Research & Reasoning - Chapter 3 Typographic Focused Branding

Research & Reasoning - Chapter 3 Typographic Focused Branding

Based on the prologue of the essay a preliminary body of research was gathered before starting to write and inform arguments based around my essay question, doing this allowed me to gather a thorough body of research to extract the strongest quotes from to inform my own writing, include drop quotes, paraphrasing and to inform further reading and influence in the future for my extended practice. A color coding system helps me quickly extract what quotes are needed for what purpose in the essay so it allows me to maintain a consistent and good flow when writing my dissertation. 

Key

Orange informs my own writing. 

Blue for potential drop quotes and paraphrasing.

Black will inform further investigations into my extended practice module. 

Red is a rationale and reasoning of the quote.

3 - Typographic focused Branding.

·      The use of type and logotypes.

·      Is typography even needed within established brands.

·      Custom typefaces.

·      Manipulation of typography and how it communicates certain information with the addition of other design principles.

Spiekernann, E and E. M. Ginger. (1993). Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works. Mountain View, CA. Adobe Press.

Type is magical. It not only communicates a words information, but it conveys a subliminal message.

(How type was originally developed to communicate pure language, it now carries more conceptual messages, the use of language and how it interacts with the visual output through type has developed to change how information is communicated from direct to indirect, could relate to hot and cold theories of McLuhan)

Evamy,M, (2007). LOGO. 1^st Edition. London. Laurence King.

P7.

What is a Logo?

The logo is the focal point of any identity system and the key to its acceptance.

Logos are signs (Semiotics), marks of identity designed for easy recognition. They are used by every kind of organization in every part of the world, from international corporations to charities and from political parties to community groups and schools. Logos also identify individual products or services.

(Logos purpose, focus on logos that use type but the essence of a logo is to communicate the organization placing there purpose into a recognizable context, like how speech was placed into a visual letter system = typography)

Most people think of logos only as symbols containing some kind of abstract or pictorial element. In the manner of Nikes ‘swoosh’ or WWF’s panda. But a logo can equally be just a combination of typographic elements – letters, words, numerals and punctuation marks – set in a chosen typeface, such as the 3M and Kellogg’s ‘logo’, is exactly that: a single piece of type. Most of the time, logos operate on a sliding scale between purely verbal and the purely visual: a word with a letter that makes a visual pun, for example, or a symbol containing a company name.

(Famous type logos)

As a communicator, there is no better way of making your mark on the world.

(Nice quote to sum up the advancement of communication mediums into such a simple yet effective output)

P8.

Logos – or their equivalents – are as old as civilization itself. It is widely considered that branding, as a means of identifying an objects ownership, has its roots in the marking of cattle hides and horns by large estates and temples in Ancient Egypt, and in the development by Greek and Roman craftsmen of ‘makers marks’, which allowed goods to be traded with confidence anywhere across an entire empire, regardless of their place of origin. This is continued in the role of trademarks today.

(They are not new technologies, they just develop in the way there delivered through technology advancement) (Also talks about marks of ownership)

P9.

In logo design, Paul Rand was the master. Rand took the modern Swiss approach of stern graphic simplicity and sans-serif fonts, and gave it a smile. Rand had the knack of giving faceless corporations a personality, often by reducing their existing logos to simple humanistic elements, and then carrying the clarity and personality through to packaging.

(Type used to add personality and feeling, talk about the key Swiss movements through modernist design movement) (Logo is the starting point and essence of a brand proving typography can communicate a whole brand image)

Since the 1980s, waves of globalization, deregulation, consolidation, restructuring and repositioning, accompanied by the revolution of electronic communication, have presented new challenges and opportunities to the managers of corporate and brand identity.

The steeply rising processing power of computers and other new media have enabled new images and new complexity to be built into visual identities.

(How technology influenced the development and aesthetic context of logo and brand identities)

P12.

Corporate logos help us to distinguish one organization from another. The way a logo does this is by reflecting, visually, the activities, values or attributes that represent the organization best – in the view of the organization’s leaders.

P14.

To read more into a logo, you need to look at the choice of typeface, its weight, the character spacing, the relative position of words and the content and visual style of the symbolic elements. Typefaces, like people, possess distinct personalities – contemporary, traditional, stark, reserved, extrovert, decorative, impulsive – that can quickly convey the nature or an organization.

