shelf of routine thoughts (or nonsense) | Ebee | shelf-ish | I always believe that to write down thoughts counts as a ghost of done. These are collection of what I see, what inspires me, and I share stuff you might (also) like to know.
Letterplatters is an initiative working studio that I found myself to store my personal projects. Been looking forward for this to function just like it should be. I can’t wait to start off and run it over the weekend. Will update the link and stuff once it’s done, hopefully by the end of this month. Excited!
Starting my Sunday with a good reading on Symbol vs. Logotype: Typography in Corporate Identity. It simply nice writing by Tony Fahy and thought I could just share this for the love of typography. Enjoy.
The great Corporate Identities – the most memorable and instantly recognizable (from Coca Cola to IBM, Chase to Lloyds, Mc Donald’s to Apple, Mercedes to Shell) both in subliminal and instinctive ways – all have one thing in common: great Corporate Identity Designers.
There is no rule to decide which is the better solution – type or symbol. Either solution is arrived at through an analytical design approach. The client may drive the solution with their personal preference, and hopefully, they keep in mind why they employed a professional in the first place.
Surely a typographic based corporate identity in logotype form has a stronger sense of identification with a company than a symbol, right? You’d think so. But is BP really more memorable than Shell? IBM more so than Apple? You see the dilemma. There’s strength in both solutions.
Imagine you are in a new town looking for your bank. Your eyes takes in a stream of information as they scan the streets below until, in the distance, you detect the Barclay’s Blue — and nothing else. You are too far to detect any name or shape, yet convinced and knowing that the bank you are lookinhg for has been detected — even at a distance of 100’s of yards on a busy street. These semi-dayglow style colors can be just as important as the symbol or logotype shape in a Corporate Identity and show that neither solution, isolated from many factors such as color, is enough on it’s own.
Colour is a science in its own right. Science plays many a part in our perception of what we see and absorb. Branding Agencies and brand communication companies are at the forefont of this science.
In recent years, many British companies, probably for historical reasons, left their Britishness behind in seeking to make inroads in other countries: British Petroleum became BP. British Airways — BA, British Oxygen — BOC, British Homes Stores — BHS. Colonies have long memories – and in the case of BP, it sometimes comes back to haunt…
The power of type in corporate Identity can’t be underestimated – it is above and beyond. The examples in the collage here illustrate the diversity of solutions. All are well known distinctive symbols or logos. The stand-alone Batman symbol, the cartoon-like Google logotype, the cut to the Chase, the simplicity of Nike, the original Kodak, Xerox, Playboy. The strength of the Carlsberg logotype is in it’s Fraktur based script, and that was originally a font from Guttenburg’s time! Hyundai has distinctiveness too, in both symbol and type.
Perhaps companies that use both symbol and type are the most successful. You could say this is too much — you don’t need a belt and braces! Lloyd’s Bank has the distinctive Black Horse symbol with an equally distinctive font, immersed in their strikingly identifiable custom green.
So what works? A thorough corporate identity design process – in each and every case – is the only way to find a solution that’s right for you. Following the right process, doing your research and understanding how your company is different, will result in the solution being the right design.
Simon Schubert, a talented German artist, uses paper creases and folds to create incredible works of art. By seeing that, Absolut called him to make an extreme pure vision artwork for Absolute Purity. Just by using his expert on folding paper, he designs images with different perspective by mastering shadow and light.
No ink, no pen, 100% cellulose paper and one great piece of absolutely nice Absolut ad!
This set of Melbourne City logo has been always a favorite set of branding that I’d like to keep. Good thing, I had a chance to visit the city last year and see the progress of the re-branding myself. Interesting logo, right?
Bumped into this video of Desain Komunikasi Visual ITB, once-my-dream-university back in 2004 but I’ve crossed path somewhere else. Though I failed to be part of it since a decade ago, I am still putting my hope high on qualified communication and design learning up to now… hoping it will shape better visual literate peeps who is responsible in every creative aspect out of themselves.
Found this interesting video on the making of “Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design” book. Saul Bass (1920 - 1996) is one of the most iconic and influential visual communicators of the 20th century. Publisher Laurence King put together this epic video of the making of the book, to give you a sense of the scale and ambition of the project.
I want everything we do to be beautiful. I don’t give a damn whether the client understands that that’s worth anything, or that the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. It’s worth it to me. It’s the way I want to live my life. I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares. (Saul Bass)
Mark your calendar, spare your time over the weekend to attend the talk and gigs - which probably could be the best touchdown with local bands. This should be interesting. See you guys then!
A friend passes this link to me just now, a story about a lonely toy desk who takes a trip out of the country. The idea is executed very well and I do love how the scene is made. Address is Approximate is a Google Street View stop motion animation short made as a personal project by director Tom Jenkins. Go watch!
Above is the recent work of Shadtoto Prasetyo for one influential indie band The Brandals. After Pras’s previous documentary for the band, this AWAS POLIZEI! video has marked his name into different level. Fashion photographer and (now also) a video clip director has remarkably stating his appearance in local creative industry. I’m a proud friend!
What the fuck right, a dinky 35mm analogue movie maker is launched by Lomography recently. Proudly known as Lomokino, this first ever lomo video camera shoots video on ordinary rolls of 35mm film with a little crank of a handle. It is capable of squeezing up to 50 seconds of footage onto a standard 36-frame roll, the finished results are a real throw back to your olden days.
Lomokino has a 25mm lens with 1/100 shutter speed. Aperture can be controlled manually by sliding a switch on the front between f/5.6 – f/11, and to focus there’s a button on the side for those 0.6m close-ups (otherwise, the standard focus is 1m – infinity).
Making movie? Gotta need to stitch the 144 images together with something like iMovie Windows Movie Maker or Final Cut. You can read up on the post-production notes over here, for more. From there, Lomography’s recommending Vimeo as the best place to upload your vids as well. Of course, better.
Beat off at £65 itself, let freaking saving for this one. Damn!
