Study Task 1: Exploring the Topic

In this module I am to explore and research one of the six topic and question choice from the following:

• Typography and Type Design
• Advertising and Public Awareness
• Branding and Logo Design
• Editorial Design
• Design for Screen
• Printmaking

Before starting to pick which topic I would like to explore further, first I am to research about these topics in order to gain basic information and knowledge about them. I'm going to find two "good" designs in relation to each topic as well as explain my reasons why I have chosen those designs.

• Typography and Type Design - the main difference between these two is that typography is about arranging fonts and typefaces in order for it to have a purpose and is appealing to an audience; while a type design is the process of creating a new typeface e.g. by shaping individual glyphs.

• Advertising and Public Awareness - Advertising is a form of written, audio or  visual communication that promotes a brand, person, idea or service to people. Public Awareness relates to the target audience's level of understanding about the marketing communication that is being tailored fore them.

• Branding and Logo Design - Branding can be a way of creating a business, person's or products identity and Logo Designing may help this identity to become more prominent as the logo can help the brand become more memorable and it help's the target audience associated the logo with the brand e.g. Nike = tick mark.

• Editorial Design - being able to use innnovative typography combined with smart and strong layout and composition; mostly used in magazines, books, newspapers - anything that is printed physically but also on the web for websites or smartphone screens, tablets etc.

• Design for Screen - being able to create a screen that will engage an audience and is also easy and efficient to use. Also has to consider the target audience - age? gender? occupation? interests? etc.

• Printmaking - ability to create designs by printing which may typically be done on paper; prints can be made by etching, mono printing, screen printing, linocutting etc.

Good design examples of each topic with reason

Typography and Type Design 

• Typographic magazine cover design (Ray Gun Magazine) by David Carson.
• Has a solid aesthetic going on
• Faded and overlapped letters highlights the 'grunge typography' Carson was known for
• typography compliments the image and the name of the magazine; balanced as they're not too crowded in one area of the page.

• Helvetica is a stable font and is used as a standard font for business, letters, informative posters etc.
• Can have a casual vibe to it when used in magazines/ books.
• Easily readable

Advertising and Public Awareness

• Very simple and straight-forward yet witty by the way they literally made a ketchup bottle out of tomatoes. 
• The slogan at the bottom reinforces the literal design and may make the audience believe and trust Heinz that they do use real tomatoes in their ketchup. --> audience loyalty and trust = audience will buy the product.

• Again, very simple and minimalistic
• the white background makes the black shapes the main focus of the design which makes the audience look straight at them and nothing else.
• Slogan "Trees make wildlife. Wildlife saves trees." reinforces the design made as it looks like tress and a panda at the same time; making the correlation between the nature and animal and how both are endangered and needs saving and protecting.

Branding and Logo Design

• The old airbnb logotype looks very childish (which may be due to it being a very 'bubbly' script type font) and does not really help come across the brand that they are trying to sell to the public as the public may think it's cheap and would not give them a good flight experience. However, with the new logo the brand is well represented as the change of font (LL Brown by Lineto) as it gives off a very professional and clean vibe. the simplistic logo also hooks the audience in as it resembles a plane or a smooth trail the plane makes when flying through the sky. 

• The nike logo is very simplistic as well as is very well known even without the brand's name or slogan written with it. 
• It's effective as it has positive connotations due to  it being a 'tick' which can mean being correct - which may entice the audience to think they are doing the right thing by buying Nike products and owning a NNIke product is the right thing to do.

Editorial Design

• Both of these magazine spreads have good text layout and doesn't tighten up the pages or make it too crowded. the images are also places in a good position that they also take the audiences' attention upon reading the article. On the first image you can see the text vertically structured in four's making it look more casual and friendly as well as the addition of pops of colour here and there; whereas the second image has a more classy and sophisticated tone through the use of font and black and white setup.

Design for Screen

• Both of these user interfaces give users a good user experience as its very easy to use and navigate though; you don't need to remember a lot of shortcuts or where everything is as it's in a very logical patterns and are clearly labeled. The use of colour also adds to the ease of navigation as it doesn't distract the users from anything else.

Printmaking

• Peter Blake's screen prints and iconic pop art designs reflect the media and extravagance of the limelight that celebrities uphold. They'e very eye-catching and quirky. His use of pop colours are effective as they complement with each other and do not look too much.

• This screen print by Eliza Southwood is very effective as it's simplistic and has a consistent motif of colours and concept going on. It gives the design order and is is clear to the audience what the series of designs are about and how they are related.