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A quick animation for the ‘The Type Society’

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Case Study - Fitch

I decided to do my case study on a globally successful design agency that goes by the name of FITCH.

I based this case study off one of Fitch’s projects which was the launch of ‘Hamley’s’ in Moscow 2015, which immediately became the largest toy shop retail attraction in Europe.

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My Top 5 Brands

APPLE INC

Let’s talk briefly about the logo design.. It’s very clean, simple and sophisticated yet very effective and admirable. Much like their products. It is a polished design and has been refurbished and redesigned over the years even though it’s basically a silhouette of a bitten apple. Everything revolves around their minimalist logo. 

This brand has been taking over the entire world by storm ever so rapidly. Apple’s personality itself is more about lifestyle, stability, innovation and hope. Psychologically speaking, it would appear to be that Apple’s main focus is to fulfil the consumer’s aspirations by removing all complexity within the product design, keeping things simple, easily accessible and straightforward -- This is what immediately drew my attention when purchasing my first iPhone (iPhone 4) back in 2010 and I have been a loyal Apple customer since then.

I have been upgrading every two years to the latest iPhone purely because of the stability, design aspects, simplicity and forward-thinking innovation (And, the fact that i’m always due for an upgrade when the new iPhone gets released!) .. Since having many iPhones, I then branched out to purchasing more of their other consumer products at a later stage such as a Macbook Pro, iPad and an iMac. At first, I did used to be an Android user back in the day, however I didn’t seem to correspond greatly with the complexity and design aspects well enough to become a loyal user. 

Apple’s advertising campaigns are simple, compelling and relative to the user interface. The image below illustrates a monotoned, landscape photograph that has been “Shot on iPhone 6″ essentially connecting with their consumers through the simple use of photography -- Everyone can take amazing photographs with the new iPhone (Could very well be the subliminal message of this advertisement.)

DISNEY 

If you personally know me, you could’ve figured out that Disney would definitely be mentioned in my top five loyal brands. Where do I even start with this brand? I mean, I come from a strong Disney-orientated family (As lame as that may sound) .. My parents brought me up in the world of Disney as a kid and now, my sister and I are carrying it forward by bringing her little girl up into the world of Disney. So, yeah.. Disney is very close to my heart. 

The ‘Walt Disney’ logo itself is relatively personal as the typeface is merely a script which suggests a more handwritten, intimate and sophisticated approach. 

The heritage of the brand began in the United States (1923) and started to increase globally quite rapidly after the first animated feature film ‘Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs’ was released in 1937. So, what would be Disney’s mission statement? There are quite a few connotations as to what it could be but from a personal perspective, I would say the goal is to provide light-hearted entertainment for the entire family that is accessible, diverse, forward-thinking and consistent in captivating the audience’s many emotions throughout. 

Why is it that I love Disney so much? Why is it that the most of the world love Disney so much? Disney is cherished by so many people of all ages because it’s merely an escape from the harsh reality and it’s done by temporarily transporting people into a fantasy life where everything is all wonderful and stress-free. 

Disney’s social media presence is so broad. There’s advertising campaigns for film, resorts, apps, music, streaming services, merchandise and much more all through the use of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. 

All in all, Disney know how to use social media for their marketing strategies. However, with Twitter.. There is no obvious marketing or promotion, just inspiring quotes from classic Disney films which in a way could be considered as a subtle marketing technique to give a much wider context.

SPOTIFY

Spotify? Apple Music? I have been a consumer of both competitors over the years however, Spotify is the one I have come back to purely because of the high-definition sound quality, huge variety of genres (Which Apple Music don’t have as much at the moment - World) and the fact that your music is EVERYWHERE (Offline mode). 

Spotify was launched in 2008, it wasn’t so popular at the time of it’s launch however, it wasn’t long before the entire world became a premium user as it is merely one of the best streaming music services around. 

Referring to the logo design for Spotify, it has been consistent in only solid shades of green. Why? Because, Spotify considers the colour green to be their “hero” in more ways than one. For example, green is a universal colour which easily portrays a user-friendly interface which leads to my next point of their advertising techniques and how forward thinking Spotify’s marketing techniques are.. 

