Helvetica

- Helvetica was created due to the new feeling of social responsibility within designers, during the period of modernity. It needed to be neutral and almost transparent, but at the same time be accessible and human to relate to the average citizen. Vignelli said that typefaces create a certain mood, and Helvetica is used to fit within any mood and to fulfil any purpose.

- Helvetica is ubiquitous, after it was created in the 1950s, Helvetica was seen everywhere. As Erik Spiekerman stated; the type became a brand in itself. Originally branded as 'The Swiss Typeface' had quickly become 'Universal' typeface. It could be said that companies which utilise Helvetica lose their own identity and personality. it has become a 'visual disease' that we have almost become immune to.

- Helvetica arguably became the typeface of both Socialism and Capitalism, it became associated with 'big faceless things' stated by Lars Muller. It had connotations with the Vietnam War and massive corporate brands. Helvetica needed to speak in a different way, as David Carson said, however legible something is, doesn't necessarily mean it communicates.

- Helvetica isn't about the type it is about the negative white space surrounding it. Which fits alongside Erik Spiekerman's view that the typeface needs room to breathe and what matters most is the space both between and sideways of the letters and also the counters within the type. 'Type isn't black it's really white', Vignelli. 

- Helvetica will forever be developing, however not in the type anatomy itself and the typeface is deemed by several designers as 'unfixable', (Michael Bierut), but in the sense that it can be utilised in different ways and suggest different meanings. Which is maybe why it does work when used by many massive corporations as it can be manipulated through colour, kerning and space to represent different identities. 

Colour has been used, most obviously to represent the American Flag and the identity of the country, it also is globally recognised as the colours of America, therefore colours can be a form of language. The formation of the letters is quite close, the kerning is tight, therefore it's transparent, it doesn't interfere with the logotype, it's straight forward. There is wider kerning between 'L' and 'I' to allow the black type to be legible, it allows the word to breathe. The negative space works due to where it would be found, enlarged on an aeroplane, it brings focus to the black of the type. Vignelli approached the design in a simplified, focused way to represent the company's 'gimmick free professionalism', (Vignelli). He tried to communicate a no nonsense, strategic approach using just one word, the images were added against his personal opinion. The design is balanced, by negative space. It doesn't express many feelings or emotion, but Vignelli designed it for for that purpose, clear legibility. 

The text has been right aligned to balance the design, because the shape on the right is heavy; so as not to have too much negative space. The type has been placed on the left side as through research, this is the coldest and most treacherous part of a mountain. Form has been used to align the type with the width of the shape to seem a cohesive design. The designer has tried to create a balanced, structured design to represent the quality of products and clothes. The design makes you feel grounded and safe, showing the trust the customers should have in the brand, but without having to think about the type, as Helvetica is supposed to be transparent. 

Logotype Similar Brand Analysis

Both thick and thin transition has been used and research into the company shows that this is supposed to represent morse code as the founder of this company's father was the founder of morse code. It also represents the transition in music. The 'S' logo image is to replicate the clicker that was used to type in morse code. Although it is a sans serif font, the transition in the type adds another dimension and almost makes it look 3D, to enhance the sense of hearing and touch etc. All the letters are capitals and are equal at the same x-height and baseline, creating the word as a whole. It almost makes it seem to fit on the lines of a music sheet, which is a grid in itself. The kerning seems to be equal throughout, but is quite spaced out, to represent the high end feel of the company. 

The typeface used on this logotype is the brand's own, it was created by themselves. JVC stands for Japan's Victor Company and the typeface design seems to be represent the identify of the country itself as the type looks like symbols rather than letters, relating to the Japanese alphabet. Although this font seems to be the most outdated of the others, as it was founded in 1930s and their logo hasn't' been changed since; but this is the current trend of nostalgia in logo design. The Logotype itself has very structured lines, both the flick of the 'C' and 'J' are at an equal height. The 'C' has an almost closed apperture.

This logotype was created by Jef Ingram, and similar to the Beats logo, the typeface has quite curved and organic lines, which could connote sound waves and link back to music. On the top of the 'Y' they have used a diacratic, which could represent the stacatto note within music. Both the 'a' and the 'd' have an open apperture which creates a contemporary feel as these headphones are mostly aimed at young people. Th letters have a low x-height and the letters seemed to be squished, the bowl of the 'a and d' seem oval.

