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Keeping It
L A E R
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uage in graphic desig
s & lang Humanising aesthetic
Written and Design by Rachel Irwin
Published and Written by Rachel Irwin Copyright Rachel Irwin 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the copyright holder. Design and Art Direction Rachel Irwin Thank you to tutors and friends for their input and ideas, without them this book would not be possible.
t I g n i p e e K
L A E R s & language Humanising aesthetic
Written and Design by Rachel Irwin
in graphic design
This book has been created as a guide for others to use so they can understand how to humanise their design work through language and aesthetic details. Enjoy.
10 Introduction 20 Language 32 Typography 42 Background and Textures 48 Digital Design 56 Photography 62 Angles 68 Aesthetic Extras 74 Illustration 80 Brands 90 Final Thoughts
Introduction
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What is humanising design? This book explores the methods that are used to humanise the aesthetics and language used in graphic design. To humanise something is to make it human, kind, or gentle, this project will be exploring the concept of becoming more friendly and authentic in graphic design. This style often includes handmade looking graphics, which are inspired from crafting traditions. The raw quality of this design style is a reaction to the over polished, clean and slick image associated with graphic design. This reaction to the mainstream has created a new look, which moves away from the generic rigid Swiss design, which we have become used to. Since the 1990’s grunge era, designers have been deconstructing design, as the general public has become more and more aware of design, the quality
of design has also increased, and this mass-produced high-end design has led to a homogenisation of similar looking brands and commercial design. And so, rough and ready design is increasingly being favoured over slick design for its individuality and uniqueness. So sought after is this look that big brands, such as McDonald’s and Sony are starting to realise the appeal of this style, and are applying its visual tools and language to their brands to make them more visually and verbally appealing, as they appear more authentic and friendly than flat computerised styles. This book shows how a combination of graphic elements and informal language is creating this new humanised style in graphic design and trying to understand how it can be recreated and used to suit a variety of design outcomes.
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Who Humanises Their Design? There are two main groups creating work like this. Firstly, you have the more commercial side, where you have brands trying to create a particular tone of voice and aesthetic, which gives their company the credential undertones they are looking for. Often these companies are promoting food or drinks, with an ethical/sustainable/organic or healthy unique selling point. Some examples of this would be Abel and Cole, Muddy Boots Burgers or Tyrell Crisps. Secondly there are Graphic Designers, who are either exploring more craft and handmade styles of design or designers who are interested in bold typography and playing with language and words in their work.
Examples of brands and designers who are using humanising techniques in their work.
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“As the digitalisation of the design process has resulted in the ironing out of many of the inevitable imperfections of predating craft-based processes, so designers are beginning to build flaws into their work in an attempt to counteract the ‘slick look’. Often they adopt methods that force unpredictable things to happen, exaggerating the ‘errors’ to create a greater sense of ‘authenticity’. In some instances this is a strategy with which to generate ideas; in others the mistakes are introduced purely to provide a particular kind of aesthetic.” Anne Odling-Smee The New Handmade Graphics
A New Area of Design It is interesting and intriguing to see how designers and brands ‘talk’ to their audiences and how a style has developed over recent years which encapsulates a sense of fun and friendliness along with honest and wholesome looking brands. But is this style authentic or is it just a design bandwagon that designers and brands are jumping on? This book is for graphic designers who want to learn how to utilise these humanising techniques in order to serve their clients. It covers many different examples and techniques on how you can adjust your design work so that is it has qualities that will make it look more authentic and friendly.
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“The world we live in copy world, where we and nothing more� Jean Baudrillard
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has been replaced by a seek simulated stimuli Hyper Reality Hyper Reality is to do with people not being able to distinguish between what is real and what is not. It is an increasing phenomenon, as today’s technology and culture allows us to spend more time in states of hyper reality. Often hyper reality involves reality by proxy, where you take on someone else’s version of what is real. It is used in advertising, with advertisers promoting the idea that a certain type of lifestyle can be achieved through buying the right products. Hyper reality is like having a real world that is enhanced in someway, usually to appear better than it already is. Graphic designers can create enhanced images that relate to reality but have usually been put together on a computer. What is different about humanising design is that instead of removing all the faults, messy layouts and mistakes on a page, designers are in fact doing the opposite. By adding hand written looking type, textured backgrounds or post it notes into an image they are creating a fake version of real life, which has been selected to look overly real and add in all the extra bits that previously would have been seen as to make the design look untidy or undesigned. This is especially obvious in web design and games, where virtual worlds have been created and made to look as real as possible.
