Visual Techniques

simplicty

unity

stasis

singularity

boldness

complexity

activeness

randomness

episodic

variation

These are both of my absolute favorite brand identities. The first one was created by Wolff Olins for the Join Red campaign. It is very simple in its design because it is just type. It's static because when it is applied, it is very flat and creates no movement. All that is added are the parenthesis and the suffix "red." Because of its simplicity, the application of the Join Red brand into different brands, such as Gap, Starbucks, Beats By Dre, etc, are all very unified. It has that distinct red and the parenthesis and suffix. It is so simple, yet impactful.

Very different from the first example is my favorite use of typography in branding created by Paula Scher of Pentagram for the Public Theater in New York. Using strictly type, she managed to create active movement through complex composition. Within just one word, there are a variation of sizes. The use of color and overall design is very bold. The composition also seems random in the placement of type. It is absolutely beautiful chaos.

Contrast

SUCCESS

This movie poster is successful in its contrast of typography. It creates a very logical hierarchy of importance. The most obvious typographic element of importance is the title, "PERFUME" which is set in all caps and is much larger in contrast to all the other text on the poster. The next important element is the secondary title. In relation to "PERFUME," the contrast is incredibly noticeable in the size. It is still set in all caps, but in relation to the production text on the bottom of the poster, it still appears to be much more noticeable whereas, the production text becomes a grey box due to the amount of text that is there and the small size. There are also contrasts in typefaces between the two titles and the production text. Another great thing about this poster is that it is mainly black and white with the bright red rose pedals that give the photographic element of this poster great contrast in color as well.

FAILURE

This is also a movie poster, except it is poorly designed. In regards to typography, the names and the yellow text are exactly the same typeface and size creating no form of hierarchy. The contrast between typefaces of the names and the title, "THE APARTMENT," exists, however the sizes are so similar and the placement is so odd that it gets lost in the chaos of text. The color choices create contrasts, but the yellow is the most noticeable color because it is used on a large piece of text and only shows up once in the entire poster. The problem is it highlights the recommendation for this movie instead of the title itself.