Set the Wayback Machine to Victorian England

So this weeks assignment was to recreate the starbucks logo in Victorian style.  I did a bit of looking around and settled on this old advertisement for inspiration.

By the standards of the time its pretty low key, not much in the way of text, and I like the layout. Bold black eye grabber in the middle and pretty easy to read.

So here is my take on a Victorian era Starbucks logo. I did a little reading up on wikipedia about Starbucks and they took there name from the First Mate in the novel Moby Dick, and the company was founded in 1971 as per Wikipedia.  The Coffee Tea etc was incorporated in one of their early logos, and I added the little motto just to add more text like the old Victorian ads did. Now let me know what you think!

Wheel of colour

I was wandering around Woodgrove Shopping Center where I saw this window signage at Baby Gap.

This is a wonderful play on the colour wheels we are currently studying in our Colour Theory Class.  The imagery uses a pile of childrens clothing arranged in a manner that both symbolizes the broad selection of clothing and variants in colour available in their store. The typography (which I accidentally cropped) is very friendly and inviting adding to the overall warmth of the advertisement without being too cartoony or juvenile. I just love the playfulness of the use of colour, and the innovation used in the setup of the image.

Pants half off.

This week I found something a little different.  This was found at The Gap which isn't normally my kind of haunt, but it exposed me to something a little different to me.  This box was placed in a retail environment where normally you would see a small placard or sign holder describing the type of jeans displayed on the table.

I was attracted to this piece more for the bold contrast of the big, bold, type on the simple black backdrop of the display unit. The typography is powerful and basic used to communicate a basic message and it does it well. The designer of this piece upped the interest grabbing quotient of the piece by wrapping the text around the piece in a way that almost forced the shopper to walk around the table. In doing this the piece exposes the consumer to all the product in the table.

I found the execution really novel and the use of this object in a place where most other retailers would use a simple sign pretty innovative. Looking back I should have taken pictures of all the sides.

Fisrt design post actually pertaining to school.

Firstly, pardon me for the shoddy presentation here. I was caught off guard by this picture while taking advantage of Nanaimo's mass transit and all I had to document this moment was the old cellphone.

It was a poster/banner for a suicide and depression hotline offering an outreach number for people in a bad situation to call without feeling pressured to seek someone out for face to face assistance.
I found the image to be powerful and the overall composition was fairly economical and minimally put together.  It definitely used only what was needed.

Reason why I picked this image? Why do I like it?
Its simple, its striking and the mixed messages implied in one simple gesture.  The movement of silencing someone with the hand gesture combining the same hand mimicking a gun.  This imagery mixed with the ominous red and black coloring of the advertisement all culminate in portraying exactly how dangerous depression can be and how its sufferers can literally feel threatened to speak out to help themselves.
Meanwhile contrasting the darkness of the overall composition the white typography could be considered a bit of light reaching out to the targeted reader.

I only wish I could have gotten a better image. If I can catch a better version I'll post it again.

This won't be on the quiz.

Here we go. Fisrt post, first blog, first day of school.  Watch this area for my own scathing reviews of the design community, and to have my viewpoints torn limb from limb by the internet hate machine.