Part 5 Layout Exercise: Chance Housing Association
This exercise specified that this should be a logo that is targetted at first time buyers and although the age for this can vary, I asked people aged between 20 and 25 for their opinion of these logos. I found that these were most influenced by logo choices and wanted to work out what they thought worked best before I started designing my own logo. - Wallers seemed to be everyone’s favourite for the fact it wasn’t cliche like many of the others. - The font choices put many people off of the other ones, in one person’s opinion they were poorly selected and seemed to target an audience within a higher age range. - The point about target audience appeared a few times but this is understandable as many agents will see this group to be the ones with money to buy the houses. - Hilton & Hyland looks posh and expensive. In one person’s opinion, they would look at the houses trusting the agents opinions and high standards but they probably wouldn’t buy from them due to costs. - The keys used within Reeds Rains gave some people the idea of security and feeling safe with their choice. - Chancellors uses luxurious colours yet uses a very simple shape, with a slight twist in terms of having curved corners. This suggests a high standard of service with perhaps not the same cost as Hilton & Hyland. - Interestingly, red appears a few times but doesn’t appear to draw in anyone’s attention like the colour has previously done, this time it is purple. - Important to note that it isn’t just the colour, on purple bricks the colour choice doesn’t make the logo more appealing to the target audience, it is the combination of fonts and simple illustration used with this.
This designs all seem very upper-class and as though not only is the service going to be expensive, but the price range of properties that these companies show you is going to be equally as expensive. To first time buyers who are just trying to get their foot on the ladder, this may seem a little overwhelming and make them avoid the company. So what makes them appear this way? - A couple of them use either Didot or a similar looking font. As established in other parts of this module, this font looks the most expensive and will therefore enforce this opinion about the company even when the font is the main feature of the logo with a black font, it is very simple and clean. - Illustrations are kept at a minimal. It helps to keep up the appearance of being clean and simple and there being no faff in terms of service. - If illustrations are used, they are used to mirror the fonts or add something that the font doesn’t have. The Williams & Williams logo for example, the slanted roof mirrors the slant of the capitalised W, it doesn’t go at the same angle or in the same direction but this doesn’t have to be the case in order to mirror the effect. Also, the font isn’t particularly weighted therefore, the slant is done at a heavy weight for the illustration in order to add some contrast. Although this should take your eye away from the text first as part of the visual hierarchy, it actually makes the eye want a slight break and therefore, the text is where you are first guided to. If this isn’t the case, your eye naturally still goes down the frame and you aren’t going to miss the name of the company. - Colour combinations are kept to a minimum. It isn’t about trying to create depth or contrast in a way. Soft but definitive and established colour choices are used to keep a limited palette that would sit well on all advertising.
What have I learnt at this point? - As logos are going to be looked at in many different contexts, contrast is not an element that should necessarily be focused on, the form is something that should be developed with more of a focus from the start. - The heights of a font are particularly important, they can change the way a logo appears. One logo that I designed looked good in the first sketch but once I recreated this, the effect wasn’t so good. - Spacing that is provided from computer mockups gives a better idea of the real impression of a logo. By hand, the spacing between letters specifically is less easy to control when making sure something is designed at full width. - It is important to consider how each individual letter appears and what I expect from it. Creating digital designs are helpful to work out full phrasing but being able to design each letter individually by hand helps to identify when a font works or doesn’t work digitally. - Spacing between lines is something I will need to consider, I set up a default of 1cm for most of these and for some this was too far away. Equally considering the position of where the letters line up will need to be considered in terms of readability.
- Implementing the word visually and in the text elements helps to reinforce the message, it makes it easier to remember the logos, especially for different types of learners. - I especially like the ‘Piece’ one. The simple alteration between using capitals and lower case makes the message subtle, it took me a minute to notice it and having more subtle messages like this, instead of making the text and illustration really obvious can have more powerful impacts. - The contrast helps to identify the empty space that doesn’t fit the ‘stereotype’ that is expected of how the text appears. Because the lowercase i still fits the stereotype of what we expect, this is why it appears to be more subtle. - The font choices also help to identify the form of the font. With ‘Charge’ the curves of the charger shape are mirrored by the typeface to further enforce the identification.
