Yes Logo Spring 2022 Class Blogs – Just another Web Publishing @ NYU site

A Parting Resource

I read Shawn’s latest post, which was a reflection of some key things he took away from the course…things that I too will carry with me as I continue to pursue graphic design. But, further, it made me think about some of the resources that have been shared with me on my journey thus far. Now, I would like to share some of those things with you as I know that many in the class may not have come across them yet.

For my blog post, I’ll detail some of the resources that helped me better think about graphic design and expand what I know of the field. I wish you the best, and hope you dig in!

Olivia

Gestalt Principles:

Exploring the Gestalt Principles of Design | Toptal

One of the first things that it think is super cool to think about are the basic composition principles. Similar to logo design, in learning about what makes for great simplistic logos, there are some design concepts that lead to interesting visual design. The Gestalt principles are one such guide, although the list of all of them varies from source to source. To best give examples of these principles in action, I’ll reference logos that leverage them in their design and course teachings.

Symmetry: a visual principle asserting visual balance around an axis or point which sometimes, but not always means the reflection of an image. For this point, I would like you to consider no one specific logo, but what we have learned about not distorting a logomark or otherwise destroying it’s symmetry. Symmetry arises as important in this context because it is the preservation of such in logo application that leads to strong brand recognition.

Similarity: a visual principle that which defines the commonalities of two or more objects in a frame or system. Visual similarity becomes important in logo when thinking about how fields of business use the same symbolism to identify who they are–something we saw expressly within our own research process and a point Soojin made in our final presentation.

Continuation: a visual principle saying that all things along a line are related. Continuation is apparent in cursive which allows the eye to know that things are related because they flow into one another. As such, Coca Cola’s logo is a great example of this in use.

Pin on Coca cola

Proximity: a visual principle that asserts that things close together are related and things that are far apart are unrelated. This is an interesting concept in the way of IBM’s logo because they use uniform stripes, however, individual letters emerge as to focal point because the vertical spacing indicates these lines are not proximal in the way they are horizontally. Proximity in this use case indicates that there are different letters who all belong in the same space.

Closure: a visual principle that says the eye will complete any perceived visual gap. This is why we can read words that are missing their vowels and why the gap between fingers in Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” are so visual interesting. This is apparent in logos like USA who leverage the empty space to create a letter.

usa TV Logo | Logo inspiration branding, Minimal logos inspiration, Logo design creative

Figure/ground: a visual principle which relates shapes and colors to the visual positioning of in front (“figure”) or in behind (“ground”). When dark, small shapes are surrounded by large, lighter colored shapes it is perceived to be behind and vice versa. The NYU logo is an excellent use case which plays with figure ground relationships in 3-ways to create a visual hierarchy.

NYU Permissions - Copyright - Research Guides at New York University

Grid: a visual principle that organizes and otherwise groups information. This concept was not only used in the MIT Press to create the logo marks, but is also used in the system presentation to indicate what information belongs together. The grid in someways is an extended use case of proximity, whereby there is a uniformity within use.

MIT Media Lab Gets a Transforming Logo, Courtesy of Pentagram | WIRED

Adobe Proficiency Building:

I have 2 resources that have greatly helped me pick up Adobe Illustrator skills. As with anything, you learn from using the workspace and learning new things when you meet a problem that requires it. So, beyond YouTube and Adobe’s own user guide, I would offer LinkedIn Learning and Wiki Digital Foundations as two places to get stared. Everyone on the NYU campus has access to LinkedIn Learning which hosts multiple, guided classes on the basics of Illustrator and Photoshop. As a further resource, that will take you through different projects to learn Illustrator, Wiki Digital Foundations is a free resource that has step-by-step guides for the platform.

Best Practice:

Get a notebook to keep and collect all of your project thoughts, inspiration, and other learnings. I have no doubt that you all have seen me get out my little black notebook to take notes and sketch in class. This notebook is something I use for all of my creative projects. It is a place where I keep clippings of things that I think are examples of cool design, where I store notes I have taken on designers I have come across, and where I workshop my ideas for various projects. I’d recommend that you create a space where you are collecting all such things because it too becomes a source of inspiration and a record of the things you have worked on.

I will leave you all to soak this in. Thanks very much for a great semester!

On Typography

I have always been somewhat fascinated by typography. But, last year when I began my graphic design minor that fascination soared to new heights. I never realized how much work or thought goes into designing type and mixing fonts, much less the technique and skill required. After having Wissam Shawkat visit class and talk about calligraphy, I think it would be fitting to reexplore some of the basic things that I learned in world of typography, after all practice makes perfect.

I have found that when given the tools to think about type, it becomes much easier to talk about, work with, and ultimately make decisions around type and its usage. Further, I was able to explore some of the different philosophies around its application. Below I detail a some of the things that resonated most with me.

Anatomy of Type:

alt

Above is an image that describes some of the primary information around letters and type creation. It is the details of the a types anatomy that you can begin to understand how it is constructed and make better decisions about the sorts of fonts that mix well together. I find that finding letters that share a similar weight or whose letters have similar counter and axis shapes pair well. Learning about these terms and how they show up in different type classes can be super important in the way of communicating what you mean and perfecting your design. It’s in knowing what these parts of construction are that I now know to check for them.

