EVERYTHINGIS DESIGNEDFEW THINGS

ARE DESIGNEDWELL

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— BRIAN REED

CONTENTS

IntroductionSauna / Emil PaunAirtistic / Alex TothUnlock / Cleber FariaRocket Golf / Sean HeislerDiamond Book Store / Joanna MalikBook Hive / Rich GrecoSlice / Manual CreativeLion Bird / Nashifan NizamTwins / Morten TorgersenFire Photography / Mikey BurtonArticle / Michael BierutEcotamak / VladimirMaxwell Fox / Brice BeasleyPencil / Reghardt GrobbelaarGiraffe / Elena ZhitkoED / Eden ClairiciaCatch 5 / Mike EricksonThink Tank / LogiqFolder / RokacAss / Yoon

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CONTENTS

The following pages are examples of creativity that I have found, that show off a clever aspect to its design. In effect I am showing inspiration I have found that I consider to be good design, and good branding. Throught I will look at different styles of design and also look at other work that designers have done. Various interviews are spread out in the book which provide some insight in to the designers. I also researched articles which had interviews of designers looking in to their process and thought processes.

INTRODUCTION

SHOW OFF A CLEVER ASPECT TO ITS DESIGN

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Sauna / Emil Paun

This is a prime example of a fantastic logo that is clever. The design itself is very simple. It’s only uses a typeface, but it doen’t really need a symbol.

If we take the idea of what a Sauna is suppose to do you can translate that across to this logo. When a person steps in to a sauna it’s to sweat out excess water in the body. So you walk in heavier then when you leave. This has been translated across to the design starting with a heavy weight in letter for the ‘S’ and graduadlly getting to a thinner weight for the last letter. It is a very simple idea but one that works very well I feel.

For more aesthetic Emil added a mist or a haze to the outside of the letters. This is particuarly noticable on the ‘N’. This is to represent the hot mist/steam produced in a sauna.

Based in Manchester and focusing on web written in HTML5 and CSS. Digital and ranges of layout design with a small amount of branding.

A selection of other branding work that Emil has done.

MY MAIN GOAL IN CREATING A LOGO

IS TO CAPTURE THE ESSENCE OF A CLIENT’S

VISION FOR THEIR PRODUCT

““

A Texan designer that shoots wedding videos as a day job, but also loves branding and packaging.

Airtistic / Alex Toth

Q. Which country do you currently live in?A. I live in the United States of America.

Q. How many years have you been a designer?A. I’ve been a designer now for 12 years

Q. Do you work from home or for a company?A. I work from my home office.

Q. How did you get in to designing?A. I began my career as a web/UI designer and considered that my specialty for a long time. In 2005 I developed an unhealthy obsession with branding and decided to test my skills in logo design. I received an overwhelmingly positive response. To this day web development remains the bulk of my workload but I continue to receive logo design requests regularly.

Q. When you designed this logo was it a live brief or a project for fun?A. The Airtistic logo was initially for fun. I was working on a different project for a client and had the realization of how similar the end of a pencil was to a parachute. In that moment, the idea for

the logo was born. It has since been sold to a client.

Q. Whats your main goal when creating a new logo?A. My main goal in creating a logo is to capture the essence of a client’s vision for their product, service and/or company. This involves learning all you can about the client’s product offering, services, competition, mission statement, goals, vision, personal vision for their brand and how they want to be perceived by their target audience.

Q. Whats your favourite logo at the moment, and why?A. Wow... there are so many it would be impossible to choose only one favorite. I will say that one of my favorite logos lately is by Josiah Jost. He recently designed a rebrand for Tyroo. It is very clever.

Q. And finally whats your favourite colour?A. It depends on my mood and the project I’m working on. I do wear a lot of black.. but that’s not really a color, is it?

A selection of other clever designs that Cleber has designed. Some of them are really clever.

Unlock / Cleber Faria

A portugese designer who focuses on branding and identity.

Another very simple design and one that I understood instantly.

The typeface was chosen on the basis that a padlock has rounded ends, so a rounded typeface would be appropriate. Then simply added a square with rounded edges above the ‘U’ to create the look of a padlock. Perfect.

