NOW That's What I Call a Logo!

I watched a documentary the other night about the development of Virgin Records, and the "NOW That's What I Call Music" compilation albums. I've personally never known a time when these CD's haven't been around; and when I seen the graphics for the first few records I was shocked. The reason I was shocked was because the logo they used for a few of the records is sooo much cooler than the crap they use now. But why is it crap? Because there's no feeling behind it, there's no personality. It's just 3D rendered button pushing crap.

So, I done some research, and found that my favourite of all the records was number 9 (above). The simplicity of it is great, the comparison between this and a more recent one (also above) is laughable. I spent an hour or so re-rendering this original logo, and I'm convinced it still looks better.

When it comes to logo's nowadays, lots of big companies are switching to more simplistic and sophisticated logos (a great example is ITV), and for good reason: It's just better. It has character. 3D often looks tacky.

Exhibition Mounting!

Phew! It's been one of those days, mounting and preparing exhibition spaces isn't one of my strong points, but it's worthwhile in the end. These two boards will be the blank canvas where my Final Major Project will unfold; I've decided to focus on the Swiss Typeface I created, as I feel this was the most successful body of work. The reason I think that, is probably because I like the theme behind it so much, the whole turning traditional Swiss Typography on it's head and applying a literal and ironic feel to it has been interesting, and I still think there's potential for it (or alternative routes I could have taken whilst still fulfilling my goal).

But here it is. I can honestly say I'm pleased with it, it's not mind blowing I'll admit, and it's not the strongest body of work I've done either, but I can genuinely say I believe I've achieved the goals I set out to accomplish.

Digital Swiss Collage

And here is the final one. I think it'll be nice once printed out full size with supporting media. I'm really pleased with it actually, it's been a lot of work, but rewarding at the same time. It's been nice to finally get some real Graphic Design work done. What I mean by that is, I've enjoyed doing my final major project very much, designing Typefaces has been an interesting learning curve and I'll probably visit the techniques I've learned again in the future. And while I've enjoyed it, I still enjoy putting the supporting design work towards it better. I think it's improved my view of Typefaces, I understand them differently now.

Swiss Typeface

I've mentioned that as part of my final major project I'm creating Typefaces. Well this here is one created with the intention of it being Swiss through and throughout. But not by traditional standards, when we think of Swiss Style Typefaces, we think of the classics like Helvetica, Avenir, Frutiger and so on; but this here is embodying a different sense of Swiss. I decided to pair each character with a matching photograph that represented Switzerland in it's own way, a lot of them being mountainous Alpine scenery. That's what actually gave me the idea in the first place. The first two characters I created were A & M, if you look again you'll notice the M is just a doubled-up version; both of these characters already have a mountainous quality to them, so I had the idea to add a photograph over the top to emphasise the shape of the character.

Overall I think it's worked it okay, I like the whole concept and idea, it gives it a whole ironic and literal context. To be honest though, it was difficult to find pictures suitable for some of the less obvious ones. For example, a lot are simply places in Switzerland e.g. Zurich, Geneva etc. The Typeface I used for "The Real Swiss Typeface" is Avenir, not just because I like it, but because it's neutral enough to add the exact juxtaposition I was looking for; literal vs actual Swiss Style Typeface.