TRO

30/04/2016

Found these cool typographic designs whilst looking through a book I Andy suggested in the first week (was reading back into notes and only just remembered then). The book is titled ‘The 3D Type Book’ and like many of the books I have borrowed recently features typographic forms created from objects to then be photographed. 

These were created by Kathleen and Christopher Sleboda of design team ‘Gluekit’ for the cover and interior pages of Print Magazine’s 2008 Regional Design Annual. ‘Wood, felt, hula hoops, fabric, tape, staples, foam and seams were all employed t create the type throughout the issue.’ This seemingly became the inspiration for the medium used to create these typographic designs. 

Image Sources:  Sleboda, CS, Sleboda, KC 2008, ‘Print Magazine Annual’, image. Available from: http://csleboda.com/index.php?/print-regional-design-package/ [Visited 30/04/2016]

László Moholy-Nagy

M/M (Paris) is an art and design partnership consisting of Mathias Augustyniak (born 1967, Cavaillon) and Michael Amzalag (born 1968, Paris),established in Paris in 1992.

Through their work in art, fashion and media as Graphic Designers and Art Directors, French duo M/M, has become one of the most creative powerhouses of the contemporary Paris scene.

The M/M first started out working with the music industry in the early 90s. Indeed, thanks to Michael Amzalag who curate French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles from 1989-1990, they were able to get in touch with emerging French artists for whom they did album covers. This proved so successful that they have continued to this day to create unique sleeves and clips for artists such as Bjork, Madonna, Etienne Daho, Benjamin Biolay.

They have released a special typography for Italian giant Prada, called the ‘Pradalphabet.’ Made of 26 ornament initials, it will be released as a collector’s edition of t-shirts displaying the letters P-R-A-D-A / M, or as a made-to-order service for customized t-shirts. They had previously created a special typography ‘The Alphamen’ in 2001 for the first issue VMan Magazine, which was photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

The work of M/M is rich by its diversity and all the challenges they have been taking up over the past 20 years of their collaboration, always applying their vision and signature graphic details to whatever medium they are asked to work with. When asked about why they chose graphic design they replied the following:

“We chose graphic design not just for the sake of being graphic designers. It was some kind of social commitment, a way to earn a living and also to disseminate our ideas. The activities related to graphic design are very suitable for us. We enjoy the thinking process, but we prefer that it be related to form and that ideas have tangible results. Also, we don’t create things out of the blue; we want to form a relationship with someone. But, as such, graphic design doesn’t excite us more than any other media, than film or books for example.”

This is exactly what makes the duo successful, they don’t create new graphics for the sake of it, but for the purpose of creating a dialogue between past, present, and future for their audience, hence creating each time a unique and complex universe filled with signs, organic symbols and bizarre characters to be deciphered.

reference: 

Meneghello, V. (2016). DIE UBER ORDER. [online] Elitism. Available at: http://www.elitismstyle.com/blogazine/die-uber-order/ [Accessed 10 May 2016].

Instagram’s New Logo

What do you think about the new logo?

My initial response – hate it. I think the colours are a hot mess. There is no consistency in the colours. Why the orange in the bottom left??

But the more I look at it, and trying to understand it (and watching the video above), the colours are from the previous logo, the more I appreciate the thought put into this logo. Is it effective? Yes. Does it work well on small screens? Yes. Will it be recognisable amongst the sea of icons on that metal rectangle? Maybe.

I was the same - I didn’t like the new logo. Instagram seemed confused about it’s own identity. But I think I feel this way because it I am too accustomed to the old logo and it just doesn’t have that reassuring familiarity of the old icon. However, I definitely appreciate the logo now that I have seen the process. I feel that it was very influenced by trends. This kind of links with a question I wonder about (@isa-i-mcgrath ) - ‘what is timeless design?’….what is the value of adhering to current trends? - such as the use of Chroma colour schemes and the ‘flat’ - 2D appearance.

I feel like this new logo was influenced strongly by the graphic changes happening in the social media world around it (i.e. how websites feature a flattened version of the (old) instagram logo to link it to their instagram site).

I suppose the video is it’s kind of like how we use the ‘rationale’ in our projects. Perhaps (as well as the flat trend) it’s the new context of the Apple Watch that has created a need to modify the logo.

@yusacui I wonder this also - whether the progression of design is simply becoming reductive? i.e. “How minimalist can you go?!” I found this interesting diagram you might want to check out! http://www.dailybri.com/wp-content/uploads/snygo_files-013-logoevolution.jpg - This shows what the Apple logo might look like in the future. Kinda funny - just a circle basically. I suppose there will be enough brand awareness by that stage that they could adopt such a logo.

This reminds me of Tiffany and Co’s Tiffany Blue branding. Having their bags, and store with the same recognisable colour, you would immediately recognise it from a mile away.

I believe it is about making the logo efficient. Perhaps learning from the ethos of Dieter Rams in making design minimal.