Rocket Golf / Sean Heisler

An American designer based in Omaha. He focuses on logos and branding within graphic communication. He likes beer and spicy chicken.

Rocket Golf is a creative approach to using negative space.

Sean has taken the aspect of a tee used in golf as one of his main ideas. Simply adding 3 lines below the tees he has created the illusion of a rocket taking off in the negative space. This is a prime example of clever design, and why I take inspiration from design like this. The colours that Sean has used here are definately appropriate for golf. The golf green, and the whole aspect of the grass so this fits well with the whole image.

Some more clever logo designs from Sean.

MAKE A SMART, SIMPLE MARK.“

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Diamond Book Store / Joanna Malik

Q. Which country do you currently live in?A. Poland.

Q. How many years have you been a designer?A. 10 years.

Q. Do you work from home or for a company?A. I work from home.

Q. What would you say your speciality was in design?A. Logos / Branding / Web Design

Q. When you designed this logo was it a live brief or a project for fun?A. It was a project for fun.

Q. Whats your main goal when creating a new logo?A. Make a smart, simple mark.

Q. Whats your favourite logo at the moment, and why?A. From my portfolio the favorite logo is Diamon Bookstore. It is simple and smart.

Q. Whats your favourite colour?A. Black / Gray / Purple

Focusing on branding and web this polish designer produces some high-end

work.

Q. If you could brand anything what would it be?A. A bookstore so I could use my logo from my portfolio.

A selection of other clever designs that Cleber has designed. Some of them are really clever.

A Texan designer that shoots wedding videos as a day job, but also loves branding and packaging.

Book Hive / Rich Greco

Really clever design here by Rich, the colours are appropriate to what you first think of when you think of a bee hive, which is obviously what he is trying to portray here. Bit of an illusion going on here too, makes your eyes trying figure out the angles of it which all adds to the general feel of the design.

Its great and does exactly what it was intended for.

A selection of other clever designs that Cleber has designed. Some of them are really clever.

Slice / Manual Creative

The concept of Slice was to create a brand that could work on all formats on all packaging for any product.

The designers at Manual started with a typeface and then developed the idea using the idea of angles and dynamics. Something you would associate with this kind of product. By cutting away a section of the type at an angle they created the illusion that it has been sliced. A very clever bit of design and something that leaves you think you had thought of it. Manual won multiple awards for this, and rightly so.

An American based design team established in 2009 by Tom Crabtree who

was born in Yorkshire, England.

Lion Bird / Nashifan Nizam

Q. Which country do you currently live in?A. Sri Lanka

Q. How many years have you been a designer?A. Been designing for three years and two months now, and have loved every second of it.

Q. Do you work from home or for a company?A. I work from home, but planning to open a studio soon.

Q. How did you get in to designing?A. My dad was a designer, and I just picked it up from him. He taught me how to visualise concepts and ideas creatively in an impressive way.

Q. When you designed this logo was it a live brief or a project for fun?A. Neither, it was to implement the conceptual idea that came in to my mind.

Q. Whats your main goal when creating a new logo?A. It should have a unique and impressive style. Thats my main goal.

A freelance designer based in Sri Lanka, that tends to focus on identity.

Q. Whats your favourite logo at the moment, and why?A. ‘Families’ logo because the idea expression is clever.

Q. Whats your favourite colour?A. Dodger Blue

Q. If you could design anything what would it be?A. I would really want to design a television station, I think that would be really interesting.

HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO

VISUALISE CONCEPTS AND IDEAS

CREATIVELY IN AN IMPRESSIVE

WAY

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Twins / Morten Torgersen

Based out of Oslo, Norway Morten focuses on branding and identity.

The concept of Slice was to create a brand that could work on all formats on all packaging for any product.

The designers at Manual started with a typeface and then developed the idea using the idea of angles and dynamics. Something you would associate with this kind of product. By cutting away a section of the type at an angle they created the illusion that it has been sliced. A very clever bit of design and something that leaves you think you had thought of it. Manual won multiple awards for this, and rightly so.

A selection of other clever designs that Cleber has designed. Some of them are really clever.

A selection of other clever designs that Cleber has designed. Some of them are really clever.