An example of a website which borrows very much from reality to create a virtual hyper reality.
Language
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Promotional Posters for APG Visual Colour Printers.
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Examples of playful uses of language in design.
Talking to Your Audience This chapter looks at how the written text on pieces of design can communicate a tone of voice to the audience; increasingly brands are attempting to become friends with their consumers by using their verbal identity to talk in a fun, witty and approachable way. This method when done correctly can help create brand loyalty and affection. Coffee brand Pucinno’s and frozen yoghurt company Snog, have used play on words and humour along with bold typography to create a strong verbal identity. Too often business gets lost in a world of jargon, and forgets about people and personality. But this is changing, tone of voice and verbal identity are becoming more important, as companies want to speak to their customers in an assessable way. This can then lead to a better relationship between the customer and the brand, leading to a greater sense of trust and loyalty.
The brands who are trying to come across as friendly and approachable tend to be involved in providing people with a service, they are companies which are about people, there is also a strong tendency for food and drinks brands to want to appear natural and real to their customers. Innocent Smoothies are the brand leaders in talking to their consumers; they have built up a rapport with their customers over the years. By having a very clear tone of voice that reflects the values of their business, such as keep it natural and think about the mess you leave behind you, they are able to speak to customers in a positive way, that sounds like a conversation. The success of their tone of voice has led to big multinational companies such as Burger King trying to attempt something similar with their packaging.
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Burger King packaging, where they are trying to create a more friendly tone of voice.
A seclection of Innocent Drinks adverts, which use conversational language.
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“Don’t get me wrong, starting a company and aiming to be like innocent Drinks is no bad thing. It’s just that when people say “We wan t to be like Innocent Drinks” what they really mean is “We want fantastic, consistent, witty, clever branding. You know like Innocent.” Which is a different thing entirely.” Ben Terrett, talking about Burger King.
Copy Writing A copy writer is someone who writes the words used to promote an idea or advertising piece and copy writing is often applied to the content that is printed as part of a promotion or advertisement. Words can be a strong way to create humour and humanity in design. By creating a verbal identity you can communicate a tone of voice and style to the audience, and by using word and visuals together you can effectively create a stronger message. The copy on any outcomes should match and compliment the visuals and project the style the brand wants.
The Feel Good Drinks examples are from a student entry to a YNC competition. The student has used a friendly tone of voice similar to other brands such as This Water and Innocent Drinks, because trend for these drinks brands is to use informal language and humour to appeal to their customers. This is an increasing trend and brands that previously wouldn’t have used friendly copy are changing their tone of voice to join in on this friendly design style.
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If Stuart Jones was ever to appear on Mastermind, Malted Wheat would be his specialist subject. Is Stuart obsessed with finding the finest ingredients to go into Warburtons bread? There could be a grain of truth in that. We care because our name’s on it.
A recent newspaper advert by Warburtons, which is using imformal lanauge to communicate and create a conversation with their customers.
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Have a Conversation There should not be a big difference between the written and spoken word. If you bring yourself to work, and show your personality through the way you write it will help reflect a brand with personality. This can be done by having a light touch and humour, if too much internal jargon and abbreviations are used then it depersonalises the voice of the brand. Why use the word purchase when you can use the word buy, why use the word beverage when the word drink is equally as good. By talking in a way that people talk in real life you are able to get away from sounding impersonal and business like. For a long time brands were wary of using humour as they thought is was risky and unconventional, but then brands like Ben and Jerry’s started to appear and grew a strong fan base who not only liked the brand, but also liked what it stands for. One of the most successful brands of this style is Innocent Drinks, their adverts use language that sounds like a conversation between the brand and the customer, this along with using humour, has been highly successful in making them stand out from the crowd. This has led to other drinks brands like Feel Good Drinks who have started to follow suit. Designers have a habit of using dummy text, instead of seeing words as words, they see them as a resource that they could use to influence their design and layout, they treat it as a lump of matter. It is important to rediscover the impact of words and think about how the visual and verbal identities work together.
