Frog's Digital Design Blog » Graphic Design

15 Major Brands Rebrand

Gary Hartley — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:57:47 +0000

Full credit and roundup from Underconsideration.com, thanks guys for the fantastic resources!

We follow on the theme of rebranding by major brands by having a quick roundup. Following on from the calamitous Pepsi rebrand here are 20 rebrands that have taken place over the last few months, let us know what floats your boat.

Starbucks, Back to the Future

Howard Schultz returns as CEO of Starbucks and has unleashed an unprecedented wave of brand nostalgia by deploying the original Starbucks logo.

Kraft Foods, making today delicious

With a new purpose and values setting a fresh direction, Kraft Foods also gave its corporate logo a facelift to more clearly deliver “delicious.” Starting today, people around the world will begin to see the new identity that deliciously features a smile, the natural reaction to delicious foods and experiences, and a colorful flavor burst. It signals to employees, consumers and investors what the new Kraft Foods is all about.
— Press release

Hudson’s Bay Co.

Hudson’s Bay Co., founded in 1670 by King Charles II, is a huge Canadian retailer with over 600 retail locations all across Canada.

Sci Fi becomes SyFy

When networks present their new programming, sell big chunks of advertising and announce any major changes — the 16-year-old Sci Fi Channel announced that on July 7 it will change its name and identity to Syfy.

Jack in the box

The old logo had all the fixings of a classic American fast food chain logo: red and quirky typography. Plus years of equity. The new logo is a very contemporary departure from the original, which is par for what’s been happening to fast food logos, and the new, custom script is quite attractive and dynamic. And, pending a press release, I’m pretty sure the tail of the “k” is meant to be a smile.

Citroen

Designed by Landor, the new logo comes as Citroën celebrates its 90th anniversary (founded in 1919) and as it unveils new models of its DS line

Air France

Operating since 1933, Air France has become one of the biggest and most recognized airlines in the world, traveling to nearly 100 countries. A new identity, replacing its last update since 1975, has been designed by Brandimage.

Asian Football Confederation

Hosted by the Asian Football Confederation, Asia’s governing body of soccer, the annual AFC Champions League features the best clubs from each country competing for Asian soccer supremacy. This past December they unveiled a new identity aimed towards the new and growing generation of soccer enthusiasts.

Sprite

Just in time for the NBA All-Star’s Slam Dunk contest which Sprite sponsors they are putting into use a new, dynamic and active logo that, in context, is actually quite decent.

My Fonts

With an ever growing library of more than 62,000 typefaces from more than 400 foundries and designers, MyFonts has been one of the most comprehensive shopping spots on the web since its launch in 1999.

Sandisk

SanDisk / Pound for pound, letter for letter, ligature for ligature, the best redesign of a wordmark that retains the essence of the original while pushing the company into the new, young century.

Ford

Ha! Only kidding. Making sure you’re paying attention.

Pepsi

Pepsi Rebrand, absolute waste of millions of dollars.

Capitol One

Capital One / A swoosh in 2009? And, even by swoosh standards, a crappy one at that?

Xerox

Xerox / Taking the marble-lowercase trend to the extreme. And sucking at it. Barclaycard came in close second in this category.

Barclaycard

Barclaycard / My sister works for them so I best be nice.

Roundup

Pepsi takes the crown for worst logo rebrand in the category years 2006-2009. Our personal winner has to be Citroen, simple, shinny and French – Au revoir!

Full credit and roundup from Underconsideration.com, thanks guys for the fantastic resources!

Barrrrrmy times!

Gary Hartley — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:07:19 +0000

My agency 9xb recently moved premises and required a full refit. Part of the existing setup was a rather blank white wall with a red fire alarm top center of it. This area was to be the reception wall that clients and guests would see when entering the building so we decided to go crazy and generate some artwork to fill the space and brighten the room up. The simplest thing to do would be to paint it, but we’re not like that here, we don’t mind taking risks and thinking outside the box.

Before the refit started we took a couple of shots of the wall from different angles and mocked up a few ideas.

Options whittled down

Option 1: Millions of sheep

An illustration of hundreds of sheep with one cheeky-chappy chilling out.

Option 1: Millions of sheep – closeup

Option 2: Crazy phychodelic sheep

Seriously bright, seriously mental.

And the winner is…

The crazy phychodelic sheep of course!

Another angle mocked up

The final file ended up being 1.4gb in size, measuring 3.5m by 2.2m. Sheep image from istockphoto, printed out and an industrial high res scan created, merging a phychodelic rainbow as a Photoshop Smart-Object then sent to printers who came a week later to fix it to the wall. I’ll get a real photo uploaded asap.

Previous digital art for 9xb

View 9xb digital art post here

Basic design principles explained

Gary Hartley — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:37:33 +0000

I work in the web design industry and I’m amazed every single day by the lack on knowledge, respect and understanding of the basic design principles that I take for granted. I trained for 4 years in Graphic Design by some of the best, or more accurately traditional, designers in the business where I had these principles drilled into me. Taking these basic design principles and any talent for design and creation, I have forged another 7 successful years in the industry.

