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Assignment 2: Typeface & Symbols Part 1

Lesson 9 from: Logo Design: Wordmarks

Michael Stinson

Assignment 2: Typeface & Symbols Part 1

Lesson 9 from: Logo Design: Wordmarks

Michael Stinson

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Lesson Info

9. Assignment 2: Typeface & Symbols Part 1

Lesson Info

Assignment 2: Typeface & Symbols Part 1

So for assignment to if we're looking at are if we're looking at our brief guys we're going to do a slightly different exercise moving from kind of a combination of brand mark and combination logo and for the second brief you're gonna choose existing airline that's in your assets but the goal here is when you have an assignment like this sometimes you've got ah refresher an update um a logo mark is uh quite subtle just kind of like what you were doing before these little refinements with the brand marks so like this example with the arkansas razorbacks live it's a great example because you have the type that looks very university but the the the the way the hog is designed with all this fierceness and its jagged e triangle lines and everything doesn't really there's no two personalities aren't driving toe one another and the thing is with logo design that's overlooked quite a bit is the character system the type are really just left up to communicating the name but what you want to ach...

ieve with the brand mark is the harmony between the type and the symbol so when you look at the triangles and the jail you lines in the type on the right that's been updated it works better with the hog because it still has that greedy aggressiveness and they live closer together uh in harming that way another example might be where you have and lots of historical low goes through time that done this where you start out with a rough version because at that time that's what felt right for that brand but then you go through um, you know, upgrades and technological advances and and growth and you have to maybe in this case communicate online now because you can see the tagline here has also been updated from something that looks more like uh, from the eighties or nineties now to more of a current, you know, typographic example, okay, so to walk you through what you're going to dio real quick in this case, I want to analyze a kn example that I've done for air canada so air canada's this is ah, they're ah marked it was you know, I don't know if it's still being used or not that's, not the case, but in analyzing the mark, you want to see what's involved in this symbol on what makes up the single symbols characteristics like we did on the last exercise. So in this case, this isn't a matter of making it better or our updated is can we get a typeface characteristic or choice? A typeface that's has better a harmony with the symbol than what's given here can we just refined it a hair toe where it could be uh they work better and harmony so in doing this, you want to look at the examples you be given, I know you've already got a airline logo, but for this example, I started to see what I have here, and I want to notice the spacing between the characters is a too long and again, this is this is probably designed to be on the side of a plane, but I'm also looking at, you know, the typeface itself is a typeface heavy enough to agree with the bulk of this maple leaf. No, because this this is really suggesting that it goes with it along this line, so up close, you know, maybe the details in this could be enhanced a little bit more where they have this flare out, that maybe it could be exaggerated a little bit more in just like these leaves are, and I could take these pieces and use it in the type with a little bit site siler bulky type face like this that is a little bit more subtle bit goes with the characterises, the personality of this symbol a little bit better. Everybody see the details there and again, this is just a study I'm not saying it's ah been, um, approved calm for anything like that it's the whole goal here is just to get that have a mindset of creating that, letting the typeface uh have a little bit more personality in common with the symbol that's living with ok, so here's the comparison again where you see the book of the original here but the book up here is a little bit closer to the weight of this so they look a little bit more in harmony there. So for this exercise you want to look at the symbol that you've chosen but again just like the last exercise you wanted to find how it's created you want to see what characters you have to work with right create guides a structure in the proportions like I did on the first one right? Uh well I'm establishing where the baseline is and how everything is lined up as opposed from from the you know, the type how's how it is constructed in proportion to the symbol account lines up uh take note of the design elements like I did with air canada I just noticed that they've got these sharp points to the leaf that I'm able to use for style. Um so what this one, what you're going to do is you're going to keep the symbol intact like the they're canada loco and you're going to browse through typefaces that are going to be more appropriate to use with that symbol ok? And I'm going to do one ous well, uh review your options on on weight so when you're looking through thai fish choices here guys, you want to make sure you you see what characteristics are involved with that symbol for instance in in the er and the options in the folder and we have air lingus which is the irish airline right? But the leaf if you look at the leaf it's kind of leaning to the right so we're uh one of the things that you can notice about that is a high might wantto also have even a talic or oblique typeface that also leads with that, you know, as