From Ohio, Mikey describes his design aesthetic as “Midwesterny”. Focusing on branding and

illustration Mikey has a strong portfolio of great branding and illustrations.

Fire Photography / Mikey Burton

This logo is for a Photography company. They are called Fire Photography which suggests why the logo was designed the way it was.

Straight away you get the aesthetic of a camera. You see the flame above it and I thought about a camera flash and also fire. When you look closer the camera actually resembles the shape of a zippo lighter. This final subtle touch really made this for me. Adding a couple of simple circles on to the front of the lighter to represent a lens worked really well. The colour choice works well as a yellow flame wouldn’t of looked the same with the grey of the camera.

SA: Michael, let me start with the ob-vious. In my view, there are two kinds of designers in the world: the ones who main-tain their positions by holding other de-signers back, and the ones who confidently promote other designers. This interview might be more caustic if you were the for-mer kind, but you’re the first one out of the gate to find young designers and en-courage them. Why? Wouldn’t it be easier to be grumpy and complain about “those damned kids”?

FASHION CENTER BUSINESS IMPROVE-MENT DISTRICT: Pentagram crafted this identity, then took it a step further with a magnified, 3D version of the logo to help the group’s information kiosk stand out. With a huge polyester resin button held in place on its roof by a giant stainless-steel needle, the structure is easily identifiable.

MB: I really like graphic design. I like do-ing it, but I especially like it when other people do it. I don’t have any particular point of view that design has to be done a certain way, and nothing makes me happi-er than to see someone else do something great, particularly if it’s something I would never have thought of. I suppose this is one of the reasons I like being a partner at Pentagram: It’s great to have 16 really talented partners on your side. Graphic design isn’t a zero-sum game. Every time someone does something good, all of us benefit.

SA: Did you have the same experience of support and encouragement when you were starting out?

MB: Yes. I had great professors at the University of Cincinnati like Gordon Sal-chow and Joe Bottoni, and worked as an intern under Dan Bittman of Design Team One and Chris Pullman at WGBH in Boston. Then my first real job out of school was with Massimo and Lella Vignelli. I learned so much from all of them, just as I learn from all the people I work with today.

SA: You’ve been identified as a New York designer for so long, some people may not

realize you’re from Cleveland. You’ve men-tioned the local library only had two design books—Armin Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual and Milton Glaser: Graphic Design. How did you go from being the only per-son repeatedly checking out Milton’s book from the library to your first job in New York at Vignelli Associates?

MB: I’m relieved to hear that some peo-ple don’t know I’m from Cleveland, because I’ve been accused of belaboring the fact ad nauseam. I got my first job in New York the same way that every one seems to get their first job in New York: by accident. At one of my internships, I had worked with someone who had been a college room-mate with someone who worked at Vi-gnelli. I was between my junior and senior years and visiting a friend who happened to have an apartment on the same street as the Vignelli Associates offices. I tried to visit my ex-colleague’s former roommate—connections!—but he was busy, and I had to drop my portfolio off instead. Massimo happened to be around, happened to see it and happened to like it. And nine months later, a week after graduation, I was work-ing there.

SA: After you left Vignelli Associates, you joined Pentagram. You’ve been a partner there for 18 years. You must like it, or they have dirt on you. Why does it work for you?

MB: The way Pentagram is set up it com-bines everything I like about working as a designer and edits out everything I don’t like. Every partner runs a small team. I work

An interview between Sean Adams and Michael Bierut from Pentagram.

directly with my clients and directly with my designers. No account people, no hier-archies. On one hand, it’s as if it’s a small eight-person office. On the other hand, my team is one of seven in New York, and one of 17 in our offices around the world, so I get constant stimulation from my partners and the work they’re doing, plus the work and recognition that comes from the inter-national profile of Pentagram.

In the fall of 1998 the YALE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE appointed Robert A.M. Stern as its new dean, a move to revitalize the school’s reputation. In 1999 Pentagram was commissioned to signify this change with a new graphic identity for the school. Bierut designed the identity as a shifting mix of typefaces and photography built into structurally dynamic compositions of black and white. Using 100 different fonts of varying sizes, the graphics look as though they have come together only for an instant, before they rearrange them-selves into some new formation.