The beats logo is probably one of the most famous, the circular bowls and shapes of the letters are used to represent vinyls and CDs, but the top logo is supposed to create a head with headphones on, only using geometric shapes. The kerning on this logotype is quite tight as the letters are quite wide, especially the counters of b, e, and a. This tight kerning is used as a contrast to the curved and circular letters. 

The typeface chosen here is a mixture of Univers and Akzidenz, two very modern and contemporary typefaces, to represent the personality of the new age of technology of wireless headphones and speakers. The simplicity of the logotype means that consumers and the audience will focus entirely on the audibility and quality of the brand rather than the logo. Therefore comparatives are made between readability and audibility. In some ways the logo represents the sound quality and high end products of the brand. The symbol that has been placed with the logotype seems to be a ligature symbol of some sort between the letters 'a' and 't'.

The company is based in Singapore, which similarly to the JVC logo, their typeface kind of represents the language of the origin country. Geometric, sharp shapes and letters have been used, to represent the structure of music. The crossbar of the 'A' has been lowered, to create a shape and logo of some sort in itself. It also means the 'A' is off the baseline which draws the eyes attention to the centre of the word. The mark makings of dashes and lines are similar to those on music notes also.

To conclude, all the logotypes I have analysed, none of them use a serif font, as technology and music is still quite a contemporary thing and new musicians are coming into the industry all the time, therefore logos need to be fresh and inspiring. They almost all very structured and ordered along a grid of some sort and are all equally spaced out within Kerning. Overall after looking at similar brands, I think Futura was the perfect choice of font and I should experiment with shapes, negative space and line transition.

Logotype Development

Below are initial ideas, where I have begun to experiment with negative space. I have taken out lines out of the type, to represent the idea of lines in music. Also the use of negative space relates to the lack of instruments when listening to acoustic music. I have then also experimented with using other geometric shapes as negative space, as everything used within a recording studio is made up of shapes, so I thought to try and recreate this within the logotype. I then moved away from digital experimentation and decided to hand draw ideas.

Feedback

After an interim crit, I got some great feedback about my initial designs of what people liked best and why and also other ideas to try out. Many favoured he design made entirely of shapes as letters as it represents the idea of 'Acoustic', stripping the word back to it's basic form.
The line through the middle of the word using negative space, was described as guitar strings and instruments. Which relates to the company and meaning of the word; shows that the Logo represents the company well.
To work on:
-Give meaning behind the negative space and line through the letters.
- Try negative space just on the 'O' and leave the rest of the letters.
- Try a thinner font.
Try the words on different levels and lines.

Logotype Adjective and Typeface Research

The brief was to create company from a specific given word, which would then need be branded with a Logo using only type. The word I was given was Acoustic, obviously the first thing was to find multiple meanings of the word.

- Sense of sound or Hearing

- Electrical Instruments not having electrical amplification

- How sound is transmitted in a room

 - The branch of Physics associated with sound

I then began to plan out ideas of which companies could be associated with the word, I decided to create a brand for recording studio equipment e.g, microphones, speakers, ear pieces.

I was given six typefaces to choose from, I then looked further into the history of these typefaces and how they were created to make a suitable choice and which would best represent the personality of the company. 

Century

Specifically designed for body text, initially created for 'Century Magazine'. The characters have finely pointed serifs, with low stroke contrast. I thought this font was too delicate and intricate for the type of company I chose. It seems to be too serious, as it is used by the Supreme Court in USA, therefore I decided against this font. 

Bodoni

This typeface is classed as a modern serif font, it's main characteristics are unbracketed serifs, which create a more elegant and feminine personality. Although it is said to be hard to read when used for body text. Again I decided against this typeface as although it has a more modern feel, which is what I was looking for, it is still to elegant for the branding of the company. 

Helvetica

Helvetica has unusually, tight kerning for a typeface, it also has a tall x-height and has the uniqueness of a two storied 'a'. I didn't choose to use this typeface as although it was between this and Futura, Futura seems better suited. Also, Helvetica s said to be overused which has given it a 'cheap' feel and my company represents high end products. 

Times

Times Typeface is mostly associated with academia, textbooks and newspapers. Therefore it didn't seem appropriate to use it to represent a modern recording studio. It also appears to be old fashioned with a robust, solid design.