Type Classes:

The following definitions are paraphrases from the book Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton who offers 7 classifications for type classes. It is important to know that although these are offered as a way to classify type, there is no universally agreed upon classifications system–in fact there are many classifications systems for type. Multiple systems exist because type was not made to fit into a system, therefore the variation and earmarking of specific details as important and distinct continues to be disputed.

1. Old Style / Humanist: This type category is defined by a diagonal stress on rounded strokes, heavy hairlines, and equal spacing between letters. It emerged as a typeform in the 15th and 16th centuries based on roman calligraphy and is now a popular choice for newspapers. Sabon is a recommended specimen exemplar.

The Different Types of Fonts: When to Use Each Font Type and When Not

2. Transitional: Produced originally in the 17th century, this type class is defined by it’s wide and sharp serifs, vertical axis, and moderate contrast. Baskerville is a primary example.

Textism: Baskerville | Typographic design, Graphic design tutorials, Type anatomy

3. Modern: This category was produced first in the 18th and 19th centuries. Featuring thin and straight serifs, with high contrast within strokes, this category sets itself apart. Bodoni typeface is a fitting example.

Top 30 Modern Fonts for Logos and Branding in 2021 - Looka

4. Egyptian Slab: Recognized by its bold serifs and uniformly heavy weighted lettering style, the slab style category rose to popularity in the 19th century. Clarendon is a primary example.

Characteristics of Clarendon. – charlottemartindesigns

5. Humanist Sans serif: This category of types was popularized in the 20th century. Distinguishing characteristics include small counters and line weight reminiscent of a calligraphic style. Gill Sans is a prime example.

Gill Sans — Typeface Case Study. Introduction | by Irene Li | Medium

6. Traditional Sans Serif: Fonts of this class became popular in the early 21st century with an emerging push for minimalistic design. This class is defined by uniformity in its full, upright pointing characters. Helvetica is features as a primary example.

Helvetica Case Study | Taylor Donato

7. Geometric Sans Serif: These typefaces are characterized by geometric and congruent shapes. For example any type face with an “o” that is a perfect circle or has a capital “a” similar to a triangle would fit into this category. Fonts like Futura are good examples for this classification.

Futura Font Case Study. Introduction | by Michelle Falgate Butorac | Medium

Typographers: Amended List

This is just a short list of typographers and typefaces that I was exposed to for research. One of the most important things I have learned in the way of creating within graphic design is to see the work that others have created. It builds inspiration, shows you others solutions to a problem, and ultimately gives context for the future of work in the field.

Resource: Type@Cooper

I love sharing resources, and the Type@Cooper vimeo is easily one of the best I have come across. Produced and shared by the typography department at the Cooper Union, this is a yearly conference/series that brings different designers and typographers to take about their work and the philosophies they hold in their practice. This is a great space to explore different themes of type and to dig deeper into the types of fields that require and use graphic design.

These are all the things I have come across in the way of type. I hope you found some further resources to explore.

Blink Abu Dhabi

This course has been a very insightful course, it truly was both thrilling and visionary. This course made me remember my big brother’s coffee shop, and made me realize and look at it differently. I did not realize how much something graphic and sometimes simple can hold a lot of thinking and story behind it. That is basically me now looking at my brother’s brand.

I reached out to him to discuss how was he able get this design? Who did he work with? How was he able to find them? My brother sent me this website link telling me how it is where many kind of designers and photographers gather to display their work, he described it to be similar to instagram but specific for designers, photographers, digital artists, branding, packaging, etc.

https://www.behance.net/

He was able to find someone from there, where he reached to them through email. He scheduled a meeting with them to discuss the matter specifically and explain the details. He was not able to remember the person exactly, telling me its been more than 3 years. That is how they came up with this design.

The design is for a specialty coffee shop so the idea of “blink” is using the eye as a main indicator to whether someone requires coffee or not. For example, when someone eye get sleepy and seem tired a person tell him to go drink coffee to get up. You start with the word blink and flip the I so it looks like a blinking eye, and after getting the caffeine it is able to open its eyes.

The color choice of the logo consisted of the red and blue mainly. The red was chosen to depict the color of the coffee seed, and the blue is to communicate that water is the basis of farming, which by that bring up the preparation or farming of coffee. Frosts in Brazil - How Climate Change is Affecting Your Coffee — Best Coffee I adore also have they included lots of their brand and design in their interior design of the shop. You can spot the hint of red and blue in the shop and is a very important aspect of the brand.

BLINK, Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi

I remember the first time seeing the logo for Blink, and I did not think much of it as I thought it was kind of dumb and too simple. This course has really given me an insight of the world of branding and how much the process can be complicated. When you see a visual identity at first, you might not see much and you are not always supposed to see much, as it is just a way for the brand to be memorable and distinguished. However, when you look up the reason for such a visual identity or the process you can see how much effort, consideration, and thought was put in such a logo. Some people do not realize that all these sophisticated logos out there, they all hold a story, they did not pop out in the spot. There was a process a method coming up with a logo. There is also a lot to consider and keep in mind during the process, not to mention toning things which can be sometimes harder. That is why I feel like designers got a lot of skills for them to become one, they work with all disciplines and have to adapt to different environments, not to mention huge communication and team work skills. My art professor explained how she started off from a design background and started art school, but she said she was able to utilize her design skills in art school so it was much easier and smoother. Design has so much to it from research to communication that a lot of its required skills can be utilized in many different disciplines.