The point was raised about feeling safe with your choice of estate agents through the use of keys on the logo of Reed Rains. As I haven’t yet decided on an illustration, I thought it important to see how this could also be applied through text choices and colours. The Independent declared that Times New Roman is the most trustworthy choice. A study done by SoloPress of over 1,000 participants found that it was the most trusted font and The Independent put this down to its common use in academic articles. A second investigation undertaken by Alessio Laiso at A Medium Corporation found that Baskerville was considered the most trustworthy. These results obviously all vary based on what fonts the participants are given to compare the fonts against.
Going back to earlier investigations into colour psychology, blue is a colour that portrays a sense of trust, logic and calm. This is everything that you want an estate agents to be. You want them to be trusting, show you the logical options for you budget as well as having a calm and pleasant experience in what can be quite a stressful situation. The combination of blue and the key illustration for Reeds Rains would suggest that this would be the most trusting company to go with but what makes it interesting, is the fact that nobody that I asked actually picked this estate agents. Equally, in the logos that seem to portray a higher class kind of proporty, style and service, only one of the companies also uses blue. Is this because it seems like a cliche or stereotypical choice? Has blue had the connection made to social media too much that companies try and avoid it? Blue being the choice for trust is quite ironic as Facebook isn’t very trust worthy. The data collection that takes place and the information they store about you is very personal and goes against the whole idea of it being trustworthy. Although blue seems to be the obvious choice, I think I will need to experiment with different colours because I don’t want the logo to become bland and expected, this will not benefit the company in any way. The reputation of trust can be built up over time so it may be more interesting to play with the word ‘Chance’ in the colour choices and possible illustrations, this will provide something slightly different for the eye as the font choices at the moment are not expected either. The choices have gone against the investigations that I found (shown on the opposite page). The study shows that trustworthy and appealing don’t always go in hand, neither does the portrayal of easy to use. Trying to balance all of these within one logo is realistically not going to be achieved but it is the overall house style that can be developed that will help portray all three. All final choices should be run past the same people that I asked in regards to the original logos to see if they think that these choices have been made successfully. They can judge them against the criteria of trustworthy, easy to use and appealing then further developments can be made.
- Don’t just consider how this is going to be viewed on screen but also where it is going to be seen. The rest of the exercise requires various mockups of where the logo will be seen but if this weren’t the case, creating mockups would be beneficial.
- Readability is important on something no matter how small it is. On a logo, this will be something that is read quickly but it will be the thing that is remembered the most so making sure that each individual element portrays one message and can be clearly understood,
What have I learnt from these developments?
In order to see what typically works and is used during advertising, I looked at stocklayouts. com, this gave me a more general idea of the structure of letterheads before I started designing.
Typical characteristics: - large margins around all edges - logo and contact details at the top of the page (header) - some put details at the bottom of the page, I can see the logic with both but got to see what fits with the style. - Something else is needed other than just putting the details, the page needs something else with it.
The grid structures vary a lot more than anticipated across the page. Some spread the information out a lot, some cramp the pages. There is no regular structure to follow with my own examples but the more simple yet well structured examples work most effectively. The logo being positioned in the centre is slightly disconcerting in my opinion, the structure fails from this point in terms of being very methodical. Margins always need to be considered and applied equally around the page.