Garamond

The characteristics of this typeface are a smaller x-height, with larger capitals in comparison to lowercase. Also the eyes of 'a' and 'e' are relatively small and the 'M' seems to have sharp hooks. The serifs on this typeface seemed to delicate and the font wasn't bold enough for my company. It didn't represent the brand's personality. 

Futura

This typeface is the one I eventually chose as I thought it was perfect to represent my brand. Firstly the letters seemed to be made up of geometric shapes, which represents the idea of structure and accuracy in music. Also the sharp edges relate to the clean, cut sound of listening to music. Also after researching further I found that the ascenders of lowercase letters actually ascend above the baseline, which is how high frequency waves operate. It represents the contemporary, technical feel and it also is sans serif which represents stripping the typeface back to basics just like acoustic music. 

Typographic Terminology

Apex - Tip of the uppercase A.
X-height - The height of the lowercase letters.
Baseline - The invisible line in which the letterforms sit.
Descender - A tail that descends below the baseline.
Tittle - The dot on the I or J.
Bowl - The hollow or inside part of a B or O.
Counter - Area that is partially enclosed such as P or lowercase e.
Crossbar - The bar found connecting the two sides of a H or A.
Cap-height - The imaginary line which the uppercase letters reach to, or the Ascender line in the case of lowercase letters.
Spur- The small flick on a lowercase a, b or d.
Ear - The extension on a lowercase g.
Stem - The stroke of vertical line of a letterform.
Transition - The change between thick and thin strokes.
Juncture - Where the line curves in on a capital R and B.
Ligature - When two letters are joined together.

Vignelli Canon

Massimo Vignelli created a set of guidelines set by ourselves as designers, for ourselves.

Intangibles - Design guidelines that cannot physically be touched or changed

Semantics - Everything must have meaning behind it, research is key. "Design without semantics is shallow and meaningless."

Syntactics - Design language- from typeface, grids to structure and headlines.

Discipline - Attention to detail. "Design without discipline is anarchy".

Appropriateness - Specific to solving a certain problem.

Ambiguity - Enhances meaning of design, if used in the right way.

Visual Power - Scale and contrast.

Intellectual Elegance - Our social responsibility, how people perceive designs. 

Timelessness - No short term or temporary solutions, needs to last for the foreseeable future.

Responsibility - To ourselves, the client, the public/consumer.

Equity - Economic sustainability within design.

The idea that a rebrand or logo design, should not just happen for the sake of it. Logos are rooted in people's consciousness, which is why many companies are beginning to revert to original logos such as Natwest and Co-op. A form of showing respect to history. 

Tangibles

Paper Sizes - Aware of the printing process and the most economically sustainable way of printing. "Bring dignity to our practice, rather than lustre'.

Grids - Represents the basic structure of our design and provide continuity. 

Typefaces - Out of thousands of typefaces we only need a few basic ones. 'Typography is a discipline to organise information'.

Flush Left - aesthetically pleasing, use justified in textbooks.

Type Size Relationship - Contrast of scale, weight, transition, size.

Colour - Simplified primary colour palette is all that's needed.

White Space - "Is essential to the element of composition."

Kerndown Task

For this brief study task, we were asked to experiment with kerning. We were given multiple different general brands and companies which we then had to represent through just changing the kerning of random letters.

Budget Supermarket

For this one we used tight kerning, and a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters. The letter s may also appear of the baseline to represent the cheaper brand. 

Luxury Car Brand

Wide and loose kerning were used for this company, to represent elegance and high quality as white space usually connotes quality. 

Condom Brand

This had to look both safe and fun at the same time, therefore we kept kerning quite tight, but then placed the 'f' on a slant to represent the fun side and to appeal to young people.

Indie Band

The balance needed to be found between keeping some form of construction to the type; but at the same time the type needed to look unique and quirky. Therefore we decided to take some of the letters slightly off the baseline, whilst still being legible. We also kept the kerning quite tight but with some spacing.

IT Company

The Kerning was kept tight here, but spacing was also needed to show that high end feel to the company. It needed to connote a connected and strategic approach, whilst not being completely joined together. 

From this task, I learnt that kerning can make such a difference to what a word or company represents. Just by using random letters and changing the kerning, you can create a well known brand that people will recognise. Kerning can give type personality.