ADOBE

Adobe is the perfect software company for anybody who is in the creative industry.  Since Adobe was launched in 1982, the company has taken over the world by storm by introducing many other applications to cater for everybody’s creative design needs. 

Personally, I started using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign when I was in college due to my career choices and now I am still using it at university and in my day to day life as it’s the main software company used in the creative world to progress and get work done efficiently. 

KIEHLS

Kiehl’s.. One of my top favourite brands for skincare. The company started in America, 1851 and has been progressing remarkably ever since. It is currently one of the top skincare brands across the globe.

But, why do I like Kiehl’s? Well, I have been a loyal consumer for a good 3-4 years now and the products never fail to disappoint. New ranges/lines are always being introduced to make sure the company caters for everybody’s needs no matter what concerns you have regarding age, skin type, skin tone, hair type etc. I guess it’s always a personal yet somewhat bias opinion when it comes to your own skin.

So, the logotype. It’s pretty simple and decorative as the typeface is a script combined heavy, loosely tracked sans serif which immediately suggests a more modern, sophisticated look - Perfect for the aesthetics of the company.

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Storytelling

Storytelling is a natural thing amongst all humans as we have the ability to devise a story from almost anything from the likes of today’s events, a past memory or even just single, random words on a post-it note scattered across the entire room.. Confused on the last one? I was too. 

So, in the lecture hall.. There were a 6 post-it notes under some chairs in our row. On each post-it note, there was a single word. We got the words “Lawyer”, “Frog”, “Trophy”, “Tooth”, “Mouse” and “Race” and we had to come up with a quick narrative which went a little something like... 

“Once upon a time, there was a frog lawyer called “Lawrence”. He got invited to participate in a race hosted by the mailman who was a mouse, in which the prize was a golden trophy in the shape of a tooth. Lawrence wasn’t fond of teeth so he turned down the offer and did not participate.”

This quick story that we devised on the spot was proof that we can create a story so easily from our minds. Referring to “Neuro Coupling”, which is a part in our brain that allows the listener to turn the story in their own ideas as our memory will immediately retrieve contextual information about the stimulus in order to create our own narrative. 

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” - Rudyard Kipling

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The Use of Narrative in Fashion Editorials & Advertising Campaigns

Just like every graphic designer’s way of thinking, it is crucial to know who your audience are but in terms of fashion editorials & advertising campaigns, the principles and target audience are quite variant in every country as they will have a different perspective on culture, music, literature, art, design, cinema and so on.

Moreover, in my personal opinion. A narrative can easily be found within the clothes themselves in the fashion world. Your choice of clothing makes a clear, bold statement which results into a narrative that the world will create in their minds.

Many themes can be used in this world such as Historic Themes, Biblical Themes, Surrealistic Themes, Literary Themes and many more. With these selected themes, advertising campaigns and fashion editorials are merely just a recreation of past work.

For example, the ‘2005 Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer Campaign’ had extremely obvious connotations to the famous work of ‘Raphael - The Deposition’ in 1507.

The Deposition - Raphael (1507)

Dolce & Gabbana - Spring/Summer Campaign (2005)

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Last Minute Changes .. Uh-Oh!

So, I decided to change my entire idea a week before the deadline.. Not exactly the smartest thing to do but I just did not want to produce a deadbeat canvas book which I had in mind.

Instead, I decided to produce an A3 paper mache’d board with a lot of rocky bumps (Not a flat, smooth surface) just to depict Asteroid B-612 from the book (The Little Prince) and the mood of the narrative itself... Not a happy ending. My narrative could be described as an “Emotional Rollercoaster” so the rocky surface seemed to compliment the narrative quite well ..

I, then coated the board with all my digitalised narrative quotes, all overlapping each other but having the main quotes such as “She Is Not Your Rose”, “My Rose Is Just A Common Rose?”, “I Have Devoted So Much Time To Make Her My Rose” etc in an enlarged font amongst the actual narrative to emphasise on those aspects. Then, I also had to mould, paper mache and paint my chosen characters (The Little Prince, The Rose, The Fox) and I placed them by their own quotes around the board. However, with the Rose, I placed that in an upside down cylinder shaped vase and made it appear as it was floating inside the jar.

