Author: Olivia Whiteside

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:

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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!

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:

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. 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

In the first few weeks of class we have thought about the considerations that come with designing logos and crafting visual brands. For this post, I am interested in exploring how completed branding communicates design considerations and directs correct usage. To that end, New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus branding and guidelines will be my primary example. Herein you will find an analysis of the NYU brand breakdown, NYUAD’s logo, and NYUAD’s color guideline subsections. 

You can access a digital PDF of the NYUAD brand guidelines here.  

NYU Branding Breakdown

Marks of Excellence defines branding as an ongoing process of “development and maintenance […] which in turn includes three elements: the brand core, it’s presentation, and the resulting image” (Mollerup 46). In the case of NYU, the brand core or, to put it another way, the branded object is the university which includes higher education, research, and career guidance. The logo and wordmark are just feature of the brand presentation which is simply the audio and visual language used to identify the brand core. Lastly, image represents the the public and consumer opinion of the brand core which is heavily influenced by the the brand presentation. 

NYU breaks down its brand presentation through an endorsed brand architecture. Endorsed brand architecture is defined as the branding relationship wherein two or more sub-brands share one main brand name or namesake. In the case of NYU, the brand structure is striated. New York University refers to the New York City campus which houses 13 sub-brands in the form of schools (i.e. NYU Stern, NYU Steinhardt, and NYU Tandon). NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai are the official international sub-brands within this architectural framework.  

Pictured above is a picture of NYUAD’s center of campus. Through the placement of an enlarged NYU logo–synonymous with the NYU New York namesake brand–at the top of the building followed a smaller NYUAD installation in the windows, hierarchy is leveraged in service of the visual presentation to communicate NYU’s endorsed brand architecture. 

NYU Abu Dhabi Logo

Above is the NYUAD logo breakdown. I think it is important to note that even the logo clearly communicates the parts that comprise the whole: the logo which is “Abu Dhabi” in Arabic script, the logomark which recalls NYU New York’s symbol, and the logotype which describes the namesake and sub-brand’s affiliation. This logo is doing a lot of work in communicating brand and cultural relationships. 

Within the rest of the logo section, constraints and use cases are described for the logo. There you will find instructions on color usage, horizontal and vertical orientation, and exterior logo spacing. 

Above are successful applications of the logo branding guidelines you can find on and around campus. 

Color Guidelines

In an expansion from the color guidelines for the logo, which call for the exclusive and uniform use of NYU violet, black, or white, the brand colors are quite expansive. I was surprised by this section because it contained separate purple color palettes for print and digital and an accent color palette. 

The print v. digital color palette was surprising because the colors are similar, but not quite the same. The digital color palette featured more vibrant colors which is probably an affordance of the digital display color range. Despite the slight difference in purples across the two color palettes, they all seem to read in the same world. 

I was most surprised, however, by the tropical themed accent color palette. Honestly, I laughed and said to myself “they never use these colors”.

But they do… 

I cannot tell you how alarming it is to realize just how branded our environment can be. In all these small, but big ways the color palette is applied and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. 

Works Cited

Mollerup, Per. Marks of Excellence. London: Phaidon, 2006.