just a strategy um great various typeface scenarios so what you want to do and illustrators just get the symbol on its own and start with the original and then start to see what typefaces they're goingto work well with that but when you and your typeface choices start to also think a little bit further about what class you're in and if they're relevant to that airline singapore for instance right now um for vietnamese airlines you know they are different asian languages than we do with roman characters. But if you're picking roman type face is what you are are they going to have a slight asian flair to it, that kind of thing? And if it were if it's necessary so you want to make sure you you actually think of that um and like why did on air canada I just slightly altered it it customize the typeface in a way we're I've taken element of the symbol and brought in this to the typeface okay, I would understand our objective ok, so let's go ahead and start and um I'm gonna work right alongside with you with some sketches and I have one that, uh I've kind of been eyeing up that I wanted to do or actually create and, uh well, I guess first ask who's doing what? Maria, would you decide um I think I'm going to try here also you're awful you'll probably air atlantis bali air in singapore airlines okay, you guys are ah there's a great so let's see for this so we've got there's our choices here make these larger for us here. Yeah, so we've got a rafa that's this one here? Yeah, a lot of these you're going to see where they're ah, they're quite, uh let's do it this way. Maybe this would be easier to see these transit males here are this way let's do this. Yeah, that's better. So we have our alpha right? So when I'm looking at this when you have locals that were done, look, I looked like they're done in the sixties, they're extremely accurate on proportion, so these lines that are done, you know, um the positive negative space of them you know, I'm sure they coincide with this distance this distance in a proportion of this, this is it sets up multiples of how far everything is. I mean, you literally put this thing on the grid based on these lines, they were that accurate back then. And, um also this is why I was trying to say when I was talking about the slides is you know what you want to take note of where this thing lines up. Is it on one of these lines? Because there is a great here of what's appropriate, you know, you may decide that it's it's going to be, you know, at the this is the excites. So maybe the type is bigger, right? And then we have let's see, we have their atlantis that's the next one. Oh, yeah. That's definitely right. Somebody is really proud of that symbol. So I ganic right? You see this here? Um, that's a great challenge. So one of the things that I would be looking for if I were doing this two is one of the things is this, um, I would probably go back to the actual a myself of the character because these air totally separated. That looks like a big no no, but also, if if this were to be maurine proportioned I would make this my x height and this my baseline she may try that and then we have volleyer you guys didn't get part on the list digit oh this one's great too this is perfect especially when you have kind of a slight sarah if I guess if you will on again this is the thing to this it's just like the example I was showing us you have this kind of book in the weight that doesn't really necessarily jive with this too much I mean this this could obviously get thinner and we keep this type but it's the other way around this case so what typefaces going to drive with this better and then we have singapore right here this is picked every time I mean this is a great one so um yeah, this is great. So again, you know, looking at this teo do I need to de emphasize airlines here? Do I need to put take the bar and put the type down here in the bottom line? You know, that kind of I'm going to do the one after that I'm going to dio spanair actually, which I've already started and I want to show you what I've done there okay? So let's get started with our sketches and I'm going to start with spanner and so we need to print out our logo is just like we did last time right and sketch or are we know we're actually just going to do this digitally ok, so we want to we want to open up our logo that we're doing illustrator right? So I'm working here and I'll show you kind of the path that I took with us the spanner so for me I'm just going to set this up or I could establish what we have to work with with the baseline excite than how the proportions were set up to the two the symbol ok, so for this symbol what I have here's I kind of have a two tone symbol but looks like, ah ah sheet or some flags here this is spent spanish air and right now it's a sarah right and has a little bit of ah, a metallic kind of format or oblique if you will and I also want to take note, you know, I'm a good guy put everything on a grid just to see that I'm handling proportions correctly. I want to see where they line this up originally with the symbol see if it's in proportion looks like the s comes down quite a bit lower, so for me I'm going to try to see what typefaces work here and just explore a little bit with the symbolism typefaces just to see how how it works just for what I have loaded on my on my machine and we're going to do this is I'm gonna put this back up here this out so I could stay on on track here this sized okay, so this is going to be kind of like a digital sketch that we're going to do here for this just as a study right? To see how we're gonna plan you know, make our case for an updated you know, contemporary solution to this in this brand mark to start with something in here just to see how it works so what I'm analyzing here is the negative space of