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Primary Experimentation

Here is a little experiment I did in the Print Room called ‘Letterpress Printing’ .. I based the simple, delicate design off the title ‘The Little Prince’ featuring pure scripted typography with the accompaniment of an ornate border to depict royalty and nobility although the story has absolutely no connotations with the subject, in fact.. It’s frankly quite the opposite.

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Changing The Narrative - The Little Prince

After reading the book and watching the 2015 movie of ‘The Little Prince’, I came up with an idea that could initially be the focal point of my interpretation of ‘The Little Prince’...

So, the idea is that I shall focus on the part where The Little Prince begins to realise that his Rose is only a common rose but then The Fox reassures The Little Prince that his Rose is not just a common rose but is in fact merely The Little Prince’s Rose and nobody else’s.. 

Prince: My rose is just a common rose? But, she told me she was the only one of her kind in the whole universe.

Fox: But, she is not a common rose. She is your rose. It is the time that you have devoted to her that makes your rose so important.

Prince: She is my rose.

Moreover, the plan at this stage is to go further into this scene and change the story entirely - The conversation between The Fox and The Little Prince definitely happened but it does not end on a high note.. After The Little Prince is reassured by The Fox, The Rose could end up being in danger. Perhaps, a slow deterioration of The Rose wilting/being destroyed? 

...

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The Little Prince (1943)

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 

So, the book I have chosen from the ‘Top 40 Classic Books’ list is called ‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry -- Original version of this book is in French and it’s called ‘Le Petit Prince.’ 

The reason I chose this book was merely because it has been previously recommended to me many times by close friends but I never got the chance to read it until now. (Also, the name of the book itself glared at me while I was browsing through the list.. The word “Prince” was just forcing itself upon me)

The Easter break was a great opportunity to read this book and perhaps check out the movie afterwards. 

The Little Prince is basically a children’s book written for adults. It is the most translated book in the French language. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry tells the story of a little boy who leaves his own planet to travel and discover the dark secrets of the universe, learning the peculiar works of “grown up” behaviour through a series of strange encounters. 

“The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd.” - The Little Prince

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Exploring Meaning Through Narrative

It’s time to take on our final brief of the year.. ‘Exploring Meaning Through Narrative.’

Basically, we are meant to choose a book from the ‘40 Classic Books’ list or we could choose our own if no book from the list tickled our interests. 

The purpose of this brief is to change the story by retelling the narrative in a visually compelling way. Using our design principles and knowledge of visual hierarchy, composition etc, the task is to design and create a new book, whether that be digitally done or hand rendered and escape our comfort zone. Moreover, I’m more of a digital designer so doing something different and hand rendered and illustrative would be a interesting to take on. 

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The Historical Context of Surrealism

Surrealism

noun 1. art movement: an early 20th-century movement in art and literature that tried to represent the subconscious mind by creating fantastic imagery and juxtaposing elements that seem to contradict each other 2. type of art: surreal art or literature

Now, there are FIVE different aspects of surrealistic art: Automatism, Eroticism, The Uncanny, Metamorphosis and the Surreal Landscape.

So, Automatism usually refers to the access of the conscious and sub-conscious mind. We played a little game at the beginning of the lecture and it was something most of us will have played before in the past: ‘Exquisite Corpses’ was generally played in groups of surrealist artists. So, the first person would basically draw out an image on a piece of paper, before folding it down and passing it along to the next person who would add the next part of the drawing to create an overall surrealist exquisite corpse.

Eroticism in Art - Well, the human body as always been an interesting subject for artist and especially for surrealists .. They had seemed to have had a questionable interest in the female body and transformed them into ‘works of art.’ Objectification was often involved in which the object of desire is somewhat a projection of the needs of the desiring subject, so that women were still more often portrayed as the object of the artist's eyes rather than representing their own body.