P23.

All logos are designed to foster instant recognition, not by what they say but by how they look. Word-based logos are seldom read as text in the way that this text is read. If a logo is visible enough, language ceases to be an issue. That is because the more we see a word or set of letters in a particular typeface, the more it assumes the quality of a visual object rather than text.

(How was it reads is not important, it’s the instant recognition, aesthetic and connotations given off)

P25.

Words carry meaning; typefaces convey character. The possible combinations are profuse, and have grown since the advent of electronic font design. Designers working with sophisticated design software have generated thousands of original typefaces and made them available (at a fee) for download, and the best of these can find their way into logos in any part of the world. Classic and ‘retro’ fonts can be remodeled and tweaked to suit modern applications. Bespoke fonts are frequently commissioned by corporate clients as a means of differentiation. Once the domain of idealistic artists and artisans such as Eric Gill, type design is now one of the most commercialized crafts around.

(How logotype carry’s emotion and this development of how a brand can be communicated has developed alongside design software and digital typography. How the distribution of type developed and custom type design became popular to distinguish originality, how traditional physical fonts are repurposed into contemporary applications.)

Computer Arts (2015). Video Insight: Dalton Maag Part 1. [Online Video]. 05 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gVbwaUBRh8.

[Accessed: 10 November 2015]

Talks on how type can define a brands tone of voice through the visualization of ‘emotional qualities’ and the considerations of ‘cultural conditionings’ suggest that typefaces like Univers, a grotesque typeface can emulate ‘more masculine, more mechanical more engineered’ personalities while typefaces like Frutiger a humanist face carry an ‘open, warm, friendly approachable tone.’

Wheeler, A, (2012). Designing Brand Identity: An essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team. 4^th Edition. New Jersey. John Wiley and Sons.

P22.

Names

The right name is timeless, tireless, easy to say and remember; it stands for something, and facilitates brand extensions. Its sound has rhythm. It looks great in the text of an email and in the logo. A well chosen name is an essential brand asset, as well as a 24/7 workhorse.

(How language is considered as a starting point of a brand identity, what the company communicates will be reflected through name choice)

P26.

Stay on message is the brand mantra. The best brands speak with one distinctive voice. On the web, in a tweet, in conversations with a salesperson, in a speech given by the president, the company needs to project the same unified message. It must memorable, identifiable, and centered on the customer.

(Word of mouth is a form of communication so this is an important consideration, the way the type and logo needs to reflect and support this medium of communication over physical and electronic medias)

P48.

Brandmarks

Designed with an almost infinite variety of shapes and personalities, brandmarks can be assigned to a number of general categories. From literal through symbolic, from word-driven to image driven, the world of brandmarks expands each day.

(Use of language and how type communicates this is important when considering word-driven brandmarks, even literal brandmarks so the essense of the brand is clearly communicated through language and the visual resolution through type application)

Signature

A signature is the structured relationship between a logotype, brandmark, and tagline. Some programs accommodate split signatures that allow the mark and the logotype to be separated. Other variations may include a vertical or horizontal signature that allows choices based on application needed.

P68-79

Social media

Mobile

Apps

Touch

Video

P158-159

Animation

(Link with moving image itsnicethat type article)

P166-167

Website

(Analyse these pages on how information is communicated across these advancing outputs, outline not only the use of typography across these platforms but other ways a brand message is communicated as communication is the underlying support for this investigation as well as the use of typography)

P209.

Reproduction formats

(How the final resolution differs in formats, used to be something physical and simple but now it is so much more complex than that, every decision needs to consider these digital mediums and outputs and how the visual outcome will work within these)

Wordmarks.

P52

A wordmark is a freestanding word or words. It may be a company name or an acronym. The best wordmarks imbue a legible word or words with distinctive font characteristics, and may integrate abstract elements or pictorial elements. The distinctive title “E” in “Dell” activates and strengthens the one-syllable name. The IBM acronym has transcended enormous technological change in its industry.

(Font choice or design reflects what the brand means, the personality)

P54.

Letterform marks.