Friendly language on Feel Good Drinks posters.
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Story Telling Many books on branding language such as, The Invisible Grail and We, Me Them and It talk about the importance of storytelling to promote a brand. Brands such as Guinness have recently used the story of their founder Arthur Guinness to help re promote the brand, and shows it as a family owned company with heritage. A lot of new brands such as Jordan’s Cereals and YeoValley have a page on their website about how they got started, these truthful and often interesting stories help emphasis the humble beginnings of these companies, which gives them a more human feel. The mix of humour and honesty seems to bring out the best in these companies; it helps customers relate to them in a way that was never possible with bland meaningless branding jargon.
The about pages of Jordans and Yeo Valley both talk about family heritage & show photos to help reinforce the sense that these brands are small family run businesses.
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“Write as if you are speaking, there should not be a big difference between the written and spoken word.�
John Simmons
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Why Not Try‌ using writing in your design work and see if you can let the words do the talking, it can help emphasise the tone of voice that you want to show to your audience.
Typography
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Part of a typology collection of humanised typefaces.
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Typography Typefaces can play a huge role in how we instantly perceive a piece of design, if we see something that has used comic sans, we immediately assume the writing is going to be something which is not too serious, and if the writing is all in capitals, it gives a sense of the words being shouted at the reader. Similarly subtle changes to typefaces can make them appear friendlier and it is these subtle choices and effects that are important in humanising type. This chapter explores the various different effects and typefaces that can be used to humanise your design work. The typology collection contains examples of typography, notice there is a lot of type either hand drawn or made to appear hand drawn, there is a lot of use of bold serif typefaces, imitating letterpress and handwriting.
Examples of typeface trends, which are quite playful looking.
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Hand Drawn Hand drawn typefaces can be split into two categories, they can be typefaces, which have the appearance of handwriting, or they can be typefaces that have been traced and re drawn so they aren’t as neat as the original and have slight variations. An example of hand writing in design are the Alfred Wainwright guidebooks which were created all by hand, with hand written annotations and drawn images of the Lake District. This hand written approach gives the guide a much more personal look to them, and has made them stand out from most other guide books which are made using computer programs.
Handwriting Hand written words can have a more personal quality to them, similar to hand drawn and traced typography. But handwriting can be even more unique as everyone has a different handwriting style. With the rise in computers, handwriting is seen less and tends to be used only for informal notes and reminders. This makes it appeal to those who want design work to appear friendly and Informal.
Distressed Type By adding texture or marking to typefaces you can give the appearance that it is either worn, hand printed or been on the surface for a long time. This appearance happens naturally on letterpress and on typography that has been in an environment where is has been exposed or used. But increasingly the look is being copied and needs to be created quickly. This has led to typefaces being designed that incorporate this distressed look An example of Alfred Wainwrights guidebooks
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Hand Drawn fonts which could be used to make design look more humanised.
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and designers create a similar look in Photoshop with layering and brush tools removing parts of the solid letter form to reveal the layer below.
Serif Fonts
Selection of Serif and distressed fonts.
Serif typefaces are typefaces that have structural detail on the ends of the strokes of the letters and symbols in the typeface, and they are traditionally used for large bodies of text in books and newspapers. There has been a mini trend in the last few years for brands to use Modern or Didone Serif typefaces, these are Serif typefaces which have an extreme contrast between the thick and thin lines. They seem to be used recently in design that is trying to appear friendlier and this often works well when used along with friendly language. Modern Serif fonts tend to be used in print work, titles,
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Selection of brands using Sans Serif fonts.
logos or large size text, and some popular examples are Georgia, Goudy and Victorian LET.
Sans Serif San Serif typefaces are those without the serif parts on the letters and symbols they are more commonly used on digital work as seen to be easier to read on a screen but are increasingly being used for body copy text especially in Europe. Some Sans Serif fonts look friendly and are used for logos and on posters, with neutral fonts like Helvetica Neue being popular because they don’t distract away from the content. Whilst Geometric San serifs, such as Avant Garde and Futura are known for having a very modern look, that can help work look fresh and new.
