Graphic Design Comes In Many Forms

I have been trying for a long time to come up with something original that says "me". I want to design a logo that  I will use on my blog, website, business cards, etc. So, I've been watching other logo designs for a very long time. My first introduction to the concept of logo's was when I was just a young boy and my parents owned a clothing store and beauty salon. They named their store Beau's & Bell's and it was done in black with a french script looking font. The logo was in black as well of a Victorian era man and woman under her umbrella. I always thought it was very classy looking. I wish I had a copy to show here.

Anyway, I have taken photos of a few business logo's that appeal to me. I think the Outback Steakhouse has a nice and simple text logo. I don't know what font this is, but I was just noticing the other day how unusual it is with the curvature inside the letter "K". I don't know how much it speaks to being Australian, but it is bold and effective.

I have never had a bad experience eating at Ruby Tuesday. The logo on the face of the building is apparently the old one. Everyone appears to be heading in the direction of very simple text based logos these days.


Speaking of very simple text based logos, when I see the Game Stop logo, I see Grand Theft Auto written all over it. I don't know if this was the intent or if it was accidental or incidental. Maybe there are other games out there that have a similar look and feel to GTA. I'm not sure, I don't play a very wide selection of games. The White and Red in kind of a comic book style font says game.  I wanted to get a photo of the bank inside of Walmart. The green and black and white layered in a three dimensional layout is very intriguing. A Walmart manager decided to inform me that they did not allow photos to be taken inside the building. If you get the chance, next time you venture into the massive retailer, check out the large banner logo above the bank.

I love tea - especially Chai Black

Several years ago I significantly reduced my coffee intake because my Dr. said I'm allergic to it. So, I found tea, and eventually found a favorite flavor. So for years I have been drinking the Black Chai made by Stash. I love the flavor, but I was also partial to their packaging design. They used to have a half round hole cut in the box. Once I unwrapped the plastic wrapping and stored the box in my cupboard, I could very easily pull a tea bag out of the box while the box remained on the shelf in my cupboard.

I'm not sure if people complained, or if the company decided to pinch a penny, or maybe just desired a new look, but they did away with my favorite design in favor of a similar box that required me to tear out a perforated  area to reveal my favorite access portal. Not happy, but maybe some Yahoos were slicing the plastic in the stores and stealing tea through my convenient access portal. Okay, I dealt with it.

That design only lasted for about six months, maybe a full year. Then Stash decided to completely reinvent its packaging with these photos as a result. As far as the imagery and text layout, I see it as cleaner, sleeker, and perhaps a bit more elegant than my older favorite packaging design. The trendy, fashionable, sleek, new, contemporary, look has always been what I see in their packaging. This is possibly why I'm attracted to it, thinking that this isn't the same old "Celestial Seasonings" tea that Mom always bought.

So, this newest design is kind of neat, but I'm still adjusting to it. You push in on the little thumbtab, and pull the whole lid up while tearing the perforated corner seam. It isn't very intuitive or obvious what to expect when you do this, but the lid is designed for future closure and reopening pretty well once you get past the initial step.

One day, the store shelf was out of my favorite tea. What's a guy supposed to do? Well, I wasn't about to go chasing from store to store to find it, but I was completely out at home. I'm adventurous,   and I'll try anything once. So, I noticed the Twinings brand version of their Black Chai Tea and bought that thinking it would hold me till I could find my favorite Stash on a shelf again.

Twinings is another old school brand that Mom had on her shelves. But, this packaging design isn't "Classic" looking. It appears fresh, clean, contemporary, delicious, and new. I am particularly fond of the font choice used for the word "Chai".  It has an Asian feel to it, giving it an even more convincing authentic impression. My absolute favorite part of this new design though is the box mechanical design. It is hands down the most innovative and impressive package for tea that I have ever seen. I can't even imagine that it could ever be improved upon. It has a flip top. As you open it, you feel a slight resistance as if it is being held shut with something as strong as velcro. Then it instantly releases its light grasp and your box is open. When I examined the closure design, I found two tabs that swing or fold up or down with the opening and closing of the lid. These tabs fit snugly into a little pocket in the lid when it is closed. This is the simplest and most effective design I've ever seen. Maybe I've been hiding under a rock, but this is new to me and I have a new favorite package. Sorry Stash, I'm a Twinings drinker now. I love the packaging but the flavor of the tea is actually a bit richer with the Twinings too. 

University of Illinois Credit Union Mailer

This came to me in the mail as similar ads often do from the University of Illinois Credit Union. I think that the style book that they work from is well designed and very nicely applied every time that I see the newest ad that they send out. I actually had the opportunity to shadow Sarah Brenner, the graphic designer who is responsible for these layouts one day last summer. It was a very interesting glimpse at a day in the life. She showed me the style book that is applied to every ad and campaign that she produces for the company. That was my first experience being enlightened to the concept of a "Style Book". The font choices, exact colors, as well as other styles are precisely adhered to every time they create anything for the public eye. It's all about identity.

Front

Back

In this particular ad, I'm very interested in the reflection inside the goggles. It looks like there is even a bit of curving wrap applied to the logo, but I think it should actually be a bit stronger than it appears. The actual size of this is about 10" X 6", each image is one side of that dimension. 

Test Test ... tap tap ... is this thing on?

I just recycled an older blog in my blogger account to get this up and going. I hope that I haven't created any complications by deleting all the old posts to clear the road for the new spring semester. So, here goes.