the actual visuals in this symbol I want to take note of is that going toe? Is that going to mean that you know, this the characters in this uh with the type are they going to be really close together? You know, it's going to have those same characteristics? Are these slants going to play into it at all? Are these arcs gonna play into it at all? I'm looking to see what actually have to work with remember that approach thing we're talking about it's really important to see how you analyze what you can use or not use um I also want to make sure that I maybe explore um, lower case and it all depends here on what you kind of brief you would get in, um given based on input from the client or your creative better find so um it could go many different ways but all I'm working with us what I have the exercise is to work with what you have in front of you ok? So in my in my typefaces if I'm martin what's going through my mind is spanish airlines airlines has speed aeronautics physics you know, all those things are rumbling through my mind as possible connections to this right? So you know and contemporary I have the first thing too is that the original that I started with for mine is you know, I have you know, this I have a serif that was from the beginning so there's lots of room for improvement right? Wanna make sure I keep aversion on this layer for what I have it looks like the wait could be a little bit better in conjunction to these these four flags but we'll have to see here. So right now I'm just gonna what I'm going to do so I think uh just make some copies here maybe and just explore real fast on some options real quick so um let's see here. So the characteristics on looking for so avenir next you know might be an option but I want to look at the wait to see how it works uh four bring him close together to see if that would work um you know, I want to see if I if I might have to take out the soil together are the daughter of the ivs that necessary to keep a linear kind of thing going on because this this dot kind of looks a little bit more traditional if you will, right? So that's a another thing to see another option here is do I want to do this instead to make it more apparent than it is to be like abbreviated in a situation so that's an option? But for now I'm just gonna work with typefaces and see what I got uh so for now I'm maybe I'll just go back to my suitcase here fusion and see what might be appropriate and I always try to put in what I have to work with, which is the name and just see what happens here. So for me, if there's around anti faces like this, I want to go back and see if that's appropriate here I do have surrounded, but everything is pretty spike is well, so I don't know if that's an option or not that that's something that's rolling through my head as I'm looking for, you know, um possible solutions here and again don't forget that, you know, we're assuming that we have no input from the client we're going based on uh you know, just what we have the the information that we have so far it's just uh you know, we've we've all had this request where show me an updated mark with no other in additional put right so with the's no one will look through here that's pretty nice to the singlets but again I'm not if I'm doing lower case for a single a here um I don't I really don't want to be mistaken that these air so I'm sensitive to that so if I'm using lower case I may opt for two story a no matter what because there's no question that those air a's whereas if you were here and this happens in the talent is something that you need to know too with ty faces a lot of times you'll have a single two story in a two story g in the regular type face but when you move to an oblique are metallic you're going to go to single story like this typeface here so uh you may be aware of that as well way because we have a question from tim our athens who asked about your opinion on a tallis izing a stacked and tim says personally it hurts his eyes uh uh stacked a palace tactic yeah like this solution like this typeface here exactly it hurts his eyes all right yeah again it's there's waste you might alleviate it too like this is a great typhus that might work here but again it's its net oh it's really contemporary um but yeah it just depends on I tried on toe let my you know my personal preferences interfere with you know how it's going to be read or if it's going to be easier are I try to make it the decisions come from well what would a consumer what's easiest for the consumer to recognize right um so yeah there's a lot of instances where obviously a two story is not going going to work well and I've run into quite a few of those um but again it's it's all about um you know, recognition here of the letter forms so yeah, it just depends on what again we don't have a brief like a concrete brief from an airline to give us any direction or what we've found from a research team but you really want to pull your decisions from those so guys as you're working, um we've got quite a bit of time to work on these so um what we want to do as far as you're going through these you want to see what typefaces work with your symbol ok again I'm choosing just three to start out with okay, but you want to compare them together and about you know, in about forty minutes we're going to, uh you know, print and get ready for our next crit ok, so this is really uh more of am a concise kind of study if you will uh carrying typefaces with the symbol on the cunt customizing ok um let's see so as I'm going through these you know I'm starting to see what what may work what may not work here and just tried different versions and this this one in particular may not need any italics even though they started out there a lot of times like this exercise to what you'll get what