What visual communication methods have been utilised here? What points do I need to consider? - Often the simplest grids work most effectively especially when there is so much information on a page like there is with this letter. - Consistent margins around the page make the reading easier and gives the eye a break form reading such a large block of text. Previously I have been told to consider the line lengths on projects but with letters I think it would seem out of place to start trying to break this down. Letters are known to use the full width of the page with margins as well. - Although full width text often is something that that I opt for, using it on here would have made the letter format very boxy and seem a lot harsher on the eye to read. For something that has such a large quantity of text, I thought it better to soften the edges slightly and not opt for this alignment. - Using the same box that I had used on the logo as a border to the letter did seem like a good idea but when I asked for feedback I got told that it actually makes the letter appear uninviting. If this is just an enquiry letter, it can seem too much and put people off purchasing through this agency. - At one point I did consider red as an alternative choice to the previous colour choices however, once put into the letter format, having red in such a block text at the top of the page made me think of a notice letter, demanding for some money or like an eviction notice. This kind of visual language is not something that I had considered until it was put within the structure of a letter. Therefore, although the contrast of red and black was effective, the visual signals that this portrays does not work to my advantage when advertising.
Visual communication consideration points - These designs really made me consider which part of the logo helps with readability and which part of the logo is important for the branding. The fonts were clearly going to help with the way in which the company is branded which means the same fonts should be carried on to the business card however, I wasn’t sure whether the dice or the C should be the focal point. - Orientation is something that I personally always like to play with but with this purpose, I don’t think it is entirely appropriate. It makes the information harder to read quickly, instead everything should be on a horizontal plane that is easy to read from left to right. - Line length is something that I wanted to consider here although as it was an address, I thought the default was to have a new line for each line of the address. Having this as one block text is rarely done and it would make it harder to read therefore, it wasn’t something I even tried as there is an obvious reason that it hasn’t been done on other designs. - To consider the branding and the business cards being clearly linked, when putting the C next to the details, enough needed to be seen that it is clear what this addition is but I didn’t want the C to be so visible as I found these designs often became confusing, where is the rest of the text instead of just having a C randomly placeed on the page. - Also, looking back on the designs now, having the woman’s name so closely to the C, although they are two separate elements, because they are the same fonts, it appears that these need to be linked in some way when they don’t. This once again reduces the readability so these designs, having thought they worked, don’t prove so successful at this point.
Baskerville
Times New Roman
Revisiting some of my research made me reconsider the choices I had made. Baskerville and Times New Roman are seen as more trustworthy, as is the colour blue so why haven’t I used any of these? Chance isn’t an important part of the logo to portray, this is only reinforcing the words, not wanting the logo to be trusted by its customers. Equally, chance has been enforced through the dice image. Everything is portraying Chance and this isn’t the right message to be portraying to the audience. If it gets too much, the audience may be thinking that it is a chance to go with this housing association or that the options they have can be a bit hit or miss so maybe this message needs to change and portray the trust concept more. This isn’t to say that the dice still can’t appear on the logo, but I think that trying to use chance as the main message isn’t the way to go with the advertising. Portraying trust in more subtle ways is far more respected and not only will it be viewed as trustworthy by the customers, it will be viewed as competitive by other estate agents.
What have I learnt about layout and visual communication with this exercise? - That yes it is important to portray one message with all advertising, but it needs to be the right single message otherwise it can change the whole perspective of a company. - Having a well structured grid makes the information easier to read and although some letters have varying grids that don’t seem to follow one clean-cut structure, it reflects on the way the letter is then interpreted. - Business cards need to look professional and be easy to find the information. Changing orientations does add interest but it isn’t done on other designs for a reason, it becomes harder to read and someone’s name is an important bit of information for the document. - Although the font may not be the first choice that you would have picked as a designer, but connotations of the font cannot be changed and these connotations are more powerful that anything with a designer. - Sketching is an incredibly important part of the design process - it is one that I only seem to do on certain exercises but when I do, it proves incredibly effective and I produce results that I wouldn’t have thought of digitally. Creating these designs digitally afterwards reminds me of what I was trying to achieve and focus on the smaller elements of each letter. - Something may look good or go with the house style (using a square around the page) but now that the proportions and the purpose have changed, the impression given has completely changed. I sometimes forget to evaluate it as an individual item as part of a series so although the rectangle border worked, it was incredibly uninviting and I didn’t realise this until I asked for someone else’s opinon.
