensured that my pull quotes did exactly this. All of my pull quotes are outside of the original grid columns that we placed. I did this in order to make them stand out, as although they are in red font, italics and quotations marks, as well as being in a bigger font and bold, they would not stand out as much if they were hidden into the same format as the main body text. By breaking the grid it allows the quotations to stand out and ensure that they are the first thing that the reader reads. 

This is a common occurrence in magazine spreads, however not so much in newspapers. 

Photographic Case Studies

My first photographic case study is Nestle Nesquik. The reason I have chosen this is because I feel there is a lot to talk about with the imagery that they have used.

Nestle Nesquik produce cereal, mainly for younger audiences (such as coco pops) and so are not only trying to sell to younger audiences who want to eat them, but also adult audiences (parents) who they want to convince they are suitable for their children to eat.

In the picture advertisement you can see the the box of cereal is sitting on a table in a kitchen. You can see a bowl next to it, fruit on it's other side and a kitchen desktop in the background (with a sink and cupboards etc). This makes the viewer believe that the cereal is good for children as it is part of their healthy intake (as well as the fruit that is shown).

By using cartoon animals on the box as well, they are more likely to attract young children. You can see that a bunny rabbit is used for Coco Rocks and a monkey is used for Coco Pops. These are 'cute' animals and therefore are attractive to children and their parents as being 'harmless'.



My second photographic case study is Heinz Tomato Ketchup. Their main want is to ensure that people buy their product and do not believe it is bad for them or full of added sugars and chemicals.

Because of this they have chosen to create an advert simply using one of their bottles filled with just ripe tomatoes. This is very clever photography as it is simplistic yet extremely effective. They are showing consumers that 'What you see is what you get', the sauce is simply made from fresh and healthy tomatoes.

They have not, however, included the other ingredients into the bottle. They are not lying by doing this because the sauce does contain fresh and healthy tomatoes, not tomato flavourings, however it also contains salts, sugars, etc.

They are trying to prove that they are a healthy and reliable source for extra flavourings with your food and that they are not hiding anything (hence using a transparent glass bottle).

Colour Case Studies

My first colour case study is Coca Cola.
Coca Cola predominantly use red (background) and white (text) for their logo and branding. This is evident in their logo, transport, merchandise and products. However you can see in their old branding that they also included green as one of their main brand colours.



It is very likely that the inclusion of green in their old adverts is because Coca Cola are predominantly known for being the prime brand at Christmas time, with their Coca Cola truck visiting different cities across the map and Santa Claus always being involved in their advertisements throughout December. It is also known that St Nicholas also used to wear a green suit (not red) so hence why the inclusion of green was used and then dropped once this was changed to red.

It would be likely that their use of red and white is to ensure they stand out as a brand and also connote that their flavour of drinks stand out from the rest. This appears to have worked as there are many cheaper alternatives to Coca Cola, however they run the market for this fizzy drink. Also being a primary colour, it gives the feel that they, as a brand, always have and always will be there and they are a reliable source.

My second colour case study is Natwest.
Natwest use the colours: purple (background), red (the interlocking cubes logo) and white (text). These colours are all very bright and hence stand out to a viewer.

The bank want to stand out to their market, especially the younger generation, as they are aware that you need to sell a bank to an audience. Because of this they wanted to use bright colours (they have also incorporated bright blues, yellows and pinks into some of their advertisements) to ensure that they jump out at their audience.
Their original logo had a black chevrons interlocking and has since changed to red and then to cubes. They have done this to stand out more as black is not a bright colour and can look dull. They have also re-vamped their purple colouring, as this used to be a navy/dark purple and is now a bright purple colour, again to stand out.

Album Cover Re-make

 ORIGINAL

MY RE-MAKE

This is the album that I decided to re-design: Adele 25. 

I changed the colour mode in Photoshop from RBG to CMYK. I then proceeding to change the colour of Adele's lips and eyes. I decided to stay quite simple with the re-design as the album cover is just her face, so it doesn't need much editing.

I decided to make her lips an orangey-red colour to match the 25 and also because it makes her lips stand out, which can catch both female and male attention. I then decided to make her eyes a piercing blue colour. This is not actually her eye colour, her natural colour is a more greeny-hazel colour, however I felt that this made the cover look washed out as it is already in a sepia effect so chose to go with blue.

By having the album all dark apart from her distinct facial features and the number of the album (her age), it makes it stand out more to people who are passing by it. It also allows for the male gaze as men are more likely to find her attractive with her features being distinct.

Sourcing Images

We were taught this week on how to correctly source images for our designs, in order to make sure they are industry standard and appear the best quality.

We learnt how images taken from the internet will nearly always be in the mode of RGB (Red/Green/Blue). This is because this is the format that computers put images into to share on other computers. This, however, is not the colour mode that is needed for professional printed images. The colour mode needed for this is CMYK (Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Key).

