Nathan Cutts

Contemporary Graphics and Illustration

Throughout history we can see how humans have identified themselves in a similar ways to corporations. In medi-eval Europe, the use of the colour Pur-ple in apparel was limited to the privi-leged and royal due to the expensive and rare dye. The wearer then became superior and elite which created an emotional strength. Before the mid-nineteenth century, Scottish tartans

were worn to represent which region or district the wearer was connected to. Following the mid-nineteenth century, the Scottish tartans were a represen-tation of a specific clan or family. The Scottish Tartans Museum states that “it is a fact that tartans today have mean-ing, and when you wear a tartan you are identifying yourself with what that tartan represents.”

The Maori men and woman wore tat-toos known as the Moko, which is a facial tattoo used to define the status of the wearer, also being used for social affiliation. It can be easily said that the use of Tattoos, both in an historic and contemporary sense, is a very personal identification of who you are spiritual and socially. Deep inside the modern tattoo lays a memory or philosophical

idea which you are constantly close to. It tells the world a small or large bit about who you are. Historically speaking, the tattoo can also define your stance in a tribe.

During the Holocaust, Tattoos in Nazi concentration camps were used as a system of identification for the Jewish. The Nazi regimes also forced the Jews to wear the ‘Yellow Badge’, otherwise known as the ‘Jewish Badge’. They were forced to sew it on to their outer clothing as means of social identification; marking them as a Jew to the public. Before this, the badge was also used by other societies to differentiate another as a member of the minor religion in that area.

We also use cultural and reli-gious symbols as a mean of communicating our beliefs, our values, our cultures and our philosophies on life and the world. You see someone with a cross around their neck and you can identify their religion. You see someone with a Bindi and can connect the wearer to a specific cultural background.

During war both sides use marks to not only identify the enemy, but also the alley. In modern society, unmarked transport can be used by authorities to catch out civilians doing something wrong. An unmarked police car has its identity completely removed and the connection between the public and the authority is no longer present; the car is seen as just another object on the road. In 2000, then president Bill Clinton rode in an unmarked airplane which flew, a few minutes

before, on the same route as another aircraft with the call sign ‘Air force One’ to Pakistan as a means of security.

If you were to look at other corporate identities, though, they need to have that power and that strength. It would be rather damaging for SA Police to create a level connection between the viewer and the identity. Instead they create a design with a sense of trust using calm blues, but also imply strength and power

through the contrast of white and blue. It’d be rather unorthodox, say, for ABC Learning Centres to pick the same emotional connection that the Australian Army holds. Its also evident that the Australian Army’s information site is more unfriendly then the Defence Jobs site; as the latter is trying to create a welcoming feeling, rather then something serious.

In an extremely contemporary sense, human identification is very much connected to the identification of a corporation. For example, we wear the cloths we wear as a sense of style. Some cloths are easily categorised. The use of gothic cloths is a prime illustration of how humans are able to show the world who they are. Quite often, this form of expression is not a case of comfort. Humans have the uncanny ability to express without

really doing anything. We show the world our passion and lives simply through a tshirt. Throughout todays youth culture there is a diverse way to define yourself merely through a piece of fabric. We are able to wear clothing that tells the world we are indie, bogan, gangster, goth, alternative, hippie, emo, surfer, skater, punk, nerd or a geek. All this can be defined through visual objects; which is all just a small social category we fit into.

There is also a strong connection be-tween Google, Yahoo and Bing; and that’s the playfulness of their identities. Google with its playful colours, Yahoo with its horrid yet playful typeface and Bing with its Microsoft/Try hard, yet playful curves, create a connection of anti-establishment; which was what the designer of the Google logo was seeking during the crea-tion progress.

This emotional grounding is important. It’s similar to our social connections. Google didn’t want to have the feeling of power and strength, they wanted happiness; with their informal corporate motto be-ing ‘Don’t be evil’, and that’s quit evident through their visual identity.

“We were not going to be upper-case. And this was the time of Yahoo and Netscape – wacky fonts, which represented being anti-establishment, but because everyone was doing wacky fonts, it became the norm. I tried to find a font that was still serif, which was unusual at the time, but that wasn’t thick and bold, that had an elegance to it.