I've gotten from clients is you know hey, we don't want to move too far from where we were so one of the things in the brief might be uh it's a requirement to stick to a talent uh kind of so I might I might use that here is as a requirement for myself um for this particular solution so I might stick to that but for you I think you guys with the ones that you have um your decisions should be pulled from the symbol maybe let's see so I did some studies earlier on some of these like some of these would be difficulty again is it is it too retro looking of a typeface to choose like the test um the characteristics of its geometric it might be a little bit to mid century modern kind of a thing as a choice that's that's what's going on through my head as a choice here um or is it a little bit to uh whimsical like maybe these the spurs of these a's and an end that's the thing too that is difficult for me and this exercise is matching the attitude, deriving what the attitude is in the symbol and trying to bring it through the typeface choice there's a couple ways you could do that you can add a lot of personality through the typeface for but for me uh in this exercise is usually pick a typeface that either enhances and coincides with what's going on the personality a symbol or takes a back seat it's the supporting character in this role okay, seems like our students are hard at work here they are everything going with you guys, brainpower and questions as you're getting through this good, this is a great challenge typeface choice that I think is valuable for you guys because, um, one of these things like a lot easier than the r and ah again, when you have something in a real project like this to you probably would update the symbol here and att that time, you'd have more opportunity to have it paired with a typeface a little bit easier, but you're gonna have those times two or you might have this situation where you don't have that opportunity and becomes a little bit more of a challenge too find some things it's appropriate to work with, um you know I'm looking at weight here uh not just style but also wait I'm looking at the two story versus single story um I'm looking at, you know, geometric versus humanist all that kind of stuff to me a humanist down syrup might work better for this situation spanish air kind of makes me want to think that it would but that's that's what's going through my mind on these options I might throw in a few more here just to see we'll see a lot of, uh a lot of great tie faces out there as well to choose from, you know, michael as we have some time here for the students to toe work on there their logo's feel free when we do have some extra time here if you want to do some different treatments with another logo just to show the example through with another one ok to you but you know, we have some time while the students are working here so we can show another example if you'd like I'll show you I'll show you what I've already done on this one called tiki through what I worked on already just to take you through the steps of how I arrived here um with this um so the details here so what I did was I took a look at you know, the typefaces um sorry about this originally here and I arrived at interstate for whatever reason I was thinking but what I did was they started to take the characteristics of what's in this symbol and modify everything so if you could see the difference this is the original type face actually should put it up here and then what I did to it all these subtleties here if you will so I used the curve here and also I used these um little uh half ark's here to give more dimension to uh each character's how the forms you know come together so you could see that in here in here so everything is really straight and cut off here but I rounded everything to get to have the person I coincide with this a little bit more and I actually ended up with a really nice arc here from the art of are there was a kind of us no happy mistake that I didn't plan but there might be areas to work that in and also I used those little negative space to carbon from the from the symbol to carve into the have the belly that a comes into the stem here there says a little as a little ah indication to go with the the symbol a little bit better so that's kind of a before and after look I also brought down the the I squatted that the daughter of the eye a little bit warm because of this arc here because these air like all over all indications they're not complete circles let's say so that was another idea to get this to compress a little bit more I don't know if that works not yet though but these are just some of the decisions I made to make those work together good yeah well we're working right now are we just looking for ty pieces that we think might para nicely with the mark and not worried about layout or like rearranging anything we're just looking for you know it's on this exercise you the last when we kind of took distinctive steps along the way right? This one since it's only the type of messing with we want to kind of cut to the chase like I was doing before here um I'm really just setting up a system of of trial and error here of ok what's what's going to be appropriate here to make a decision based on weight uh stress which would be the if I'm doing it in the telegraph bleak I'm looking at um just a little bit of everything that the two story versus single story a's I'm also looking at x height has a lot of the largeness of the typeface these air all set the same type size here I believe and that's another thing to look at the other all set the same but some of them look larger than others that's another little thing too to see there and there's a lot of things going on in the movement of these flags that I have and that's what also