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Why not try.... Drawing or tracing typefaces by hand, then scan them back into the computer to give your typefaces a more handmade quality, or try downloading fonts which are made to look hand made or distressed.
Backgrounds and Textures
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Backgrounds In terms of background and textures there is a strong use of layer and textures created by printing, photographing or scanning things such as untreated cardboard, textured paper, fabric and wood. Basically any surface that has a pattern or rough quality to it can create an interesting background. This is often used in webdesign to give the normally flat clean world of websites a different look. In the 1980’s bright white paper and board was seen as a must have, but now the fashion is to have uncoated, handmade looking paper. This type of paper gives prints a more organic, natural and tactile look with Imperfections and inconstancies’. It is these inconsistencies that are attractive; as people are no longer seduced by high quality finishes.
Typology collection of backgrounds and textures.
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Why Not Try... collecting images of backgrounds and textures, which you can then use in future design projects. Photos and scans of anything with interesting tactile qualities can become backgrounds and help add an extra texture to design.
Digital Design
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Examples of webpages which have taken influence from handmade design styles.
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Handmade Influences To make something by hand implies it has been created using skills beyond knowing a computer program, it is often more time consuming and laboured, and is a reaction to the homogenised look created by just a computerised design. Computers have a tendency to clean and smooth over everything but people are increasingly becoming tired of this look, and instead some designers are actively adding imperfections to their work to give it a greater sense of realism. Handmade looking elements of design have been associated with design that can be trusted, and so by exposing the process or showing the imperfections and small variations in a piece, it makes the design more intimate and personal.
Average Man - A book that uses handmade styles.
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Handmad Typology e Websites collection.
Web Design Handmade influences are very popular in Web Design. This is often done by recreating a scene that is familiar to people, often these scenes are digital versions of reality and make use of textures and aesthetic extras. When web design started it was very flat and digital looking but as technology has improved, web design has taken advantage of using design programs to create virtual hyperreal versions of scenes and images that we recognise. Ways of doing this are by showing everyday scenes such as a sign pinned to a tree, notes on a desk or fabric and ribbon laid out, these have been used to enhance the aesthetics of the design. By bringing outdoor environments, bright colours, paper, interesting textures and familiar everyday objects into the design it gives it a more familiar, DIY, natural and genuine feel to it. With these scenes that have been set up to look like something familiar it is interesting to notice that they are created digitally, they are hyper real and reflect an ideal version of reality. This led to thinking about
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This type of design work is all about creating something real and believable, but is the real as lovely and wonderful as the hyper real?
per Is hy ity more e real than th ? real al real actu Top image created by laying elements out by hand. Bottom image created by photographing elements separately and putting them together in Photoshop.
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Examples of hyper real environments used for websites.
if hyper reality is more attractive than reality. To test this theory, a scene was created by hand, with the scene laid out, the type all hand written and photographed. This scene was then recreated, by photographing the elements individually, and putting it together on the computer using hand written looking typefaces. A plus to creating the digital versions of the image is that any of the elements can quickly be tweaked in terms of size, colour, angle and position, whereas the real version would have to be changed manually. The results show that the one created on the computer looks neat, whilst still having a handmade look and the writing on it is easier to read. When shown to others the comments were that the bottom image was clearer, easier to read, neater and yet still managed to retain all the handmade qualities of the image above. This shows that people can find hyper real images more appealing than reality itself, because the hyper real can be tweaked to look exactly how we want it too look and because so many pieces of design these days rely on hyper reality we see hyper real as the norm.
Photographs
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Photography There is a trend of putting photos into Polaroid frames and use of black and white photos. There are also a examples where there’s a white border around cut out photo, this is done in a rough fashion making it look like a scrapbook. Other extras are used alongside the photograph such as Sellotape in the corners and putting photos at an angle. Black and white photos give a vintage feel to design work, creating a sense of history and timelessness to the images. An easy way to recreate this Polaroid look it to use the program Poladroid, which gives regular digital photographs the look of a Polaroid photo by putting it inside a frame and adjusting the colour to make it have greater contrast.
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Why Not Try... Putting the photos into frames puts them in a recognisable context and would work well with having them on a wall background to look like they were in a house.