To be a designer I feel you have to be an explorer as there is just endless amount of knowledge out there you can explore to implement in design. To be an explorer is to be open to your environment, which you have to do as you are working with others and open to critique and feedback. There is just I feel like endless amount of skills can be utilized in design that it is a good thing that it is a team effort, as the more brains working on a design the better. Every idea, every discipline, every skills is required to come up with an excellent design. I have witnessed the power of intelligent and talented minds working together coming up with designs around me in class, and it was a learning and thoughtful experience to go through.

Baskin Robbins Redesign

I was surprised to see Baskin Robbins redesigning their brand as I loved the iconic blue and pink logo with the playful typography. However, I am even more adore the change that they made.

I was downhearted at first to see a distinguished thing I grew up with change. I am glad a new and amazing rebrand for them and believe it was a necessary change. Change is one of my worst fears and something to avoid but other times it is something I crave and desire. Even though they have new design does not mean that the old one is forgotten, as it will still be documented in the history of the brand. The new logo is far more sophisticated and elegant, and the infamous hidden 31 in the design refers back to its origins. The old logo was a charm but it does look outdated so a change was a necessity, and the new logo looks more modern.

I cannot express how clever the new design is when you consider all the aspects that led to this specific design. Primarily, Dunkin’ is part of Baskin Robbins’ brand, and the new design works great and more in sync with each other. Notice by the color palette and the bold and curvy font.

The agency ChangeUp was responsible for the new design, and they managed to make the design minimalistic and simpler, but still distinctive and can be traced back to its original 1947 logo. That logo was remarkable by its circus inspired typography in pink and brown, and it really does feel like they combined both old logos to come up with this new and modern design. Baskin-Robbins Debuts a Majorly Sweet Brand Relaunch – PRINT Magazine

Due to the design’s simplicity and refined look it look beautiful in attire. So the company now is selling its brand in merchandise such as clothing and more. Baskin-Robbins Redesign: Photos of Logo, Packaging, Merch

Even the products are presented in new packaging and more ice cream flavors. It is even done in a smart and innovative way as the packaging when placed next to each other they can show a hidden message by playing with the design. While maintaining its formal and modern look, it is bestow playfulness and fun.

The only aspect of the identity that has changed is the visual, but the brands beliefs and objectives are still the same. Even when the brand has adopted a new tagline, it still goes with they stand for which is to appreciate every moment whether small or big. “For more than 75 years, Baskin-Robbins has been the destination for celebrating the moments that matter most. Our new look and manifesto recognize the extraordinary role ice cream has played in our customers’ lives, along with our continued commitment to innovation and creating someone’s next favorite flavor,” said Jerid Grandinetti, Vice President of Marketing and Culinary at Baskin-Robbins. “Small moments that spark joy often get taken for granted. We’re encouraging people to pause and celebrate any moment that brings happiness with Baskin-Robbins,”(Gordon, 2022). The new tagline expresses just that with “seize the yay”, it is simple and encourages people to always aim for the fantastic.

ChangeUp did such an amazing job with the new design, and they show in the video the different phases of the Baskin Robbins logos. You can see where and what is started from, and every step of the process until where it still now. It was done so perfectly it could have not been done any better.“Baskin-Robbins is one of those brands with the unique potential to transcend generations. They wanted the branding to deliver the quality and creativity they’ve always offered but weren’t getting credit for,” explained Ryan Brazelton, ChangeUp CCO. “They needed to create a visual identity system that was exciting for people who grew up with them and future audiences as well”(Sanchez, 2022). The new design seems to be catered for Gen Z and the upcoming generations appeal. “Revolutionizing the brand meant we had to take a step back to understand its founding principles and earliest expressions,” Brazelton said. “Leaning into their circus roots, the path to a younger yet more sophisticated identity became abundantly clear. With its mid-century vibes, the new identity system is fun and bold, retaining the ‘31’ built into the BR monogram. With a new iconic color palette as the foundation, every touchpoint, from digital to packaging to in-store, received a modern makeover. At the heart of the new system is the crave-able, Instaworthy photography of the ice cream. Everyone loves ice cream, and we wanted to set the stage to allow Baskin Robbins’ delicious ice cream to really pop right off the screen and page!”(Sanchez, 2022).

These are the words of the Chief Creative Officer of ChangeUp explaining the reasoning behind coming up with the design. I was fascinated by the creativity of the agency and how it states boldly in their page their endeavour, “At ChangeUp, we drive change for fast moving brands. To us it’s about creating experiences that make people feel, think, and act differently. We believe change is not a risk, it is the answer“(2022).