sent me on this you know path of bringing all these little indications back into into the type but again it really was looking at excite there's a lot of indication of and the character with this well of seeing how big the size of this word is you know, because this this typeface here we've got gotham we know that's really large and in quattro but interstate was the the reason I picked interstate is the character with is a little bit more narrow because he's you know, since these air in perspective there's a little bit more narrow boxes so if you have I think you have singapore right? So if you're looking at this for me personally um I noticed that in this this symbol if I'm just looking at this all right come over here to this side if I can um I'm looking at that the bulk of the wait is over here so I want to meet the bulk of that weight with the typhus that I'm choosing but I know that this thing is moving from left to right as does a talent or a bleak so that's like my first instinct to do that but I also think that this type is a little too small for that symbol just in general, because it goes along, it lines up the excite lines up for the capitol lines of somewhere with the head of the eagle, right? So I mean, I want to choose something that's more at this point it comes across so the types a little bit bigger now that might be just singapore and I use airlines a cz a tagline, I don't know so there's a lot going on in this one, but the main thing that to look at is the characteristics here, um, they're involved in the typeface again, is there? This is so long, right? Singapore airlines can I pick a tie? Faces is like a condensed gothic that the character spacing spaced out a little bit more, but it has the weight of these these wings, and it doesn't come in a bleaker italic that's what I'm thinking right? I'm just a lot of right along here that we're going through my head because those could be possibilities. So if I were working on myself, you know, I'd start to look at based on these characteristics in my head, if I were to look at, is there a gothic that can give me a so alternate god thinks they don't have any talents, right? So I have to see which other ones may or may not most of them don't, I believe, um you almost don't so other other sunday what would it be would work better so if I have this let's just see if my my theory you know works out here if I were doing this if I would want to see let's let's just see how this works singapore airlines and I might even consider going back to a lower case possibly want to see how this I'm just going to take out the line altogether just to see how it works but to someone over here so another thing of indication of where these things would begin you have great design here with this mark so all draw all draw lines again you know formulated my own grids like I always would to sue you know is it appropriate for this to start here is that too far away and if so then what I would do is just I'm kind of just showing you how I would work here if this was I would want to know what this distance was right here because from there once I have that then that is my grid or this symbol and where things align the reason why I put this where it is so lining to this one let's say so typeface choice wise let's see we were talking about a gothic was it frequent bathroom to start with let's see just to start see what happened I guess I should probably think he's a little thinner together so we can see it there so as you can see this, the stress of this this attack may not it won't be exact with this, so the decision to do so may not be really good solution because it doesn't lean enough that may be the reason why they didn't do it right who knows? Um the other thing we want to look at us if we just do sing a poor you know, is it appropriate to once did this way proper way if I were to just reduce it to a symbol kind of a size right based on this triangle this's just another option I mean, we want to look at this all caps to whatever I'm doing I'm gonna try to write a line it to this grid again if it's possible um also with all caps you guys know as faras type size toe led you know, in big type like this you can usually set it solid and then, you know, negative letting if if necessary do you guys know that little rule and I don't even know it's setting solid means right? Setting solid is where the type size in points is the same as the lead like eighty over eighty in this case right setting solid so you know, I usually start setting all caps that solid and then I go negative just as a little pointer okay, but this negative space, probably in this case, would probably be need to be proportional to this grid. Okay, so you wouldn't, since we're kind of doing lettering here, we're starting out with type, but again, in this case, you are always stick to the grid. So what, airlines? Maybe this is like half that point size, and maybe this is spaced out quite a bit. Maybe this is flush right again. I'm just exploring here, but

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Michael Stinson - Keynote.pdf
Michael Stinson - Whisky Type Overview.mp4
Michael Stinson - Whisky Type Slides.pdf

bonus material with enrollment

Michael Stinson - Logo Design -- Materials Needed For Course Activities.pdf
Michael Stinson - Wordmarks Brief.pdf
Michael Stinson -- Wordmarks Handout.pdf
Michael Stinson - Why is Type Important - Article.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

kathleenc
 

Great class. It's nice to see your sketching/thinking process. Love seeing the tracing paper and ruler.

user-b4d49e
 

Thank you so much for the amazing course. Learned a lot of stuff even as a beginner.

a Creativelive Student
 

Great course, thanks very much!

Student Work

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