SA: Try as we might, we can never change how the place we’re from defines us. Being raised in northern Nevada guarantees I’ll never lose the phrase, “That’s real good. Real good.” How did Ohio define you, and how has that benefited you in your life?

MB: I think I am very polite, which I’m told is a positive Midwestern trait, but sometimes I wish I could be ruder. It’s really hard for me to tell a client to take a hike, for instance, no matter how incorrigible they are. I admire people who can get an-

gry in a direct and honest way. Sometimes I worry that what I call politeness is actu-ally cowardice. But I really didn’t have any role models growing up to teach me how to yell at people, so I’m stuck, I guess.

SA: Whenever I come across a piece you’ve designed, I’m struck by the intel-ligence, craft and wit. The idea may not be unexpected; at times it is the perfect realization of the expected in a complete-ly new and compelling way. Confidence, however, is at the core of each piece. The solutions share the trait of being pre-sented to the world with no apologies, straightforward and direct. Do you ever have moments of doubt?

MB: I’m very pleased to hear I’ve created the illusion you describe. Rest assured, not only do I have moments of doubt, but I actually make mistakes—some quite vis-ible—and have regrets of some kind or another about nearly everything I’ve ever done. My guess is some of what you’ve observed comes from the fact I’ve never been the kind of designer who can spend a long time working toward a solution for a problem. Paula Scher once said that if it’s taking a long time to make an idea work, maybe it’s a bad idea. All my best work in-volved solutions that were fast and almost easy to conceive—although the follow-through may not be.

SA: That’s a great point. I’ve found that laboring over whether the type is 1 pica to the left or 2 picas to the right is usually irrelevant if you have a crummy idea. So

much of your work is large-scale, long-term corporate projects. These involve large-scale politics. How do you handle this and maintain the ability to do good work?

MB: Any time you’re working with peo-ple, you’re working with politics, power struggles, turf battles, personality clashes. I realized early on it wasn’t enough to have a good idea or do a good design. You have to be able to persuade other people that your idea is right or your design is good, or else it’s never going to exist. This kind of persuasion depends on a number of things. Does the client trust you? Have you been listening to the client? Can you make your work understandable on their terms? Can you help them negotiate what may be an unfamiliar decision-making process? Unless you take all this stuff very seriously—and, more importantly, learn to take pleasure from doing it right—you are going to have a hard time getting anything done. I simply love this part of my job.

Bierut’s “WHAT IS GOOD DESIGN?” CALL-FOR-ENTRIES POSTER (above), done for the American Center for Design in 1992, was hand-lettered by his young daughter. It remains one of his favorite projects.

End of interview snippet. The rest of the Interview can be found at:

http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/STEP/Article/28910/index.html

Ecotamak / Vladimir Yoon

A freelance graphic designer from Latvia that focuses on branding and typography.

This was actually an unused concept for a proposal for a corn company. However once this was put on Vladimir’s portfolio online it was quickly snapped up.

At first I really didn’t know what this was, but just thought that it looked great. Then I started to think it looked like a flower or a plant. When I found out it was for a corn company I thought it was very clever and understood the idea process. The gradients of the different layers are great, and the different opacity levels make it look even better. You can see the top of the corn and then the outline through the ‘leaves’ of the design. Very clever.

Maxwell Fox / Brice Beasley

A Texan designer that shoots wedding videos as a day job, but also loves branding and packaging.

When I first saw this logo I didn’t get it straight away, but I think that a logo that has a subtle bit of cleverness to it is great.

The typeface Brice used is Telegrafico his thoughts behind it were that it was similar to Gotham his favourite typeface but it is a little wider and a little sharper. Based on the surname he designed a simple mark that resembles the head of a fox. Incorporating the shape of the ‘M’ in to that mark Brice designed a very simple but very clever logo to brand Maxwell Fox.

FINDING THE BALANCE BETWEEN

WHAT THE CLIENT WANTS AND GOOD

DESIGN...