Tutor Feedback: With ‘Chance Housing’ you have shown that you are able to produce a vast variety of business-like compositions especially with the business card, however the concept you decided to go with is flawed because dice are associated with risk and gambling and this is the opposite of what people are looking for from a housing association (safety, security, home).
Time to revisit semiotics: “The World is simply full of meaningless things - words and things mean what they mean as a result of the way we look at them and use them.” (Salkeld 2014:46) Any meaning can be given to any object by any person. Some objects will have a cultural based understanding or social understanding yet other objects can have a more personal meaning. As a result of this, it means that when trying to communicate a message through photography, art, graphic design etc, it can be interpreted in multiple different ways. This is based upon the ‘codes’ that someone communicates in. The codes that we each understand and use is based upon cultural influences and personal influences. A simple example of this can be the difference in some words that people use. If you were to visit somewhere in the UK and hear a new word, it may be that where you are from has a word for the same thing, it is just a different word. This is the most simplistic way of explaining it but when this is then employed in graphic design, it can be difficult to get the message across that you are aiming for due to the very nature that we all interpret things differently. Semiotics is built up around the idea of signs, symbols and codes. The alphabet is a code. Letters are a symbol. Symbols are put together to form words to create meaning. C.S. Pierce identified three different types of code: -Iconic - based upon resemblance. -Indexical - effects with a specific caus. Eg. footprints indicate a human presence or like on my ‘The Invisible Man’ cover, the shadow indicates a presence. -Symbolic - It is arbitrary. There is no necessaary link between the sound of a word and what it refers to . Equally, signs have got two different aspects. -Signifier - the material manifestation, the word, the sound or pictorial element. -The Signified - a mental concept that is commonly associated with the signifier. For example a Dog would be the signifier but the signified would be four-legged. Or, smoke would be the signifier and fire would be the signified. Signs are then understood in terms of: -denotation - the definition, literal, obvious meaning of a sign -connotation - the socio-cultural and personal associations produced as a reader decodes the text. “These frameworks, these set of beliefs, ideas and practices that underpin our daily lives and shape our understanding, can be termed ‘ideologies’...the term is useful because it helps to account for particular practices and interpretations, and can be employed in both the construction of images and their analysis.” (Salkeld 2014:58) Text can also play a part within creating this meaning, more so in graphic design than in photography.
In ‘Rhetoric of the Image’, Roland Barthes argues that words work with photographs (but can be applied to any creative medium) in two ways: - Anchorage - directs the viewer to what they are looking at in the image - who, what, where and when. - Relay - the photograph/design elements and text work together to create a meaning that could not be made by each element separately (rephrased from Bull 2010:40). Meaning is the result of the relaying of messages between both elements. Contextually, in terms of photography, a photograph de-contextualises what is in front of a camera and places this within new spaces in order to re-contextualise it in different ways. With graphic design, the elements are often digitally created, this means there is no direct reference point. Yes, some designs take images as their base and will use this as their reference point however, the perception of an apple will vary between each designer. Some people will prefer Royal gala apples, some Pink Lady and some Granny Smith’s cooking apples. How the designer therefore designs this apple will vary due to personal associations. This can then influence the way the audience perceive the subject. You have to be careful with these associations as some could contradict what you are message you are trying to portray. However, in doing so, this de-contextualisation to re-contextualisation opens up the possibility for more meanings. In photography this is beneficial but in graphic design, it can hinder the process.
So in relation to my feedback: (Problem Analysis with context)
Dice are related to Chance but in being related to this part of the title, it is also making connections to gambling and risk. My tutor suggested looking at what suggests safety, security and home. Immediately I am reminded of the Reeds Rains logo that uses keys. I was really against this illustration to begin with but it now makes sense, they form a kind of crest pattern (historical association so a well established company) and keys suggest a sense of security.
