Our class got a first-hand view of large-scale digital and lithographic printing when we visited RMG, right here in Chattanooga! RMG prints for many nationwide chains, such as Target and Starbucks. And Dollar General. And Home Depot. They also print life-size cardboard cutouts.
like that.
We got a first-hand view of printers (the people, not the machines) and pre-press as well. They’re much friendlier than I imagined. RMG is a good place.
Earlier this semester, our class was approached by Leadership Chattanooga to design a complete brand identity for a new initiative to plant trees in urban areas of Chattanooga. Tentatively titled We Dig Trees, our class changed the name to Take Root and submitted logotypes for the organization. We eventually settle on Nick Turner’s logotype, one which embraces the mission of Take Root on multiple visual levels. Here is Nick’s submission:
My logotype was in consideration for the final choice, but I do feel that Nick’s is a wonderful solution for the group.
Here is my submission:
Here is the same logo with some color treatments:
I sought to produce a logo which combined organic forms of nature with a compelling type treatment. plant. grow. sustain. is set in a handwritten look to connect with the fact that this is an initiative by and for the people of Chattanooga.
Earlier in the process I worked with some other possibilities for logotype. Here are some rejected ideas, some done before the name Take Root was finalized. The Sprout! logotype is the one from which the name Take Root was eventually taken.
I am currently working with Team Brochure to design a trifold brochure and a rack card for Take Root. The results are exciting and will be posted soon.
[dNASAb], Mark Andreas, and Ryan Wolfe are currently showing in the Cress Gallery, and they took time to lecture at the reception and to visit our class. I attended the lecture, and found all of these young artists to be inspiring; their words lessened my bias towardsmodern sculpture. Mark Andreas’s Seed Spreader was the highlight of the exhibit, and was exciting to see in action. I am thankful that Ruth put together such an amazing show for Chattanooga and UTC.
On Thursday, Jan 31, Processes and Materials Class visited the Chattanooga Times Free Press, our local large newspaper press which operates on four-color process flexographic printing technology.
The entire experience was pretty amazing (both in sight and smell) and our tour was guided by a really nice guy named Frank. I gained a new appreciation for the logistics and process of newspaper making.
Updated Museum Posters
The back on the earlier poster needed to be tamed down, it was a little too loud to relate to the front. I changed second typeface to one which is more legible at a smaller size, and added images to the back as well.
In Type III I developed a logotype for this fictional museum (The American Collection of Retro Art and Design) and put together and photographed a collection for it (Catchpenny) and this is the front and back poster for said museum… on the back are writeups for the touring collections (those of classmates) and info on the museum itself.
Full file in .pdf format:
museum-poster.pdf
This is an early draft, when I was working in a different direction:
In Typography III we took a large body of text from AIGA brochures and reformatted in for a four page brochure, aiming to present a design with clear and focused heirarchy. Here are the results:
Our class made the front page of The Pulse as part of an article on CreateHere, a local initiative to make Chattanooga a creative force to be reckoned with!
As part of Frietag’s international contest for the design of truck-tarps, I designed this green, black, and white solution. Keeping in mind the contest’s theme of Transit, I chose to incorporate Transit into a repetitive and rhythmic pattern of type and line, a solution which seeks to mimic the blur of road as seen from inside a moving vehicle. Dashed lines in various widths and lengths, black and white, swing the visual rhythm of the piece and interact with the letterforms in a randomized manner. The dynamic lines and letters serve to make the tarp an exciting fabric for Frietag’s designer bags; no two bags from this tarp will be the same.
January 15, 2008
Art 481 Professional Practices
The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
The Brand Gap presents a no-frills surface analysis of branding and corporate identity that is easy to read and comprehend. Marty Neumeier cuts to the core of branding from a business and design perspective. A brand is not a logo, it is a collective gut feeling about a product or company. Because the same product is sold by many companies, effective branding is essential in today’s market. By targeting the right market, a company can brand it’s product to have more appeal over its competitors’ product, even if the two items or services are identical. Neumeier refers to these select markets as tribes, subsets of the population who associate themselves with a particular scene. When a company collaborates with designers and researches to differentiate itself from its competitors, it gains an advantage that may make or break itself. Brand value is increasingly important as consumers gain more choices. Neumeier’s book is a quick read with valuable insight.
Read this book before your competitors do!
