Manifestos, What I think

As a group we had to look at two manifestos and decide what we thought about them, this is what Kirsty Nimmo and I decided –


First things First Manifesto
When students study they are placed in a box however when the study years are over it is up to the designer where to place those skills, as a student it is a very narrow view of the design world, students are taught what is deemed important the rest of the design world is up to the student to learn about.www.stry-n.com/edu/hgkz_BuK/files/first_things.pdf

The Incomplete Manifesto for growth
Bruce Mau has written this in personal thought, humorous and unique perspective however this manifesto may work well for him but not other designers. There are interesting ways to get your creative juices flowing and ways to break through your comfort zone but not everyone would agree with his 48 points, though I find it extremely interesting and creative thought process, very out the box. www.umcf.umn.edu/events/past/04nov-manifesto.pdf

Brutal Fruit

I was out one day and ordered a Brutal Fruit and was absolutely fascinated by their new design, so I chose their brand to look into and discover more about their rebrand.

New design

old design

Brutal Fruit was launched in 2002 to meet the growing needs of the female market, and is now the second-largest spirit cooler within that sphere. The beverage is available in a wide variety of vivacious fruit flavours, including Passionate Peach, Cheeky Cranberry, Luscious Litchi, Manic Mango, Sultry Strawberry, Lavacious Lemon and Berryluscious. For women who want to show off their vibrant, cheeky side
In November 2008, SAB Miller launched the new colourful and striking brand presentation of Brutal Fruit created by CARTILS.
Through the development of a unique and a dynamic label style, Brutal Fruit gained appeal for the trendy, fun loving, vibrant and energetic social female consumers. The new design is perceived as fun and innovative, highlighting the premium image of the product. Since 2002 Brutal fruit is available in the South African Spirit Cooler market, which is characterized by fierce competition and rapid evolution.
The mix of fruit juice and 4,5% alcohol was introduced to meet the needs of the dynamic consumer and to tap into the growth of the fruit alcoholic beverage segment. With the new design, which includes all five flavours, Brutal Fruit should be able to in strengthen its position for the coming years.

Packaging

Targeted at females, 18-24yrs earning less than R6k a month, Brutal Fruit aimed to change their brand in order to suit the females who they were catering for, what girl doesn’t love something that is pretty? They needed their brand to stand out in order to compete with the other strong brands that might pull ladies attention. Smirnoff Spin and Storm, Red Square, Bacardi Breezer, Archers Aqua, Premixes, Hunter’s and Savanna are some of the brands that Brutal Fruit competes with.

Bottle design

One Small Seed

Cover Example

Now for anyone that does not know, One Small Seed is a contemporary South African pop culture magazine that was launched in 2005. One Small Seed is a platform for showcasing creative talent, doesn’t matter how big or small. The racial and cultural diversity of our South African people almost forces this magazine to adapt a multitude of writing styles as well as design elements. One Small Seed target audience is anyone who is looking for creative inspiration or wants to find out more about new creative talent all over the world, in all the different genres. The common genre of the magazine may be described as design/art/photography/architecture/music Because the content is so different it’s bound to have something you like, but hang on a second, like most popular culture publications this one basically says ‘You must be this tall to ride’, yep, it features a lot of imagery which the older generation might raise an eyebrow at. There is some form of nudity on at least one page but this in most cases due to photographer profile showing their work and needs to be viewed in an artist mind frame, it’s a form of art that not everyone can relate to or even understand but viewers must try be open minded. One Small Seed likes to take a slightly edgy approach to imagery and the writing is less formal, both attributes that appeal to me as a young adult reader.
People of all sorts appear here, be it toothless, dirty, nude, painted, whatever you can think of that is not considered ‘conventional’ magazine photography graces the pages of the magazine. It’s about reality, showing the creative talent as it is, they not worried about the conventional beauty that the world is almost obsessed about and that’s another reason I like this magazine.
Photography is great, but one thing that sets this magazine aside is the featured art. It’s great to see so many different styles merge together to create something that I have only seen in design publications. One Small Seed caters primarily to the youth and the art speaks for itself. Anything from Japanese Kawaii to African sculpture and beyond can be found here and the articles themselves are very down to earth, it seems that the authors just wrote town exactly what they heard from the artist rather than having a piece of forced edited dialogue stuck on the page.
The overall aesthetic of the magazine, the semi-hard cover prevents it from flapping around that the paper quality varies as one goes through the magazine, sometimes it’s to enhance an article by printing on special paper and other times it’s to divide the magazine into portions each having their own stylistic feel. The typography is clear and unobtrusive, easily readable sans serif type finds a perfect place amongst  the abundance of imagery, which is in fact what the majority of the magazine is made up of. If you’re looking for long-winded walls of text then this is not the place.