Angles
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Angles
use recurring , trait is the le n g o n a m n m co ge at a a im d DIY Another n d a n type a pbook g ra in sc tt ective u re p o of t very eff rk a m e o y w d s n e a iv nd which g a simple namic a st nce. It is more dy k often mo o is lo appeara It n . g e si g e a d d p n a ke e a unds t on th way to m backgro ovemen g nd m a in st e re tl re o b create m en used with inte gles are quite su n wh ally the a egrees. effective xtras. Usu by less than 45 d e c ti e h aest aked s are twe the item
Typology collection of design that used angles and slants.
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grid with ommon f A very c l placement o . horizonta xt te d n a images
rid
gonal g
ired dia
Swiss insp
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ach with tly ed appro igh Humanisand text all at sl images t angles. differen
To visualise how this concept works the three images on these pages all have the same information, but the angles, layout and grid used has been altered. The first image uses very structured horizontal and vertical lines; the second image moves all the page at a 45 degree angle borrowing from traditional Swiss design. The last image shows how you can use lots of smaller angles in one design, which gives a more “undersigned� and humanised effect, as if the images have just been roughly placed on the page, this gives a more relaxed look to the page than the other two, which are more regimented.
Aesthetic Extras
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Aesthetic Extras Aesthetic extras are the little things that help add a sense of realism to the designs, such as tape, paperclips, pins, coffee cup stains and notebooks. These visual elements often do not serve an information role within the page, instead they are purely there to create a visual effect, help enhance a look, put the design into context or create a more interesting dynamic on the page. Everyday objects make the best kind of aesthetic extras, as they are easily recognisable and people are able to relate to them. They can help create hyper reality and make a digital content look more realistic.
Typology collection of aesthetic extras.
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ardillat and c t s o P athe Jacqu ek at Ag sch Vollau Tomi Fl@33
Both images mix textured backgrounds, angles pins and a hand drawn inspired typefaces.
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Postcard at and Agathe Jacquillch ek at us la Tomi Vol Fl@33 Tester using a noticeboard to create a scene.
Adding the background, pins, paper and masking tape to these pieces, helps them reflect real life scenes. The mix of lots of small angles helps them look more “real” because if all the pictures and writing were straight it would look very computerised. Adding the background, pins, paper and masking tape to these pieces, helps them reflect real life scenes. The mix of lots of small angles helps them look more “real”, as if all the pictures and writing were straight it would look very computerised and strictly controlled by the way computers automatically put things in straight lines.
Illustrations
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Illustrations Hand drawn looking Illustrations are not overly clean, mark making and outlines are visible and these impurities give illustrations a genuine feel to them. They are often used to back up or emphasise a point being made in the copy, and to show visual examples of humour. Often these styles of illustration intend to look very much drawn by hand and have a rough, sketchy or unfinished quality to them, which is a style associated with more relaxed and friendly brands. A lot of these simplified looking illustrations also work alongside hand written words and use written humour to create fun and witty pieces of design. Recent graduates from the University of Falmouth created a poster and postcard set called Advice to Sink in Slowly, for the purpose of passing on advice and
Postcards by students at the University of Falmouth.
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ey are very year students. Th inspiration to first of materials e us ayful with the pl d an ive at str illu how using they use and show and imager y that look that is er y can create a hand drawn imag ages. im ry computerised less sterile than ve this type of illustrator who uses Marc Johns is an th the concept ing and plays wi style for his draw of humour.
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Why Not Try... putting the computer to one side, pick up a pencil and start doodling, you might surprise yourself with what you come up with.
te of Post It no Selectionns by Marc Johns. tio a tr Illus
Brands
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Brands The brands that are trying to come across as friendly and approachable tend to be involved in either providing people with a service or product, they are companies which are about people or providing food and drinks. As the general public become more aware of health and the benefits of natural or organic food these brands want to appear natural and real to their customers through their design.
means they are immoral and have too much power. These big brands have started borrowing these more friendly and approachable ways of talking to their customers to sound more like they still have personal touches and are a local not global brand.
Some people are very dismissive of big American brands like Starbucks and McDonald’s. These are some of the world’s biggest brands and are easily recognisable but not always very well loved, because people assume that being a global brand
Typology of brands and logos that use humanising mehtods.