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Pencil / Reghardt Grobbelaar

Q. Which country do you currently live in?A. Currently I am living in South Africa.

Q. How many years have you been a designer?A. I finished my honors Degree early last year, but started doing freelance work in my second year, so roughly about since about mid 2008.

Q. Do you work from home or for a company?A. I work from home on a freelance basis, but plan to open a small studio soon.

Q. What would you say your speciality was in design?A. I would say my specialty is looking for the minimal in everything, that is one of the reasons why I prefer logo design. One has to find the right image to show the qualities on a company in a limited.

Q. When you designed this logo was it a live brief or a project for fun?A. The logo was designed while working on another concept, it was further developed and now just waiting to go to the right home. So basically fictional brief inspired by actual client work.

A South African designer working with international clients while specialising in

Identity Design.

Q. Whats your main goal when creating a new logo?A. The main goal is always finding the balance between what the client wants and good design, finding that special something that brings the company’s ideals/qualities across.

Q. Whats your favourite logo at the moment, and why?A. This changes a lot and goes back and forth between an number of logos, but at the moment it would be the personal mark of Swiss designer David Pache.

Q. Whats your favourite colour?A. I don’t really have one favorite color, but do have a certain soft spot for orange and blue.

Q. If you could brand anything in the world what would it be?A. I would say the South African Cricket team.

t

Moscow, Russia based freelance designer with a keen eye for branding and web.

This is a really unique mark and some really clever design. Elena has taken the lower-case ‘g’ and turned it in to an image. Its a symbol on its own and people would know what the designer is trying to portray.

I really love the colours used too, they are the typical colours you think of when thinking of a Giraffe I think. A really clever design and one of my favourites.

A classic example of negative space used to create another aspect of a logo. This very simple design is a great piece of design and something that really communicates what a clever logo is.

The main part of this design is the symbol of a plug. An american plug to be exact, the way that the coil has been drawn with those small lines at the curves which really add to the design. The use of the negative space to create an ‘E’ is really clever. It is creating a second part to the design effortlessly. Using this as a piece of personal branding is great.

t

A french designer that focuses on branding and printed media. Photography is also a big interest.

Catch 5 / Mike Erickson

A Texan designer that shoots wedding videos as a day job, but also loves branding and packaging.

A really creative approach to this idea. Using the idea of a hand and a ball or a frisbee is great.

Using negative space here has made this a clever logo. A white circle on its own might of signified a ball, but with the hand it signifies catching the ball. I think the typeface is slightly to serious for the design, I would imagine this in relation to something for kids.

Think Tank / Logiq

Q. Which country do you currently live in?A. We are based in America.

Q. How many years have you been a designer?A. Personally 6 years, but the other guys in the office have been going longer.

Q. Do you work from home or for a company?A. We have a small studio with a small team.

Q. How did you get in to designing?A. I always drew, and I did some collaborations with these guys for a bit, then we just decided to start up Logiq!

Q. When you designed this logo was it a live brief or a project for fun?A. This was actually my personal idea that I did before Logiq, it just grew in to something bigger, so fun really.

Q. Whats your main goal when creating a new logo?A. I like to research around the client before I put pen to paper, but overall I just aim to please the client.

A creative team based in America that focus on high impact creative solutions for the web and social networking market.

Q. Whats your favourite logo at the moment, and why?A. Always thought that the Toblerone logo was great with the bear in the mountain.

Q. And finally whats your favourite colour?A. Mint

I LIKE TO RESEARCH

AROUND THE CLIENT BEFORE I PUT TO PAPER...

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Folder / Rokac

A Croatia based designer that focuses on typeface design, branding and printed layout.

This was a design from Rokac that was a concept he thought of. A clever use of negative space again.

Taking the idea that a filing cabinet opens outward like the logo. Then colouring the negative space which makes the shape of a ‘F’. A really clever idea and use of negative space. Its classic ideas like this, that

A selection of other clever designs that Cleber has designed. Some of them are really clever.

t

A polish designer that focuses on illustrative branding and logo design

I thought this was a fun and unique logo and worth a mention.

A custom typeface design drawn by hand and then finished on the computer probably. The pink colour is appropriate and its quite consistant consisdering its a drawing. Love the idea and it made me laugh!

Conclusion