Project 2 for Typography was all about choosing the right typeface for the situation. The challenge was to create logos and business cards for 4 different companies that all fall under one umbrella corporation called Proteus. The companies were as follows:

A nationwide chain of funeral homes

My first sketches were for the funeral home. I figured this would be the most sober (I.E. least fun) of all the logos. I wanted to do something that played on a phrase Stephen King has used to describe death: “going to the clearing at the end of the path.” I did some initial sketches exploring how that might be expressed in a form simple enough for a logo. The end result will probably look like a tree to most people but I think it still works.

I considered using a script typeface for the funeral home logo, but decided it would be better to go with something easier to read. I chose Stempel Garamond Roman for the typeface because it’s simple and elegant without being too ornate for a logo. I did use a script, called Freebooter Script, on the business card to display a company motto. The rest of the card uses Stempel Garamond Roman and Bold to emphasize the name and street address.

A theme resaurant chain, designed to appeal to the same market as The Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues chains

While sketching for the book store and toy store, I realized that I had 3 out of 4 concepts involving a large upper case P represented by some object with the ascender hanging down to “hold” the secondary word. I decided to take a similar approach in the restaurant logo so each company would have a unique identity, but still be connected by this one common trait.

The bar and grill logo uses a typeface called A Charming Font, which I’m assuming is based on the television Charmed. Though the typeface is originally meant to have a witchcraft/Halloween feel, I think it also works well to evoke the feelings associated with hard rock or heavy metal. To solidify the musical theme of the restaurant, I added extra shapes to the end of the ascender of the P to turn it into an abstracted guitar, and substituted a stylized treble clef for the ampersand.

A chain of video/book stores catering soley to rare, unusual, cult and hard-to-find films

I selected Eurostile medium for the book/movie store logo. I considered Trajan Pro, for its popular usage in movie posters, but decided Eurostile was easier to read and still has a cinematic quality. I was never quite satisfied with the end result however, as I just don’t think the film real “reads” as a P the way I would like. Out of all 4 logos, this was my least favorite.

A chain of retail outlets for children’s clothing, products and toys

For the toy store logo I used 2 display faces, JellyBelly and Lockergnome. Both are suitably playful for a toy store, and they are nicely contrasted. My original sketches had the P formed out of a normal looking balloon, but it suffered from the same problem as the book store logo. Instead I just stretched out the ascender of the JellyBelly P and made it look balloon-like. For the text of the business card I selected Cooper Black. It’s rounded enough to fit with the “fun” of the logo, but still easy to read.

Filed under: Design by Ed 1 Comment »

Topics: Design, Logos, School, typography

I’m taking Typography this semester and our first assignment was to create 4 different monograms from our initials. Here’s what I came up with:

	This design uses Stencil Bold for the uppercase R and Hobo Medium for the lowercase e’s. In my sketches I had many ideas that involved laying lowercase e’s over an uppercase R. I found that the ultra-thick stroke of a Stencil Bold uppercase R allowed for a nice placement of 2 lowercaes e’s.
	This design uses Poplar Black for the uppercase R and Didot Regular for the lowercase e’s. I had several sketches that played around with the idea of laying lowercase e’s over the counter of an uppercase R. The uppercase R of Poplar Black works well for this because it has a small counter that doesn’t compete too much with the lowercase e’s. The thin bar and terminal of Didot’s lowercase e’s makes a nice contrast to the thickness of Poplar Black.
	This design uses Arnold Boecklin Regular. The typeface has a vinelike quality that I found well suited to the intertwining nature of this design.  I think the final result works well, although it’s a little bland. The best part about the design is that it is recognizable even when scaled to very small sizes.
	This design uses Hobo Medium for the uppercase E’s and Cooper Black for the lowercase r. I knew I wanted to attempt a design with back to back uppercase E’s, but I wasn’t sure which typeface to select. I experimented with different faces and settled on Hobo Medium for its playful quality. I chose Cooper Black for it’s thickness, which I think lets the lowercase r show up well at smaller sizes.

We were also asked to take one of the monograms and use it as a logo to design a business card. Here is the result:

I selected this design for the business card because I felt it had the most interesting overall shape. Turning the 2 E’s to an angle allowed me “activate” all sides of the composition and integrate my name and title into the design of the monogram.

Filed under: Design by Ed No Comments »

Topics: Design, School, typography

I finally decided to join Flickr, and I’ve been uploading a ton of photos. Go have a look:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erellsworth/

Filed under: Photos by Ed No Comments »

Topics: Photography