References

About changeup: Retail brand experience agency. ChangeUp. (2022, March 25). Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://changeupinc.com/about/

Gordon, C. (2022, April 8). Baskin-Robbins debuts a majorly sweet brand relaunch. PRINT Magazine. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://www.printmag.com/branding-identity-design/baskin-robbins-debuts-a-majorly-sweet-brand-relaunch/

Sanchez, R. (2022, April 11). Baskin-Robbins unveils new logo and visual identity from Changeup. Dieline. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://thedieline.com/blog/2022/4/11/baskin-robbins-unveils-new-logo-and-visual-identity-from-changeup

Emaratiya Exposition

One of my most recent projects is co-curating an art exhibition in the Cube, The Arts Center with a good friend of mine, Fatema Al Romaithi. The exhibition we are creating aims to solidify and spotlight the intersection between the Emirati identity and feminine identity. The exhibition analyzes works that reflect this sentiment in both contemporary and historical contexts. We would like to ask the question, “What does it mean to be an Emirati woman?” What does the ‘Emirati woman’, as an identity, represent, and what is she emblematic of?

Preparing for the exhibition not only requires a logo but a solid marketing and promotion plan. First, let’s start with the logo. Initially, we wanted to give it an intimate touch and perhaps have a handwriting and handmade element to it. So I started off sketching the word Emaratiya in Arabic, which turned out like this:

The purpose of this logo is for it to be vinyl on the Cube and on all our social media’s promotional content. But for us to easily achieve that easily and cohesively, we decided to have the logo digitally in Mishafi with the tracking increased:

The increased tracking is still readable and gives into one of the many notions the exhibition’s artworks tackle like tension connection.

This is how our render looks like for the exterior of the Cube:

The Arabic and English boxes are intended to be the exposition’s curatorial texts that are going to be posters on the exterior of the cube instead of vinyl, since it will be easier to mount. With the help of my aunt, a Professor of Translation at UAEU, I was able to get the curatorial statement translated to Arabic. Then, I had both texts on Indesign, set on A1, in Gotham and Tajawal. They are planned to printed on heavyweight paper.

Now on to the promotional content for social media. We came up with a schedule that will be followed by the entire team, including the artists behind the Emaratiya exhibition and it entails:

May 1st: teaser instagram story

May 9th: promo video post

May 12th: exhibition opening

May 1st: The teaser instagram video that will only be uploaded on instagram stories will look like this:

May 10th: For the actual post that is planned to be posted onto the feed is a continued video:

Click to access the video (Video is too long to an in-line attachment)

The names featured are the participating artist’s names in their own handwriting. This allows us to evoke that same intimate and handmade element we wanted to emulate in the beginning.

Now for the poster that is being planned to be posted around campus, we are planning to have a simple still from the promo video:

As for the artwork panels that are going to be attached by the artworks on the cube (describing the artwork’s title, size, medium) are planned to look like this. A mixture of Gotham and Times New Roman, the arabic is Tajawal. They were created on indesign and are planned to be printed on heavyweight paper.

Last but not least, we wanted a brochure that includes the information from the artwork panels + some information behind the concept of each piece written by the artists themselves.

Again, the concept of the girls including their names in their handwriting adds to that original element.

The exhibition is planned to be showcased from May 12th to June 9th, with an installation period from the 10th to the 12th of May, and a de-installation period from the 10th to the 12th of June. We believe it is a great idea to be joining the Pop-Up showcase in the Art Center as this will generate a lot more foot traffic for our show. This blog also acts as an open invitation to anyone reading this, as we would love to have you there. See you on the 12th at 5 pm!

Time for a Reflection

We are now approaching the final week of a very challenging, yet intriguing, semester and it is safe to say that we have come a long way. Looking back at the first class that we had (on zoom unfortunately), I was intimidated by the idea of being able to design full-fledged brands for real clients over the course of just 14 weeks. However, it was also one of the reasons that I decided to enroll in this course: to challenge myself. As a CS major, I barely had any prior experience in design, so I was looking forward to learning a new skill, and boy was this the right course for that. We have learned a lot, not just about design, but about being great professionals as well. Through this blog post, I seek to reflect and recall some of the most important lessons that I’ve learned through both the lectures and the roller-coaster like experience of designing logos with my classmates.

Deadlines exist… and they’re not negotiable in the real world

Starting off with one of the things that Professor Goffredo made sure that we understood early on in the semester, is the importance of meeting deadlines. We encounter new deadlines almost every day, and in college they’re sometimes flexible. Some professors give extensions here and there but what about life after college? What happens when your boss assigns a major case study, and you fail to complete it on time because you’re used to ‘flexible’ deadlines? Well, the conversation between you and your boss might look something like this:

Boss – “So you didn’t get it done? This was due yesterday…”

You – “Yeah, I’m sorry, my cat had to get her deworming done and there was a really long queue at the vet. Is it okay if I complete it by tomorrow?”

Boss – “But the client meeting is today! I’ll make sure they know you were busy at the vet. You can also leave your resignation letter on your way out!”

Ouch. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. When you know you have a deadline, make sure you manage your time properly and get the task done on time. You won’t always be given second chances in the real world!