There are different ways to ensure that you get images of this colour mode, you can either:

1. Search for 'Large' images on the internet as these will have more pixels in them.
2. You can convert them to CMYK in InDesign

With all images you need to ensure they are above 300dpi to ensure good quality print (screen are 72dpi) and ensure they are CMYK not RGB and bingo, you've got a good quality print image.

Logo Case Studies

We have been set the task of finding 3 interesting case studies, using the following criteria to assess them:

1. Analyse and comment on the use of type, shape and colour;
2. Compare and contrast the designs;
3. How successful is the design?

I have chosen to do a few more than 3 as I have found that particular industries follow a stereotypical design for their logos which will include or not include particular things.

My first category is food. I have noticed that food logos are always brightly coloured and their shape within their design reflects that of the food that they are representing. For example with the ones I have chosen: the face of the man featured in the Pringles logo is an oval shape, just like the crisp they produce, the Doritos logo has a triangular shape going through it (again like the shape of the crisp they produce), and the Domino's logo is in the shape of a pizza box to represent the food they are serving. Domino's have also added in the feature of including the symbols for a domino game piece which allows customers to clearly denote the reasoning for that being because of its name.

The brands have used bright colours in order to stand out. This could also connote stand out flavours and is used in order to make the brand attractive. They need this in order to show that they are the best brand to pick as they have many rival and cheaper competitors, whereas high end fashion designers do not face the same problem (I will explain this further down.)

Commenting on the type used, all of the brands have used San-Serif fonts. This is likely because they do not need to use 'fancy' looking fonts (Serif fonts) as they branding is straight to the point. They do not need to impress their customers with their branding as they are known more for their taste, which is more important than their image. This, again, is different to other retail categories, such as fashion.

Overall I would say all three logos are successful in their design because they are clearly showing the product they are giving you subtly through their logo and due to their bright colours are able to stand out from a crowd.










My second category is delivery companies. Delivery companies always follow quite a simple design for their logos so that they are straight to the point. One stereotypical feature of this is an arrow (to signify getting from one place to another, which is the purpose of a delivery company. You can see it here with Amazon's logo, with the arrow running underneath the name and with FedEx where the arrow is hidden in between the 'E' and 'x'. 

Amazon's arrow could also be portrayed as a smile, using the letters as eye's which signifies good customer services. They use a San-Serif font in order to keep the logo simplistic and only include the company colours (black and yellow). Their design is successful as, even if you just saw the yellow arrow, everybody recognises that as Amazon.

FedEx's design is very successful and clever in the way they have produced it. They have minimised the tracking of the words so that all of the letters are touching each other. It is clear that they have done this so that they have an arrow featured in their logo without physically inputting one. They have used a San-Serif font in order for it to be clear what the letters are when the tracking is reduced and they have only used two colours (the company colours) in order to distinguish the two words and in order to make people link those colours to their company. 

Moving on to my last category: Designer brands. The brands I have chosen are Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Apple and Nike. The reason I have chosen these is because they are all very different in what they produce, however are all a high 'designer' brand name and hence follow the same stereotypes when it comes to their logos. 

Starting with Chanel, you can see that their logo is made up of two 'C's', one facing forward and one backwards and overlapping. They have done this because the designer's name is Coco Chanel so they have used her initials, making a simplistic yet effective design.    Using the initials of the designer is a stereotypical thing to do in fashion designing, which can also be seen in my example of Louise Vuitton. The difference between these two brands, however, is that Chanel have used a San-Serif font for both their logo and name print, however Louis Vuitton have used a Serif font for their logo and a San-Serif font for their name. The reasoning for this would appear quite simple as, if Chanel were to use a Serif font for their logo, it would make it look quite strange as the C's would have flick's on the ends of the top half of the curve, whereas by using a San-Serif font, the C's look like mirror images on both each other an each half of them, making the logo look more professional.

The other brands I chose were Apple and Nike. Apple is a technology company and Nike is a sports design outlet. Both of these logo haven't included any type and are purely based on image. The reason for this is because both companies are so large and well known that they do not need any type to accompany their logo because everyone knows exactly who they are purely based on the apple and tick. 

Addressing the colours that they use, all of the brands use a plain black with white background for their logos. This is because, being designer brands, they don't need to be eye catching logos or to jump out at you because their brand identity is enough for you to want to buy from them. In this respect the design is very successful as they are showing that they do not need fancy logos to be a good brand.

When contrasting the designs, it is very clear that all of them have certain elements which are stereotypical of their category in the market. All of them are effective and successful in their own way and all use totally different characteristics. Food brands are very colourful and representative of what they are selling, delivery brands are plainly coloured with an arrow and designer brands are usually coloured black with a simple design. Because they are all for different purposes, none of them are more effective than the other and all of them are very well known and recognisable brand logos.

Bright Ideas Design Business Card

We were given the task of creating a business card for 'Bright Ideas Design', a 'young, funky company' that wanted a design to reflect that image.

We were also told that we were not allowed to go down the route of stereotypical ideas such as light bulbs or thought bubbles. This is how I came up with the idea of using a brain (because obviously every idea that we concoct goes through thought processes in our brains). 