Looking at the original logos that I studied to begin with, these are the only two that use illustrations. Everything else seems to play on the initials of the company which is a bit difficult to do here. Otherwise, emphasis is placed on the colour combinations and it is just the font and colours that are supposed to portray this security to customers and make them select this company. The illustrations definitely help if used correctly and obviously mine wasn’t. But what do leaves suggest? Hope Renewal Fertility Growth Revival There could be better choices of graphics for an estate agents. Hope is suggesting that the company may not be able to help. Growth is a good one as it’s showing a new chapter in people’s lives but this may not always be positive so suggesting security is a stronger concept. What symbolises security? Blue and Locks (keys can also be paired with this as the keys will symbolise a sense of ownership).
Above Business Cards
Below Adverts
What did I learn from these developments? - It is important to think of the connotations of the images used as they provide a secondary message to the text. Although the images may play on the words, they don’t necessarily portray the message you want. - The layout points remained fairly similar to previously, but it remains that the grid structures employed were important, especially on the letter design. As the grid had quite a few structures, it was important to make it seem less boxy by changing the text allignment otherwise it would have had the same effect as just putting a box around anything anyway, something that I said didn’t work from the start. - Putting boxes around everything does not add a focal point, it closes everything off and doesn’t give the impression of being an approachable company.
business card front
business card back
Evaluation: With layout being key during these developments, this exercise saw me undertake a variety of experimentation and testing of ideas to produce designs that needed to target first time buyers. I had initially considered this to be an exercise that perhaps wouldn’t interest me much but being able to design a logo and then implement it across various platforms helped me to understand that construction doesn’t just stop once the logo is designed. From the beginning, sketching out designs played a large part in formulating the digital responses. Throughout the module, my sketching skills have improved as I have become more confident in visualising ideas by hand. This doesn’t mean that I am fully comfortable with it just yet, I wouldn’t be able to do illustrations alongside this. But experimenting with type allowed me to understand and create digital designs that were more focused and I knew what I expected of the fonts that I selected. In order to obtain the logos of different estate agents, I looked around what was available to me locally and then I asked a group of people, who would be first time buyers, to judge which logo they would trust most or most likely to buy from. By using the focus group that had been outlined by the brief, the judgements that I got enabled me to work out what they were looking for within such designs. The Wallers logo was by far the most popular but after looking at the connotations of the leaf later on, the illustration choice doesn’t seem the most suitable. I only realised this once my tutor had pointed out my error of using dice. Although I thought it a strong suggestion due to the connections with ‘Chance’ in the title, chance and risk aren’t words you would want to use when reflecting on a housing association and therefore, there was a shift towards looking for images that highlighted home and security. Having to undertake research elements like this at a later date show that perhaps my research skills are slightly lacking still. Although there are always going to be elements of reworking designs later on due to a problem that has come up, having to still understand the use of semiotics (something that was explored in part 3) in other contexts should be something that I was already aware of. Research was always one of my strong points however, with the new context of this course, it has sometimes been a little difficult. Having a list of different things to consider may be helpful with later projects. For example, the list would remind me of the Gestalt theories, Shape psychology, colour connections and semiotics. Equally, it would remind me to always look back at my research as sometimes I decided whether I agreed with my research or not and this isn’t the point! The point of the research was to identify the key visual communication methods that would then characterise my design within the same category and make it successful. The layouts that I experimented with throughout, although not all were successful, it proved to me the importance of fonts. Having found that Times New Roman and Baskerville are the most trusted fonts, it meant that sometimes the way these appeared were very formulaic. For the letters and the forming of the grid, here it was important and reinforced the structure of the grid. Whereas on the business cards, I found it a bit too structured for such a small space which is why I experimented with the use of graphics, but looking at the layout and structure of other business cards proved that a business card is there to be functional and not experimental. Equally, constantly reinforcing the rectangle did no favours for the concept of being appealing to first time buyers. Understanding shape psychology proved to me that using a rectangle in this context suggested that the dream of owning your own house is unachievable. Disregarding this and instead opting for the key and house as part of my graphics made the designs more functional in regards to the concept and conveyed the message that was required in targeting the first time buyers.