Antisocial: Part II (Graphic Design)

{{...And YOU thought that I had forgotten about my 'Antisocial' series. Think again! I will be posting the 3rd and final installment this week or next (I wrote the actual blogs a while ago- this was written January 9...I just had to get the images). Then I will post my art from this past semester. The camera is up and functional again, so here we go!}}

Wow! I got a lot of feedback to my first installment of my Antisocial series...thank you all so much! You have no idea...after slaving away on these projects it's nice to just present them and hear what people say.

On to my second time-consuming class in Fall 2008: Graphic Design.
In this class, we had to make up an alternative fuel company. We went through many series of sketches, drafts, and printouts to get to the point we could produce a good final project. Joe Jackson was our teacher, and our class turned into a big survival posse, as we'd all work slavishly on the h-fac computers or in the print lab.

The project: Brand a pseudo-alternative fuel company.
We first researched alternative fuel companies, then based on what we learned or what interested us most, we each picked one. I picked hydrogen fuel. Then, we produced sketches of ideas for a logo for that type of company.

However, before we kept sketching or started taking our ideas to the computer, Joe had us think of traits or qualities that we wanted our company to have. We made a long list of these qualities. Then, we had to narrow it down to our top three. Mine came out to be:

1- innovative
2- intuitive
3- user-friendly

Then we based our sketches around these qualities. It was an interesting process: it kind of made me think backward. I liked it, because it turned out to be more applicable. We went through a series of what we called "horizontal thinking", which was to expand our ideas in many different directions. Here are a few of mine (out of MANY MANY sketches I did....I have a notebook full of them. Literally).

After we picked about 3 logos that suited us, we continued to expand into "vertical thinking" which was to go in depth on those 3 ideas. Finally, we produced our logo, based on our initial 3 words and presented it. Later, we chose the company name. Joe didn't care so much about the name as he did about the typeface and whether or not it went with the traits and logo of the company. Eventually, we presented the logo and company name:


Then we did a "transformation" assignment: We had to "transform" our logo to fit a bunch of requirements, which was actually pretty fun. The explanations for the transformations are under each one.


After that, we went on to do what was probably the most laborious part of the process: the corporate, or brand, identity package. We had to successfully brand a letterhead, envelope, and business card. It took a LOT of time and concentration, with a prevailing eye for accuracy.

Draft after draft, dead tree after dead tree, we finally got to the point where we could call it complete. We selected special paper to print on, and I did waste a bit. Then we had to mount it. Here's mine:

*note: it looks way cooler in person. cool texture and everything.

(And here are the actual files. Click to enlarge. They look in their final printed stage [so come by and see!], but not so great in the above photo.)

Throughout the process, we were always thinking of application ideas. It couldn't be
"swag" (basically anything you could buy at a football game: pencils, mugs, t-shirts, etc...unless we could convince Joe). It needed to correspond to our company and logo. I decided to screen print a white canvas bag, used for shopping in grocery stores instead of wasting paper or plastic materials. Simple, but I was okay with that:

(I should acknowledge that I couldn't have done this last part without Jeff, who found me the white canvas bag. A normal tan colored canvas wouldn't have worked with this, because that would introduce another color into my color scheme. Tricky, eh? I also couldn't have done it without Craig, who connected me with his brother's friend Steve, who screen printed it for me.)

Then, we presented. And it felt gooood.

Travis Lovell (who was at one point my photography teacher and now works in the print lab) made the comment that was along the lines of, "graphic designers notice the tiniest things that no one else would ever even think about checking." So annoying. But it separates good designers from excellent ones.

Again, comments are appreciated. Let me know what you think!

*all images copyright kristin gulledge, 2008.