The single letter is frequently used by designers as a distinctive graphic focal point for a brandmark. The letter is always a unique and proprietary design that is infused with significant personality and meaning. The letterform acts as a mnemonic device, and is easy to apply to an app icon.

(Reaction to technological innovation developing systems that can be applied to digital outputs) (Also expands on applying context and meaning into a very well and concisely communicated visual output, relates very well to how typography developed from hand lettering been a way of visualizing the spoken word to how it developed into a logical system)

P140.

Naming

Danny Altman Founder and Creative Director A Hundred Monkeys

Naming is 20% creative and 80% political.

(Much like the development of typography and the distribution of information)

P146.

Logotype + Signature

A logotype is a word (or words) in a determined font, which my be standard, modified, or entirely redrawn.

Logotypes need to be not only distinctive, but durable and sustainable. Legibility at various scales and in a range of media is imperative, whether a logotype is silk-screen on the side of a ball point pen or illuminated in an external sign twenty stories off the ground

(How it needs to work across many outputs, these outputs ranging from physical and digital all using very contemporary distribution and production methods. Shows how technology has effected how the brand image is communicated across ranges of collateral)

The designer then proceeds to manipulate and customize the logotype. Each decision is driven by visual and performance considerations, as well as by what the typography itself communicates.

(Decisions made based on how it will be distributed and what it communicates, so thinking about the aesthetic of the typeface and the application is important. It used to be just consider readability and legibility for simple outputs like a book but now with development of stationery and promotional materials thanks to industrial revolutions many more considerations need to be taken into account.)

P154.

Typography.

Typography must support the positioning strategy and information hierarchy. Identity program typography needs to be sustainable and not on the curve of a fad.

(How typography choice revolves around how company information is communicated, direct link to how type purpose was to communicate language for civilization. How the purpose of mass communication has changed for education/social purposes to commercial purposes?)

P155

A company website may require its own set of typefaces and typography standards.

(Specific web designed fonts)

Many companies identify separate typefaces for internally produced word-processed documents and electronic presentations.

(Type designed for specific electronic purposes and the the transition from electronic publishing to digitally printed documents, the advancement of print distribution for corporate scale, easy accessible publishing software etc)

P176.

Signage.

From city streets and skylines, through museums and airports, signage functions as identification, information, and advertising. Effective retail signage increased revenues, and intelligent wayfinding systems support and enhance the experience of a destination.

(Multiple purposes, and typography is the essence of signage so it carries multiple purposes

In the eighteenth century, laws required innkeepers to have their signs high enough to clear armored man on horseback. In the twenty first century, cities and towns around the world routinely revise sign codes in order to create environments that support the image that a community wants to portray, and to regulate standards to protect public safety.

(Reaction to surroundings, for example illumination, sounds, interactivity, signage isn’t just a stationery thing anymore it can be interactive and engaging)

P177.

Signage is a mass communications medium that work 24/7 and can attract new customers, influence purchasing decisions and increase sales.

(Development of mass communication through the ability to produce large scale physical outputs that represent a message) (Advancement of fabrication technology) (Places the brand into an environment, another distribution strategy)

Olins, W. (2004). Wally Olins on Brand. 1^st Edition. London. Thames & Hudson

Promotion.

P193.

You wont win with a brand if nobody knows about it (Similair to how know one knew about knowledge until mass communicative distribution arose) Most people who manage brands successfully are familiar with the mechanics of promotion. Advertising agencies, web designers, direct mail experts, public relations companies and a complex, interrelated, overlapping mass of other specialist communication organizations understand the world very well. Its all pretty familiar territory. Generally speaking, to get massive impact you have to spend massively. But like everything else to do with branding it isn’t as simple as it used to be. There are lots of opportunities – working with partners on events, retailers tie-ins, co-promotions, effective use of the net – which are relatively unfamiliar or innovative and which can make the difference between powerful and weak promotion. Advertising no longer dominates in the way it once did. Successful promotion needs organization, money and collaboration.

(How type is used within brand design to promote and manipulate, analyze how it communicates with end user, using new technologies like the web to expand recognition)

Roberts, S & Kruper, L. C. (2015). Writing The City. Eye 90. vol 23. P54.

Although technological change has threatened the economic viability of signwriting, Hardwicke has shunned the shift to vinyl letters and computer aided design.