The Uncanny? It’s merely a Freudian term which describes something as simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar, resulting in a feeling of discomfort. The term ‘Uncanny’ generally is both familiar and unfamiliar at once, it has been said to create what is known as ‘cognitive dissonance’ for the person experiencing it, due to the fact that they are somewhat attracted to, yet repulsed by a certain object. 

Metamorphosis .. The direct transition from one form to another was a common and recurring theme for the surrealists. A great example for this would be from Disney’s Fantasia (1940), which solely blends animated imagery with classical music. Much of the film involves a lot of surreal transformation and things that don’t really seem to make any sense - such as the well-known Sorcerer’s Apprentice part where Mickey Mouse finds himself faced with a numerous amount of brooms which have transformed into living, walking creatures. Furthermore, into the Disney animated world (Of course, I’m going to talk more about Disney).. Many of the much loved movies consist of surrealism such as ‘Alice in Wonderland (1951) with the scenes like the  ‘Bread and Butterflies’, ‘The Tea Party’ and a lot more. And, let’s not forget the drunken nightmare Dumbo (1941) comes across - Pink Elephants on Parade? An Elephant That Can Fly? It doesn’t get any more surreal than that in children’s cinema.

The Surreal Landscape.. Before surrealism actually was a thing, landscape painting had changed in a sense where artists were heavily influenced to experiment further with unknown ways. Surrealism took this further by creating landscapes that initially depicted a human mind and it’s subconscious.

All of these FIVE historical contexts of surrealistic art have had a deep impact over modern day art and technology.

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CyberSpace

Cyberspace has changed the culture and way we live including the more current virtual reality trend. Virtual reality (VR) is a computer technology software and hardware that is used to generate image, sounds and other sensations that replicate a real environment. Using the required equipment, a person is able to look around them and interact with their ‘new environment’ in some way. Pokémon Go is a great example of this where it uses the users GPS to locate and capture characters who appear on the screen in the same place as the user themselves.

Our interest with space is forever on going. There is so much out there that relates to the simple term such as: stars, planets, galaxies. With technology moving rapidly, cyberspace is also moving rapidly alongside. 

The visuals of what cyberspace looks like could connect with our fascination of outer space. To me, cyberspace looks like numbers. Referring to the classic scenes in ‘The Matrix.’ Anything cyber is all built up of code and code is merely a bunch of numbers, right? At least that’s how I see it. The colours would be the same too – green and black. 

Now, Cyberspace’s connotation with art.. Honestly, I didn’t really understand what cyberspace had remotely anything to do with art so, let’s not get into that.

Moving onto social media, which is a big part of cyberspace, we use social media for storing memories, connecting with loved ones etc. We also seem to be obsessed with the failings of technology and make glitches images become a form of art or digitally incorporating this ‘filter’ into our photography.

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Rave Culture and its Influence on Visual Art

So, I always thought raves were just something where people go to get super drunk and socialise. However, the term ‘Rave’ actually has many connotations. 

The term ‘Rave’ is also used to define genres of music including house, dance, garage and electronic. Events like these are also connected with recreational drugs. What I found intriguing was that raves actually started out as being illegal. However as the times moved on, they have become licensed corporate doings and somewhat legalised.

Raves actually pushed limitations between music and visual culture. It appears to have a large impact on art, design, fashion and a whole lot more. 

Honestly, I didn’t really understand much up till this point and it bored the life out of me. What caught my attention was when the lecture turned its attention to associate rave culture with graphic design. The psychedelic patterns used for design based on what people would see when they took recreational drugs. Designers would base their own designs on their own personal experiences with them. 

Fashion is also highly affected from wearing loud tie-dye t-shirts. Still, in this modern day, there are all these glow in the dark/neon accessories and colours that appear only under a bright UV light. In a nutshell, rave culture has had a massive impact on art and design.

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The Image Reproduced: Humans & their Relationship with Photography

Throughout this lecture, quotes were used from Susan Sontag’s essay ‘On Photography’ (1977). 