The Espresso Room - an example of a brand that has embraced using friendly language.
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Made in Britain One thing to notice about humanising design is the fact that so many British brands seem to be using it, especially those involved with food and drink. These brands are realising the appeal of being British and how this look can be an attractive selling point, to British consumers and globally. Focusing on tradition and idyllic imagery of the British countryside seems to be a popular choice to make brands appear natural and wholesome. Designers like Cath Kidston, focus on a bright and colourful vintage look and have seen massive success in selling this idealised view of Britain to the public. Other brands such as Tyrrells Potato Chips and Belvoir Drinks, take a more subtle approach but
‘There is a yearning for all things British. It’s that Union Jack imagery and the whole “Keep Calm and Carry On” mentality. People take comfort in the idea that “a local farmer grew that potato.”Anya Pearson
still touch on their British roots. They see being British as something which is at the heart of their products, and which give a sense of handmade craftsmanship and quality to their goods. Whilst Made in Britain might be more expensive than cheap imports, it is a desirable stamp and is increasingly becoming a powerful branding message that consumers are willing to pay more for.
Belvior Fruit Drinks Advert, foucisng on their British roots.
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Dorset Cereals Dorset Cereals is a British brand that produces natural cereal products. They focus on producing natural and tasty products and emphasise the natural qualities of their food in their language and visuals. Their website and packaging uses friendly and informal language, to appear closer to their consumer. The packaging allows the product to speak for itself by having clear panels allowing you to see how natural looking the product is and uses earthy and yet bright colours printed on natural looking cardboard. The brand really focuses on ‘authentic’ and ‘real’ products which are as natural as possible, this is strongly reflected in their tag line which is “honest, tasty and real.” These words bring positive connotations to the brand’s image.
Dorset Cereals bright and natural packaging fits in with their website, language and overall branding.
They manufacture the packing, produce the cereal in the UK and visit their suppliers. They also work with the Woodland Trust to help plant trees in the UK and have set up an initiative in schools called the edible playground, which teaches children about where food comes from. All of these elements help make the brand appear very wholesome and ethical, which is very important to certain consumers.
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McDonald’s website focusing on the the farm life of meat, as an attempt to appear more ‘real.’
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McDonalds McDonalds is a global hamburger brand who is often criticised for its menu and global expansion, despite its global popularity, in recent years there have been negative connotations associated with the brand. Recently McDonalds have been attempting to counteract this negativity by making changes to the business. Consumers have become more interested in the quality and sourcing of their food and so McDonalds have swapped to beef sourced entirely from British and Irish farms, eggs free-range, organic milk and coffee beans Rainforest Alliance-certified. To match its new emphasis on natural and healthier food there have been television adverts featuring rural scenes, new adverts in newspapers and their website talks about lovingly nurtured, home grown potatoes. Fortunately for McDonalds this new menu and style seems to be working with the British public as ÂŁ465million has been added to their sales.
The newspaper advert by McDonalds, its style has moved away from the typical adverts associated with the company and is focusing on its natural side in terms of colour, language and imagery.
McDonalds have really been homing in on this humanising design style, this newspaper ad at first glance does not look like an advert traditionally associated with McDonalds, if their logo wasn’t in the corner it could easily be an ad for any number of coffee shop brands. The language they use is friendly and conversational with the reader and the use of the coffee beans, Rainforest Alliance logo, the coffee bean typeface and beige background help to give them a more down to earth look to their design. Overall this new branding strategy that McDonalds is using shows just how effective aesthetics and language can be to help a brand focus on the areas it wants to show off to its consumers.
Final Thoughts
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“This false reality creates an illusion and makes it more desirable for people to buy reality.�
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Final Thoughts This book only scrapes the surface of some of the brands and designers who are humanising their work. Humanising design can take many forms and only one or two techniques need to be used at once in order to be effective. Overall this design style is attempting to create a more personalise style in terms of writing and aesthetic. But as more and more big brands start to copy this look, it may not be long before, this looks is everywhere and is attempting to be used for design work that doesn’t really fit this visual and verbal tone of voice. Essentially humanising design had become another method for brands to attract their customer and make their products more appealing.