Due to the company being 'funky' I did not want to use a boring colour, such as black, and wanted the design to be bright and noticeable, so through the help of 'FreePiks' in order to find the perfect image of a brain to use as a logo, I decided to make the colour code green.

The brain logo used looks very modern and and stylistic and hence helps to connote the message the company wish to put across. The different shades of green running through it also make it look more professional and more like something that a design company would produce. 

I then used this colour palette for the rest of the business card. I used the darker green at the top of the brain for the text I wanted to stand out more, like the name of the company and the person who's business card it was name. I then used the lighter green at the bottom of the brain for the information given (address, number, email and website). I felt the toy using the different shades it made the card look more professional as it is utilising all the colours given from the logo. 

I chose a simplistic front to the card, with the logo and company name in the middle of it, as this is the only information that part needs. I decided to have a white background as well as I felt that this would show of the colours in the brain more than having a coloured background.

Moving onto the other side, I decided to have part of the brain run off of the page. I originally had it all on the page and it made the card look clunky and unoriginal. I decided to then see how much I wanted to crop off of the page and felt that this was the most effective design. I therefore positioned the information text on the right hand side of the business card. I used 'Lucida Console' font as I felt it went well with the design of the brain and decided to keep the tracking and leading in its original format as for the business card design I didn't feel that the letters or sentences needed spacing any more than they were. 

I feel the business card represents what the task required and I am very happy with my final design.

Typography Case Study

My case study this week is going to focus on the The Ad Council’s campaign adverts to make drivers aware of the dangers of using their phone’s whilst driving.

From the advert you can see that the driver is checking his phone at the wheel, with the words ‘DON’T LET TEXTING BLIND YOU’ covering his face. 

Starting with this feature of the ad; the words have been typed in a san-serif font (the same as those used to paint signs on the road), coloured white and in capitals in order for them to stand out. It does this because the words are based on a darker background, meaning that has they been in black they wouldn’t have been as vivid and also to make us either consciously or sub-consciously link it to road safety. They have also inputting some drop lettering in there (with a slight black shading underneath the words as this makes it stand out more from the background). They have ensured that the tracking between the letters is very minimal, however enough that you can clearly see what the word says. They have also minimised the leading so that the words are almost touching each other between each line. I believe the reason for doing this is because they’re trying to show that the there is physically no way that you can text and drive and have any kind of clear vision of the road. By minimising both the leading and the tracking it is preventing you from seeing most features of the drivers face and hence showing the view that he has when he is texting (not much at all). 

Moving on to the other piece of text, ‘STOP THE TEXTS. STOP THE WRECKS.’ which is based below the driver, again this is in capital letters to make it more noticeable. They have chosen to highlight the word ‘stop’ in both short sentences by using a yellow font colour. They have done this so that that specific word stands out the most out of the sentences, something which is essential for the campaign they're leading as they want to get people to stop texting at the wheel. They have also chosen to have rhyming words at the ends of both sentences, ‘texts’ and ‘wrecks’, in order to make the advert catchy and easy to remember. 

The advert is very engaging as they have used realistic scenery of the car in the background of the advert and having the words so bold in front of his face immediately draws you into the ad. The connotations of the positioning of the words resonates with you as it shows you just how little you can see when you risk texting and driving, and therefore highlighting just how dangerous it is to do so. 

The advert is powerful as it is able to engage an audience simply by the placement and layout of the words, something which is harder to do in a still advert as compared to a moving one (on the television). 

Business Card

TASK: Create a business card using only Type.

I chose to make my business card two sided. 

I made the front side a fully black background and placed a white tape recorder, to signify music (using Wingdings), over the top of this. I did this because I wanted the tape to stand out to show what field I am in and to make my business card specific to me.

I then made my opposite side white to juxtapose this and made my design very simplistic as I believe that being in the field that I am in, I don't need an over-designed business card. I used Times font (a Serif font) for my card as I felt that by having the extra flicks on the ends of the letters, it makes my card look more professional. I then used Wingdings to input the phone, email and website logos. I did this to make it look more professional, rather than just typing out the different categories (phone, email and website). I used an elongated 'I' in order to have a line under my name to make it stand out and separate it from the rest of the text, again making it look more professional.

I wasn't 100% happy with this design, so decided to create another one as well:

With this one I decided to add some colour to it and decided to go for a browny colour (CMYK: C= 0, M= 32, Y= 0, K= 83) as I felt this look like a professional colour. To do this I typed an 'I', made it large by resizing the font and then duplicated this until it had covered my entire page. 

I added my name and job role to the front of my business card, using a San-Serif font, as it looks more modernistic (which goes with my job). I chose to put these in white to compliment the background colour more.

I then stuck with the same layout for my contact information (on the back of my business card), just enlarging the text slightly and making the font colour white.

I feel like this business card looks a lot more professional and I would be a lot prouder to hand this over to someone than my first design.