Brands are a lot more than just fancy symbols: The Halo effect and the Familiarity Principle

Logos and brand symbols are all around us, literally. Hence we often take for granted the effect that they have on us and how they influence the choices we make in our daily lives. Why do we prefer Adidas Superstars over another pair of shoes that look nearly identical, albeit the inclusion of an extra stripe along the sides? Surely it’s because we know that the second pair isn’t manufactured by Adidas. But why does that bother us? Why are we so keen on being associated with the “three-stripes” brand, or any brand in general? Well, it’s because of the familiarity principle.

We prefer things that we’re familiar with and companies really try their best to make themselves familiar to us. That’s how advertising works! The logos or brands that we see more often (and also associate positive emotions with) are the ones that we are comfortable picking over other brands. Maybe it is a beautiful childhood memory or a touching commercial that got you interested, brands that you are familiar with greatly impact your choices, from the clothes you wear to the food you eat. Brands are everywhere.

Another thing that companies use to their advantage is the ‘halo’ effect. In a nutshell, we put our trust in things that appear trustworthy (I know that sounds trivial). But what do we find trustworthy? Beauty! Hence the inclusion of good-looking celebrities in TV adverts or billboard posters. We trust the celebrities; therefore, we support the brands that they support. There is no other reason as to why companies use this strategy. It’s simply because we are attracted to beauty and they use that fact to their advantage!

The Importance of following the rules of Arabic calligraphy when designing bilingual identities

Very often, we see designers who are not familiar with Arabic typography completely ignore the rules of the language in order to prioritize aesthetic value or match the Arabic letters with the English counterparts. During the two lectures that we had with Mr. Wissam Shawkat, we learned that this is a very, very bad design practice and should be avoided.

Whenever designing bilingual identities, in this case in Arabic, you need to ensure that the choices you make in your design don’t go against the rules of Arabic Calligraphy. Below I am sharing a few of my notes from the lectures that I think really help when designing logos with Arabic typography.

Sketch, Sketch, SKETCH… and sometimes Google is not your best-friend

The importance of sketching by hand is something that Professor Goffredo has always iterated throughout the semester. After the bumpy journey of designing logos myself, I realized that sketching is indeed the key to unlocking our creative side. Only after spending hours and hours drawing the same shape with slight variations will we ever come up with the perfect version of our idea. We need to experiment. Our first sketch will never be our final logo. More importantly, we need to go through a rigorous sketching period because it leads to the development of new, and sometimes superior, ideas that might completely change the direction we take when designing our logo. This happened multiple times when my team was working on the ‘gecko’ idea for SMART. Our first and final designs don’t look alike at all!

Furthermore, relying on Google as a source of inspiration is not a good idea. Firstly, because it provides us with very generic designs that have been overused. Second, it can lead us to plagiarizing someone else’s work which is something you need to be very cautious about as a designer. Also, I feel like using Google hinders your ability of coming up with unique ideas yourself because you become too dependent on using other visuals for inspiration.

The client is king, but it’s your job to impress

A lesson that I’ve learned through the course of the semester as well as through the readings is that we as designers are almost completely dependent on the client’s choice. Notice that I said ‘almost completely’. That’s because although the client will have the final say on what direction they want to choose for their brand design, it is our responsibility to show them other possible alternatives or routes that might be better overall. We are smart, living, breathing designers, not random logo generators. Sometimes the creative path that we might see fit for a brand identity might not match exactly what the client wants, but we need to shed light on the fact that what the client wants could possibly be very generic or overused in the market. We must make an effort to convince the client that an approach they deem ‘unorthodox’ is actually the correct way forward. In the end if they still say no, then once again, ‘the client is king’. But at least you tried!

NFTs: Good or Bad?

After attending the last lecture of the series that featured Wim Delvoye in zoom conversation with Marina Pizziolo and Romano Ravasio on the topic of the Art Book and new technologies, my curiosity about NFTs was sparked. The concept of the Non-Fungible Token has been widely discussed and debated across the world. According to Wikipedia, an NFT is “a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that can be sold and traded.” Digital collectibles are being sold at high prices to interested investors. This form of digital art is uniquely characterized as being non-fungible, which means that the commodity does not have “more than one unit, all of which are the same and interchangeable, and each of its parts being indistinguishable from the other (Rodriguez, 2021).”

Some Examples of the most expensive NFTs sold:

CryptoPunk #5822 — $23.7m

2. Everydays: the First 5000 Days — $69.3m

3. Pak’s ‘The Merge’ — $91.8m

(Source: https://www.dexerto.com/tech/top-10-most-expensive-nfts-ever-sold-1670505/)

So the big million-dollar question: Is investing in digital art (NFTs) a good or bad decision?

The risk of trading money for digital artwork is high with many unknown concerns and consequences that may arise from such an investment. So what are some factors that drive NFT collectors to purchase digital art?

It is firstly important to acknowledge the economic advantage that comes with investing in NFTs, in which the value of a digital masterpiece grows exponentially. This means that the collector has the freedom to decide when he/she would like to sell the digital artwork at a price with the highest return on investment possible. I think that the value growth of NFTs is personally interesting to me as an economics major since I have learned over time that economic concepts are constantly changing and new models/theories are being developed with the rise of data and research. As a result, the way humans perceive value can change throughout the years, and new ways of reaching capital accumulation and wealth creation are being developed, such as investing in Non-Fungible Tokens.