Layout example

 Articles are relatively short contrasting with the large images with a nice variation of overall layout. The style of the magazine may appear somewhat unusual to the normal person.  ‘One Small Seed’ has a unique style which they own, with a lot of design aspects which attracts the creative person.  The magazine also considers international style and culture, when designing their pages in order to connect to all across the globe.
The content of this magazine is very diverse, ranging from book reviews to music reviews, film reviews, editors letter and selected creatives, which is a different artist profile in every issue, though it’s difficult to write down what the content of One Small Seed is because they content differs every time.
Visit their website to view their digital magazines online , www.onesmallseed.com/category/one-small-seed/back-issues/

Top 5 contemporary logos

Continuing from my last post, my top 5 out of the 10 contemporary logos are as followed:

 

1. Little Luna. Luna is the goddess of the moon, the “u” has been illustrated as a little moon, emphasising the name of the business. The logo is simple yet still creative and different. The navy blue background reminds me of the night sky, which all connects to the concept of “little moon”. A beautiful logo that is bound to capture the audience in a unique way, a very clever concept, with a natural feel of a beautiful evening.

 

2.Gizzy bear. A natural feel logo, using different hues of brown to emphasis the nature of the bear. The font is a playful sort of font and I love how they used the g of Gizzy to create a little stylized bear logo, bold and round. Its creative and clever, a playful sort of brand but still gets to the point. Definitely a logo that would draw your attention and stir curiosity with in you as to what they all about.

 

3. Mr Wok. Mr Wok  is an Asian Bistro that offers a new twist on Asian cuisine in a relaxed, neighbourhood bistro setting. The main thing that caught my attention about the Mr Wok logo is that they didn’t use the set colours of red white and gold, they broke away from that completely and that makes their logo unique and eye catching because it’s different. The font doesn’t scream “We are an Asian Bistro!” but it works well with the stylized samurai and creates an overall unity with in the design. The gradient orange creates that relaxed feeling with in the viewer. Just like Mr Wok has a twist in there food, that twist is carried through into their logo and I think that makes their logo one of a kind and one that will stand out.

 

4. Poison Apple productions. What I love about this logo is the illustration style. It is not a style that other production companies would generally use, it breaks away from that stiff, professional feel that majority of these companies chose to portray. The logo is stylized, with free flowing lines and curves creating the tree and skull. Using different hues of green and brown emphasis the poison in the logo, almost as though the skulls poison has taken over the tree but has not touched the one red apple, while the font is very fairy tale like, this is my favourite logo, when it comes to creativity and uniqueness. An amazing concept that will capture the consumers attention.

 

5.Eco taste. This logo caught my attention because of the eco friendly theme of the brand. The different hues of green capture that natural element that the brand wants to represent. Using a leaf with water dripping off it that looks like a tongue gives the consumer the impression that the food is so goo that it will make your mouth water. A simple design and concept yet creative and unique, to the point logo. I think it would definitely encourage consumers to try eco friendly food.

And so it begins. . .

So my journey will begin with contemporary logos. So what are contemporary logos you ask?
Contemporary logos are one of a kind since they involve breaking from the realms of logo design trends. These logos help you create a unique and memorable brand identity. If you logo is contemporary it will easily attract the attention of your target audience.
 
Here are 10 contemporary logos that caught my eye