They were really into childhood, all the aspects of childhood we still feel ourselves no matter how old we get: curiosity, playfulness, optimism and adventurousness. I was thinking about Legos, and putting things together, and the colour palette, and rainbows.”

It is rather evident that this emotional connection of elegance and simplification is still in place throughout the range of online Google products; along with the childish nature we’ve come to accept in the contracting and somewhat ugly col-ours used throughout.

But the visual identity of Google doesn’t end at the logo. Many of you have studied webdesign and would know that, apart from the typeface, Google’s codes are set at default; meaning they still use the bright blue links that was picked by the creators of of HTML. The site isn’t overly distracting and the homepage is extreme-ly simple; all of which is implied. Google understand that, first and foremost, they are a search engine; and that added links to Gmail and News on the homepage is, infact, distracting. To simplify their issue of the added distracted they created what is known as a ‘fade-in’ feature. They state on their online blog:

“For the vast majority of people who come to the Google homepage, they are coming in order to search, and this clean, minimalist approach gives them just what they are looking for first and foremost. For those users who are interested in using a different application like Gmail, Google Im-age Search or our advertising programs, the additional links on the homepage only reveal themselves when the user moves the mouse.”

It also says a lot about Google’s largest completion: Yahoo and Bing; who’s web-sites are far from as simple as Google’s; even though they still are used for the same thing.

There is also a strong connection be-tween Google, Yahoo and Bing; and that’s the playfulness of their identities. Google with its playful colours, Yahoo with its horrid yet playful typeface and Bing with its Microsoft/Try hard, yet playful curves, create a connection of anti-establishment; which was what the designer of the Google logo was seeking during the crea-tion progress.

This emotional grounding is important. It’s similar to our social connections. Google didn’t want to have the feeling of power and strength, they wanted happiness; with their informal corporate motto be-ing ‘Don’t be evil’, and that’s quit evident through their visual identity.

-(bit said by hungry beast) Pepsi has seen this as a great tool and have began mis-spelling their product as Pecsi in Argen-tina. Only the other day Pixar re-released an 80s video clip of an old product and used it because the product was a char-acter in the new Toy Story film. But it can be said the the most interesting product displacement thus far is by Coca Cola. They’ve released a viral marking campaign which is merely a song and video clip. They believe if they can get people inter-ested in the song, they’ll go search for it and in the end, find Coca Cola. They are removing labels so we can absorb more information in search for the answers.

- A few years ago product placement was the main thing, but now we’ve barely touched on product displacement, used by shows and movies to bypass paying for the product in the show. But, already, product displacement has been pushed that one step further. Instead of remov-ing the logo or what not, they create what Hungry Beast have labelled as a challenge. Rather then getting a product name advertised to you they may misspell it or remove the logo all together. This cre-ates the challenge.

- You aren’t just presented with a brand and it all ends; but rather, you need to figure our what is wrong with the situa-tion and you pay more attention to what is happening. This creates a connection

between you and the product and you’ve absorbed more information.

-I read an interesting article by Gladys Santiago which, if anything, glorified product displacement in comparison to product placement. She discusses the idea that it requires no stretch of the im-agination acknowledge product displace-ment but states that “Ultimately, product displacements have the opportunity to flatter the intelligence of viewers.” Though the only thing is that we need to know the identity before hand. If not, we won’t recognise whats wrong.

A very emotion-seeking company is Dove; who have released two Award winning television advertisements which basi-cally attack the beauty industry for their unrealistic imagery they present to fe-males. Although this was a very success-ful campaign for Dove and sends a very positive message, it’s hard to grasp onto their message once you’ve done a bit of research into the brand. Basically, their first ad shows the process a company will go to when editing their photographs, telling the audience how fake the world of beauty products is. But their second video is far more emotionally driven, which shows what a young girl will see and her perception of beauty; explaining that their industry is going to give a child a false understanding of what you need to do to become beautiful. Though, ignoring the fact that Dove is part of that industry, the product is owned by the same com-pany who presents ads like this: (play lynx ad). Dove is owned by Unilevel, father company of Lynx. How hypocritical is it