My aim with this post is to lightly guide those of lesser experience in the right direction with a series of examples and explanations, gliding over some pretty basic teachings so that we can approach our next job with a real educated grounding in the why’s, how’s and when’s of design.

Proximity

The basic theory of proximity is concerned with the arrangement or categorisation of elements that relate to one another. To understand why, when elements of a similar nature are grouped together the information becomes a visual unit. This provides a viewer with a visual clue as to the concept you are communicating rather than being confronted with a scattering of unrelated graphical elements. When a number of graphic elements are close in proximity a relationship is implied. If elements are logically positioned they connect to form a structure to your design, this is also known as Visual Hierarchy.

Visual Hierarchy

Visual Hierarchy arranges elements to create focal points by positioning their priority within a concept as a whole. To do this you will need to ask yourself what the key elements of your design are, which graphics communicate your concept most strongly? Which graphics support your concept and how could you illustrate them to create a visual structure from most to least important? You may consider displaying your graphics using different sizes and colours to give them visual weight.

Visual weight refers to the relative size and scale of the various elements in a design. This gives meaning to the relationship between objects, or parts, of a whole. Scale is used to create the contrasting relationship of size between elements in a composition.

Study your design concept and take note of what attracts your eye first, where do you look next and how does your eye move around the visual elements of your design? Is a relationship implied in the ordering, grouping and placements of your graphical elements?

Symmetry / Asymmetry

The principle of alignment focuses on the placement of graphical elements and their relationship to each other and as a whole. Following the principle of proximity, alignment allows a visual connection with elements in your design to be formed even if they are not close in proximity. Alignment helps to create unity and balance.

Balance is the concept of visual equilibrium. It is the combination of opposing elements in a composition that results in visual stability. Most successful compositions achieve balance using symmetry or asymmetry.

Symmetry refers to the organisation of elements in which a balanced visual hierarchy is achieved through the alignment of graphics along a horizontal or vertical axis. This means that your design can be reflected precisely over a central axis like a mirrored image.

In contrast, design elements that display an unbalanced visual weighting that are made up of elements differing in size, colour and shape are organized and positioned against one another to create asymmetry.

Repetition

Repetitive elements throughout a design piece can be used to enhance and clarify information. Repetition adds visual interest to your design, and helps to identify elements that belong together. It can be considered a way of adding consistency to your design.

The consistent repetition of graphic elements works to create visual unity. These elements can be as simple as colour, spatial relationships, a shape, a texture or a typeface. Sometimes repetitive elements are not identical in appearance but are in fact so similar that their connection is clear.

Unity

Unity is the underlying principle that sums up all of the principles and elements of design. Unity refers to the combination of all elements successfully working together to achieve a sense of harmony in your design. This can be achieved through the consistent use of graphic elements. Using repetition or patterns is one of the most basic factors in creating a strong sense of unity.

Contrast

An effective use of contrast enables you to add interest to your design by highlighting specific graphic elements. This will result in a more visually striking composition. To achieve this ‘contrast’ is employed as a means of creating a visual hierarchy among different graphic elements. It can be applied to graphic elements, as light, dark, warm, cool, large, small; etc.

Contrast is most effective when it is strong; the focal point of a design is usually a result of contrast where the eyes will naturally be drawn. Here contrast can be used to direct the focus of a composition. When used as a device to emphasize or highlight design elements it is important to remember that an ineffective use of contrast may result in confusion.

Dynamics

Dynamics is the arrangement of visual elements in a composition to suggest the illusion of movement or direction. The effective use of dynamics in a design can add an emotive characteristic to your design making it appear restful and calming or active and energetic.

Dynamics can exist in four basic forms:

Rhythmic: A steady rhythm that creates predictability and order in a composition.

Arrhythmic: Follows an unstructured rhythm to add visual interest to a composition.

Random: Without a structured approach or a defined order that creates spontaneity in a composition.

Directional: The use of graphic elements used in such as way that implies a visual connection to lead the eyes to move in a particular direction.

Creating a dynamic composition involves the use of patterns or the repetition of graphic elements and movement to be effective in its execution. The suggestion of motion by the use of repeated structures creates dynamics.

Emphasis

Emphasis refers to the focal point or centre of interest of a composition. This is an area that is visually dominant and eye-catching that a designer has emphasized through the clever placement of graphic elements.

Used effectively in combination with the principle of visual hierarchy ‘emphasis’ can assist to establish a primary focus and an alternative secondary emphases in another area of the composition.

Emphasis can be achieved by use of repetition to highlight and draw attention to a repetitive element. When used with ‘repetition’ the emphasis is usually a break in the basic structure or visual rhythm of a pattern that causes your eye to pause or focus on a particular element.

Contrast achieves emphasis by accentuating an area to visually separate one element from another. Contrast in color, texture, scale, or shape attracts attention to a definite area, which may consist of strategically positioned graphics to call attention to a single element of your design.

Full credit: Swinburne Multimedia
Images: Wikipedia

A short history of graphic design

Gary Hartley — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:13:26 +0000

This ‘Short History of Graphic Design’ describes individual movements, establishments, events and people who, when all put together, make up the history of graphic design.

Included in this article is:

Read the article