Secondly, securing your ownership of an artwork through the traditional process is quite tricky and could be prone to theft. In terms of owning digital artwork, investors rest assured that their collections will be authenticated and their presence will be included as a part of the blockchain of each masterpiece. Therefore, investors view NFTs as a safe hub for trading artwork on a digital platform that is completely recorded and monitored in the form of data. On the other hand, I find it interesting how people choose to trust NFTs despite the rise in cyber security warnings with the spreading of hackers and digital piracy on the web.

Joining a new promising trend is a contributor to the eagerness of investing in NFTs since people are willing to focus on the positive outcomes that could arise from being one of the early investors of digital art giving them an advantage over others when this trend is successfully implemented to its fullest potential.

On the other hand, many speculations doubt if we should throw huge amounts of money into this futuristic form of investment. As much as the NFT trend is being promoted and pushed across the world, it is also being widely judged and criticized in the public eye.

One of the main confusions with regards to NFTs, is what exactly do you own when in the system records? You only officially own the token behind the original asset. This means that you do not have control or authority over the copyright of the masterpiece, and you cannot stop people from posting and sharing copies of it online. Consequently, this raises questions on the value of buying an NFT that you do not necessarily control how it’s shared in public since you do not own the copyrights to it. Is it worth spending your money on digital art in the long term?

From the point of view of environmentally driven individuals, NFTs are a threat to our earth with large amounts of energy being wasted each time a record is computed into the blockchain. It is stated that “A new study from Cambridge University found that mining bitcoin, perhaps the best known blockchain-backed digital currency, now consumes more energy per year than the entire nation of Argentina.” This environmental threat can highly affect the success of NFTs, especially when it is claimed that “Scholars argue that bitcoin emissions alone could raise the Earth’s temperature by two degrees (Tiffany MSNBC Opinion Columnist, 2021).” Despite the possibility of NFTs being implemented regardless of the environmental impact, it could yield fewer investors, since their morals towards the environment could restrict them from joining this energy-draining trend. Once again humans must decide if embracing a new technological advancement is worth the environmental costs that accompany it, will monetary rewards overshadow their judgments?

This diverges me into thinking about how those who are financially capable of spending such great amounts of money will benefit the most from NFTs. Is the NFT scene dominated by the rich or will it gradually give opportunities to investors with different income levels as it expands in the future?

Another conflicting thought from the perspective of people who are immersed in the artistic world is related to comparing the possession of digital versus physical art. They are concerned with how physical art can be digitized on such a platform and sold with no regard to the difference between experiencing the authentic artwork in real life and viewing it online through a screen. They claim that these Non-Fungible Tokens do not give the same satisfaction of owning and appreciating the beauty of a masterpiece in real life.

Lastly, you must be wondering what is the point of view of the Belgian neo-conceptual artist, Wim Delvoye. During the very informative session, he shared an example of him suffering for ten years in a car investment as he tries to drive it in a village with no proper roads. Therefore, he would constantly be “stuck in the mud” with many issues along his path yet he prefers to have the “first-mover advantage”. In contrast, he states that having the “first-mover advantage” in the NFT Metaverse investment is the best approach when starting a new endeavor. Even though NFT and the Metaverse are boring and look terrible he still believes it will be the next best thing. He is waiting for more companies to get involved in the NFT world for it to succeed, which will be developed into easier techniques to fix the speed of its usage and its accessibility in the 3D world. He expects big revolutions to come with political candidacy and their usage of new technologies such as NFT. He considers this new technological advancement inevitable and he says that it is “a silly question to ask if it is good or bad, because it will happen anyway (Wim Delvoye 2022).”

Resources:

https://www.moneycrashers.com/non-fungible-tokens-nfts/
https://www.dexerto.com/tech/top-10-most-expensive-nfts-ever-sold-1670505/
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/bitcoin-nfts-other-crypto-fads-are-destroying-our-planet-n1261139
https://www.investopedia.com/pros-and-cons-of-investing-in-nfts-5220290#:~:text=The%20bottom%20line%20is%20that,is%20indicated%20by%20a%20blockchain.

A Beauty Salon Makeover

By Rania Sakhi

A new beauty salon, NY Ladies Beauty Lounge, has recently opened its doors on campus.

In beauty and hairdressing, first impressions matter the most and I have to say that I am not a big fan of the salon’s logo nor its exterior facade design. In this last blog post, I will redesign their logo and walk you through the process.

People frequently believe that a good logo is one that conveys a lot about the brand or is simply attractive. I once had the same belief but after taking many design classes and watching Sagi Haviv’s interview with The Futur, I now have a better understanding of what makes a logo great and iconic. For more context, Sagi Haviv is a very well-known graphic designer and partner in the design firm Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv and has designed some of the most iconic logos in the world such as Chase, Mobil, PBS, Showtime, and National Geographic, just to name a few. According to him, three fundamental design principles need to be present for a logo to be great:

1. It should be appropriate or relevant to the client and industry in feeling, form, and concept but doesn’t necessarily need to say a whole lot. In the case of NY’s beauty lounge and since the salon is located in Saadiyat Island at NYU Abu Dhabi, it should be elegant and close to NYU’s brand system. While the logo might seem elegant to some, their exterior shop design is just not it being too bold, crowded, and dynamic. Plus, it doesn’t really match NYUAD’s aesthetic.