Firstly, photography has great connotations to family. Photography is almost like some kind of ritual or rule that we obey. It’s a physical thing that we use to keep attached to memories. However, as technology improves and the years go on by, these photographs are becoming less physical and more digital, especially through social media. I have loads of physical photographs of myself as a child ... However, now with my niece in the world, everything is more or less digital.

As I scroll through on my social media on a daily basis and the type of pictures that I mainly post and what others post, most of it is to do with travel and selfies. Photography in conjunction with travel has become more like collecting evidence to show that you were at that place rather than enjoying the moment you actually have there. In some cases, photography is a way of calming our anxiety levels so we become more prone to them. We appear to be stuck in this world of photographical evidence as we travel and uploading it as a constant reminder to everyone else that you were there. 

Both holiday photos and family photography relate heavily to memory and nostalgia. Take the Instagram filters for example. We take a modern day snap and then edit it heavily to make it look like an older/vintage photograph as a thirst for nostalgia. Perhaps, we do this to create more of a personal or familiar emotion with those that are viewing the picture, hence creating instant nostalgia. 

Referring to Susan Sontag’s book again, she goes on to say that photography is quite a sad thing in a sense. Whatever the subject is, it is captured and frozen in time. Never moving backwards or forwards but there forever. The same thing applies with videography and how it is constantly looped and watched over again and again to relive memories.

As technology advances, there is certainty that photography affects the way we remember things. We merely begin to use our phones to aid us in remembering stuff for example, I always have taken several pictures of the lecture slides and presentation slides to help me remember what I must do later on. Without photography, I wouldn’t have remembered in as much as I do now.

The most interesting part of the lecture for me was the psychology of a selfie. The selfie is quite a modern day thing and almost everyone does it – but the question is why? A selfie is just really a self-portrait, right? With photography, there seem to be many psychological reasons as to why we take selfies for example, perhaps we take them to build our self esteem, to feel like we fit in modern day society or just to have a meaningful existence and solid control over yourself.

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Design Principles

This post is generally about researching and understanding the Key Principles in Graphic Design..

WHITE SPACE

This design principle refers to the distance and area around or in between elements. 

‘White Space’ can also be referred to as ‘Negative Space’ due to the restrictive use of design elements that have not been placed there.

The effective use of positive and negative space should be considered in every design to bring importance, sophistication and minimalism whilst also pleasing the eye. 

ALIGNMENT 

Similar to Composition. Alignment aids to the structure of elements throughout the design whilst creating aesthetically pleasing visual connections. Essentially, meaning that every element in the design is visually connected to another element.

When bringing Alignment in the design structure, it is crucial to make sure that elements are in proportion and not disconnected. 

Having done this correctly will bring a fresh, clean and sophisticated look in the design.

PROXIMITY

This design principle allows unity throughout the design as proximity is about grouping similar elements together to create a whole unified piece rather than just having several disconnected elements scattered about.

Using this correctly will reduce visual clutter on the design and will help display information clearly.

CONTRAST

Contrast is all about arranging very different elements together to create a harmonising piece. Each component of the design playing a distinctive part. This can be achieved by adjusting the colour, size, shape, tone and direction of the elements.

Contrast would merely be the most important part of the design as it will allow the viewers eye to just flow naturally if used appropriately.

REPETITION

Repetition refers to the duplication of the same visual element or style to help develop and strengthen the unified design overall. 

Once a design component has been established in the design (Such as a specific Typographic style) - Repeating/Duplicating this would achieve consistency throughout the design piece.

BALANCE

Balance could aid to an aesthetically pleasing symmetrical design however, isn’t always the case. Elements of the design can be evenly distributed to create either a symmetrical look or an asymmetrical look. 

When used properly, balance will provide structure and formation in a design piece.

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So, our task today was to experiment and create a GIF.

The GIF could have been based on absolutely anything so I decided to do my GIF on Nutella.

Why? Because, who doesn’t love Nutella?!

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CREATIVE CHALLENGE 2.0

So, maybe I got a bit carried away.. I did mention in my previous post that only one of my vinyl research covers would influence my design, however I ended up redesigning/having my own take off 3 different artists.

Below, are 4 different designs with different house styles that I created ..