for a company to present a message of true beauty when they are so connected to a product that tells men that beauty is the core definition of what they are trying to condemn. The message they present is one of noble qualities; but in the end it’s just a marketing campaign set out to give Dove this identity of being honest and moral. They are trying to tell the world that this company stands for such great-ness; but one can see as just another way to make money. And although they’ve set up ‘The Dove self-esteme fund’, it’s so hard to take them seriously when it is controlled by Unilever. The two contradict-ing messages are there to sell a product; the transparent idea behind both of them is to attract their target audience. It’s their way engaging the right people and selling them products. Its hard to believe that Dove’s priority is to “[create] a new defi-nition of beauty [which] will free women from self-doubt and encourage them to embrace their real beauty” when they are so connected to an opposing product.

Designers are beginning to understand this con-nection we need to have with the people we are designing for. There is a noticeable movement from this sleek, Helvetica-style of design into something with more personality and depth. This idea of every-thing shiny and perfect is rather intimidating. People are wanting faults because that’s human. They want design to be textured so they can connect to it. It is as if we are not just creating something that com-municates effectively, but also is relatable; where our audience expects to be in contact with another human and we have the ability to create this. The is-sue is that there so very little people who care. Even though it requires effort to create a good piece of design; it requires more effort to communicate it to someone with human emotions.

I THINK THIS IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHAT IS INTERESTING. ITS MERELY THE PAPER I USED TO PLACE OVER MY DESK TO STOP THE PAINT DRIPPING ON IT. THE END RESULT OF THIS WAS FAR MORE MIND PROVOKING THEN WHAT I WAS ACTUALLY CREATING.

HELVETICAKILL

SOMETIMES DESIGN NEEDS A LITTLE MORE THEN A SIMPLE WHITE BACKGROUND AND AN ARROW. IT’S NOT VERY INTERESTING, AND IN A WORLD WHERE THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON IN THE BACKGROUND, OUR DESIGN NEEDS TO LIFT ITS GAME. WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT THE WANTS AND NEEDS OF THE CONSUMER BUT WE ALSO NEED TO THINK ABOUT HOW THEY FEEL AND HOW SICK THEY ARE OF BEING CONSTANTLY TOLD WHAT TO DO BY THE EXACT SAME POSTERS; ALL WITH THE SAME TYPE FACE AND ALL WITH THE SAME PERSONALITY.WE’RE NOT ROBOTS.

HELVETICAKILL

SOMETIMES DESIGN NEEDS A LITTLE MORE THEN A SIMPLE WHITE BACKGROUND AND AN ARROW. IT’S NOT VERY INTERESTING, AND IN A WORLD WHERE THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON IN THE BACKGROUND, OUR DESIGN NEEDS TO LIFT ITS GAME. WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT THE WANTS AND NEEDS OF THE CONSUMER BUT WE ALSO NEED TO THINK ABOUT HOW THEY FEEL AND HOW SICK THEY ARE OF BEING CONSTANTLY TOLD WHAT TO DO BY THE EXACT SAME POSTERS; ALL WITH THE SAME TYPE FACE AND ALL WITH THE SAME PERSONALITY.WE’RE NOT ROBOTS.

DEVELOPING THE BIOBOX IDENTITY.

Beginning my studies in Contemporary Graphics efficed the way I designed in studio. I wanted to experriment with digital media but didn’t want the perfect quality found in most tools, so I used my mobile phone camera which picked up the faults.

Using paint but with a stencil. I wanted it to leak from the sides and create some visual interest. I didn’t want a computer generated looking logo.

The use of brown paper not only created some interest but also forced the idea of environmentally friendly.

The left over stencil provided a far more interesting design and also contains some very interesting shapes not shown in the above print.

This is the result from my studies. I had to change the name to something rather shorter, obviously, but the idea is still there. The printed copy still had the grungish edges but the shapes have been simplified to allow it to work more like a logo design.

Although the design still shows a bit more intest and personallity, I wanted to extend that to my letter head and business card.