**NY Ladies Beauty Lounge, Saadiyat Island.**

2. It needs to be simple or uncomplicated in form so it can work effectively and flexibly in a wide range of sizes and media.

3. It needs to be memorable or distinctive enough to be easily remembered. In my opinion, this is the main principle that the NY logo is missing. It looks like any other salon logo you can find online.

These three criteria are the questions I asked myself when I thought about redesigning NY’s logo since it is not only the centerpiece of all brand communication but also the reflection of the character, personality, and values of the salon.

As the first step in my re-design process, I started with research. I mainly looked at how other competitors in the same area are presenting and marketing themselves. NY’s main competitors are:

Tara Rose Hair and Beauty Salon

Tips and Toes

De Joie Beauty Lounge

Ivy Beauty & Bubbles

Bellacure Beauty Lounge

After the research, I tried to understand what can work and most importantly how I can differentiate NY Ladies Beauty Lounge from its competitors. I then started brainstorming ideas and created a clear mood board that is basically a collection of visuals that capture the salon’s essence and personality and customers, or perhaps how I would visualize it myself if I had to design their brand identity.

When it comes to sketching, I started drawing symbols and anything that came into my mind by hand.

When the idea became clearer to me, I quickly switched to Illustrator and decided to simply go with a luxurious and distinctive typographic treatment of the salon’s name: NY or New York. I tested different colors, fonts, spacing, alignment, and so on and kept pink and red as my final color palette. For the font, I chose Pinyon Script that I found after 3 days of deep research. Finally, this is what I came up with.

And here are the logo’s variations.

Once the design was done, I wanted to test the viability of the logo concept by creating mockups on Photoshop relevant to the beauty salon to see how it will work in real life. For this, I chose to work on a business card, a brochure, a shop facade, a hanging poster and wall sign, a home service car, a cosmetics packaging, a mug and T-shirts for staff.

Overall, as much as I enjoyed working on this little redesign, I strongly believe that great logos do not happen by accident. They are the result of strategic thinking, exploring, failing and designing again. Furthermore, each aspect of a logo, whether it is font, shape or colors influence people’s perception of the brand. In this blog post, I specifically focused on NY’s ladies beauty lounge. However, there are so many other logos out there that I think need a redesign. When a logo is too generic or too complicated, it is usually bad. Thus, the main rule that applies to all industries is that a strong logo design must be able to adapt in order to ensure a business can keep its best face forward as all manner of change inevitably takes place not only in the world of design but in society too.

The Jastrow Illusion and Other Optical Illusions

When Professor Francesco Paparella came to the class to give us the brief to design the logotype for his new center, the Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ACCESS), he made clear that two elements needed to be emphasized by the logo we were about to create: modeling and locality. By locality, he meant the Gulf region and by modeling, he referred to the work this center is going to do by creating models that represent the observed phenomenons in the environment and the sea.

Dhow Boat

With these elements in mind, we started our research. We looked up elements related both to the region and to the sea, and we decided to work with the Dhow boat, a trading vessel born in the Gulf.

Sketches For ACCESS

We sketched, and sketched , and sketched, and at some point we were stuck with the same concept of drawing different versions of sail boats/ Dhows. This is the first version of the logo that we sent to Professor Paparella:

In his feedback, he said that he liked it, but he felt like it needed somehow show that the boat was studying phenomenons or add an element that made it more related to the center. It was until two weeks ago that Erin came to see our progress that Professor Puccetti noticed this small sketch in the middle of all of our material:

This sketch caught his attention because the two sails capture the idea of modeling. Shawn and I began working with this version, going from making one sail smaller than the other, reinforcing the concept that one is the original and the other is the model.

Suddenly, professor Puccetti remembered this optical illusion he had seen before: The Jastrow Illusion.

You might think the piece at the bottom is longer, but both are the same size. We considered the illusion to be perfect to represent the idea of modeling since it keeps our concept that one is bigger because it is the original and the other is smaller since it is a replica. Nevertheless, both are the same size, showing how a good model should be an accurate representation of reality.

This is how we apply the illusion to the Dhow boat concept:

Designing with Other Optical Illusions

The Jastrow Illusion was named after the American psychologist Joseph Jastrow, who discovered it in 1889. In the illusion, one of the curved shapes that was positioned next to one that is the same size seems to be larger. When the position of the shapes is reversed, also the perception of which one is larger changes.

Joseph Jastrow is also well known for his duck-rabbit illusion:

Do you see both animals?

As we discussed in class, an optical illusion can be extremely useful when it comes to logo design. I decided to look up other optical illusions and sketch some logos making use of them. A very useful website I discovered for this is illusions index.org .

The Hermann Grid Illusion

This illusion was named after Ludimar Hermann since he wrote about this phenomenon in 1870. The point of this illusion is that the people who stare at this grid are going to start seeing some intermittent black points at the intersections of the grid.

The grid reminded me of the proposal I had for CAIR that was rejected, but still, I think it would be interesting to give it another try with this illusion.

My original proposal

A new proposal including the Hermann Grid Illusion

Proposal with the Hermann Grid illusion with the colors reversed

Playing With Sizes Again: The Ponzo Illusion and The Müller – Lyer Illusion

These two illusions, as well as the Jastrow Illusion, play with the perception of the size of two lines that are the same, but external reasons make one look longer than the other.

The Ponzo Illusion. Both yellow lines are the same size.

The Müller-Lyer Illusion. Both lines are the same size.

ACCESS logo using the Ponzo Illusion. The white shape in the background used for the illusion looks like train rails and this could be interpreted as “access” to something.

Same proposal but with less white lines in the background. In this one, it looks like we have a letter “A”, but the illusion that the upper yellow line is longer decreases.

ACCESS logo using the Müller – Lyer Illusion. This logo could be justified with the idea of modeling.

Ehrenstein Figure

This illusion studied by Walter Ehrenstein consists of this figure conformed by lines whose intersections seem like they are increasing in size (the white circles).

The figure reminded me of some sketches we did for the Center for Smart Engineering Materials using the gecko hand concept but inverting the colors.

Sketches for SMART

I think this Illusion could have been appropriate for this center since we have been working with concepts surrounding the idea of self-healing and the circles in the figure look like they are growing, and also the illusion reminds me of brightness and/or intelligence.

Final Reflection

Doing this exercise made me notice that there is no such thing as finished research. Just from taking a quick look on the internet for more optical illusions, I created 4 new logos (all of them in a very basic stage) with some iterations. Researching not only prevents you from repeating a logo that already exists but there are always new sources of inspiration.

References:

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Jastrow_illusion

https://www.illusionsindex.org/i/ponzo-illusion

https://www.illusionsindex.org/ir/mueller-lyer

MFA Year One Exhibition Poster

This semester I had a wonderful opportunity to support branding for NYUAD’s MFA in Arts and Media program. Although, in the beginning, I was supposed to help with the marketing and promotion of MFA events and activities, over time my function changed and I suddenly found myself responsible for preparing promotional materials for the upcoming exhibition at Warehouse421. The exhibition is to celebrate the first year of work of the inaugural NYUAD MFA cohort.

Ideation

While I was excited to do something big and prepare a visual identity for the exhibition, I felt a bit unprepared. It was only after some time that I realized that posters serve are the main identifier of exhibitions and thus entail a similar function to logos. With the knowledge of branding and logotypes I have acquired over the last semester, I felt a bit more confident.

I must admit it was quite challenging to come up with an identifier that would combine all the works of the MFA artists in an interesting way. Unfortunately, unlike many art exhibitions, I couldn’t simply use the artist’s most popular work as the main design. There are five students at the MFA, each working in a very characteristic style in a unique medium – from video, to sound, painting, pyrography, textile, print, and soft sculpture. Artists’ works examine the instability of the physical world, such as space, country, gender, and the body. Unfortunately, that’s quite a broad range of topics. Moreover, one could argue that the exhibition itself has no universal theme as it serves more as a collection of artists’ work.

Moodboard. AKA my messy desktop

Brainstorming

With my team, we came up with a couple of creative avenues I could delve into. The idea of growth truly resonated with us. Moreover, we have found themes related to Botanics quite relevant, as they either permeate the medium artists’ have chosen, such as wood, or the subject of the works. With this in mind, I started to create a mood board and look for inspiration to represent structures, nature, or wood. Bearing in mind the fact that two artists work with fabrics, I also looked into some microscopic photographs of fabrics or cotton.

Sketching

Then I opened my sketchbook and started drawing whatever came to my mind. It really worked like magic. After a while, I settled on the idea of filling some boxes with little drawings relating to the various mediums – botanical elements, wood, fabrics, and cotton.

Primary sketches. One can see the “eureka” moment on paper when I draw the path form NYAUD to Warehouse 412

I figured I could arrange these elements in a more systematic order, one that resembles the path from NYUAD to Warehouse421 and contains outlines of Saadiyat and Mina Zayed. This hidden message would allude to the transition of the place of development, New York University Abu Dhabi, to the place of future affiliation, Warehouse 421, the Art Gallery.

Path from NYUAD to Warehouse421

After a bit of sketching I have created a final drawing with black pen on paper.

Final drawing

Later on, I scanned the sketch, removed background and played with the shape of it in Photoshop. I have changed the color and added some shadows.

Visual Element for the MFA Year One Exhibition

We have decided to use it as a main identifier for the exhibition, one that will be placed on the cover of the zine and used in external communication.

Revisions

My first proposal for the MFA Exhibition identity involved the choice of blue colour. I liked the contrast it created with beige. In addition to the poster design, I was also asked to prepare the zine, program booklet that will highlight artists, their work, bios and statements. It was only after seeing artists’ work and receiving their portairt photographs, I have decided to change the primary color to brown. Thanks to this change, the booklet looks more cohesive as brown matches the color palate of photographs.