The idea behind my business card is to be a little more practical with when it comes to space. In order to do this I made a busi-ness card that folds into the shape of the logo, but can be folded out to fit into a normal business card holder or wallet and also fold out even more so that there is an appropriate amount of space to display the information.

Business card sizes don’t really allow for much interest without distorting the readability of the text. Why sacrifice good design just to conform?

I’ve noted many letter heads that are poorly designed and don’t really follow the design principles. It seems letters heads follow the concepts seen in web design, where good design is rare. I wanted the text to be displayed in a proper manner, rather then being one large, fat collumn of unordered type.

I felt the paper needed texture and a bit of interest. I wanted to use brown recycled paper but wanted to test other textures first. These textures where too distracting and also rather ugly.

Other tests that mixed hand-made textures with digital editied were interesting also.

I really liked this texture. Its the natural faults caused by the photocopier. I guess this proves, ones again, that the best results are from mistakes.

Although its not scanned very well, we see more interest in the black and more texture in the white areas.

Although this was simply scribbles on the back of my test page I found the use of lines and the poorly written type interesting. Would be good incorporate it into the design.

The textured background is also very interesting for this compliments slip.

There needs to be a balance between faults and perfection. I’ve mainly focused the idea of perfection on the legibility of the type. After all, that has the vital information. But, I thought i’d simply shapes in order to show the devisions of the company. Glass, fibre and plastic. Although each one had nice shapes, it doesn’t really fit with the square edges of my logo. Its very ‘eMac’ 90s style. Too smooth and doesn’t really show ‘evironmentally friendly’.

Though, displaying them like this, with the ink running from the sides and outside of my logo, I can see how successful they could be in design.

M.A. Newsome, The Scottish Tartans Museum, The Scottish Tartans Museum.

Varichon, Anne Colors: What They Mean and How to Make Them New York: Abrams Page, 2006, p161.

John A. Rush, Spiritual tattoo: a cultural history of tattooing, piercing, scarification, branding, and implant; Frog Books, 2005, p3-20.

Margo DeMello, Bodies of inscription: a cultural history of the modern tattoo community; Duke University Press, 2000, p46.

D’Ancona, Jacob (2003). The City Of Light. New York: Citadel. pp. 23–24.

Sammon, Bill, Clinton uses decoy flight for security, Washington Times, March 26, 2000, p. C.1.

Marissa Maye, Now you see it, now you don’t, http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/now-you-see-it-now-you-dont.html, 2009.

Sonia Zjawinski, How Google Got Its Colorful Logo, http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/multimedia/2008/02/gal-lery_google_logos, 08.

Ruth Kedar, Interview: Ruth Kedar, Designer of the Google Logo, http://www.badidea.co.uk/2010/03/interview-ruth-kedar-designer-of-the-google-logo/, March 3, 2010.

Army Internet. http://www.defence.gov.au/ARMY/, 31-Mar-2010.

Army Defence Jobs, http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/army/.

Synder S, ‘Movies and Product Placement: Is Hollywood Turning Films into Commercial Speech’, 1992 U. Ill. L. Rev. 301.

Product Displacement: Hungry Beast, 2010, television program, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 10 March.

Mypods and Boomsticks: The Simpsons, 2008, television program, Fox, United States, 30 November.

The Coca-Cola Company, 2009, “’Open Happiness’ and enjoy life’s simple pleasures with Coca-Cola”. Press release, 30 May.

Santiago, G 2009, ‘Product Displacements as Catalysts to Engagement’, Gnovisjournal, 29 Jan, <http://gnovisjournal.org/blog/product-displacements-catalysts-engagement>

Wired, 2006, ‘Air Force One Graffiti Hoax’, Associated Press, 22 April.

Dove 2006 ‘Evolution’, Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto

Dove 2007 ‘Onslaught’, Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto

Lynx 2006, Lynx Jet, online video, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PvIdnaJ>.

McIntyre, P 2006, ‘Fantasy airline gives Unilever dream run’ Sydney Morning Herold, 9 February.

Dove 2004 ‘The Dove Report: Challenging Beauty’ Unilever.

The Gruen Transfer, 2008, television program, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 28 May.

References

Nathan Cutts

Contemporary Graphics and Illustration