Author Archives: Sierra Siemer

Final Files

DUE: End of Day, Tuesday May 12

Brand Book PDF & blog link via email (sierrasiemer@gmail.com)

Requirements:

1280px X 800px document (landscape) made in InDesign, exported as a digital-ready PDF (72 DPI RGB colors).

-Cover Page

-Table of Contents (optional)

-Brand Words

-Mission Statement

-Logo (black and white, color(s), usages and guard rails

-Photography style or mood board (optional)

-Typefaces

-Colors

-Brand Identity Elements

-Footers – one per page – page numbers, brand name, title of brand book, year

-Titles – one per page

Crit Guidelines

Describe: Tell exactly what you see

Analyze: Use the elements/principles to reflect upon the design

Interpret: What is the designer trying to say?
Why was the design created in this style?

Evaluate: How successful is the design?

Brand Books

https://www.behance.net/gallery/14401641/Stuedio-BE

http://www.logodesignlove.com/brand-identity-style-guides

Requirements:

A multiple-page, 1280px X 800px document (landscape) made in InDesign, exported as a digital-ready PDF (72 DPI RGB colors).

When in doubt, more white space/room is better. Do not crowd things or cram too many elements on one page. Each section should be 1 page, and if necessary broken up into more pages.

Consider the overall design each page, usage of color, graphic elements, and hierarchy. Consider leading and kerning of type. This shouldn’t be a purely technical document, but should have some design to it – just don’t go overboard – it should still be legible. 

-Cover Page

-Table of Contents (optional)

-Brand Words

-Mission Statement

-Logo (black and white, color(s), usages and guard rails

-Photography style or mood board (optional)

-Typefaces

-Colors

-Brand Identity Elements

-Footers – one per page – page numbers, brand name, title of brand book, year

-Titles – one per page

Brand Identity Elements

To build out your brand, we’ll be creating identity elements based on your style guide and logos. The designs should come organically out of the guide you created (colors, type faces, etc.). Think of how your logo can evolve and expand to create patterns or background elements to support your design.

Based on your brand, choose an identity system (s) to build out. If you’re a restaurant, making a menu and branded to-go containers makes sense, but don’t feel restricted if you really want to make a t-shirt line. Build your designs flat in Illustrator first, and then we’ll mock them up using templates in Photoshop.

If you want to use photography as a supporting element in your brand, start pulling some images that will work as backgrounds, etc. Try pulling comps from http://www.offset.com/ or anywhere you can find them – for class projects copyrights don’t apply.

Next week we’ll go over different templates, but if you want to get a head start, a good place to look is http://graphicburger.com/mock-ups/ – be careful not to choose mockups that are overly styled or designed.

Options:

Stationery Set (business cards, letter head, pencils/pen, envelopes, etc.)

Menu, signage, to go cups/bags (restaurant, coffee shop)

Look and feel of desktop site (home page/ landing page)

Look and feel of mobile app (first load screen)

Tee shirts, tote bags, sweatshirts, backpacks, etc. (lifestyle company)

Sticker packs, buttons, enamel pins (lifestyle company)

Poster set

Digital Banner Ads (animated or otherwise)

Subway posters

Billboards

Examples:

http://www.brandingserved.com/gallery/ComboAppcom-Branding/16395529

http://www.brandingserved.com/gallery/ALA-Architects/10962257

http://www.brandingserved.com/gallery/Penglot/21509969

http://www.brandingserved.com/gallery/All-Above-All/13188033

Abstraction & Form Making

Rules:

1. Draw object as realistically as possible

2. Draw object abstractly as many times as possible (quantity over quality, the more abstract the better) at least 15

3. Make 3 patterns out of your abstracted elements.

4. Post to blog

For next class:

Finish last 2 class’s work, continue on all brand elements up to date (colors, type faces, moodboards, statements)

Typography

Typography

More on InDesign:
http://design.tutsplus.com/series/beginners-guides-to-indesign–vector-4951

Typography Hierarchy Exercise (InDesign)

Set the below block of type on a 8.5 x 11 poster, using 6 different variations.

Tell a story–pick out elements based on importance to create a strong sense of hierarchy. It’s up to you to determine what the most important pieces of information are, and in what order of importance. If it helps, you can rank them using an number system (1- Lecture Title, 2-Date, etc.). Be clear with your hierarchal ranking, and avoid sizes or weights that are too similar to each other to stand out.

Export 6 JPEGs and post on your blog.

Rules:
#1 – one typeface, one size, one weight, one color, one alignment – different line and letter spacing may be used (consider order).
#2 – + one additional weight (bold, black, etc.)
#3 – + one additional size
#4 – + one additional alignment, one additional size (2 sizes total)
#5 – + one additional color, one additional typeface (2 typefaces total)
#6 – + one additional basic graphic element (line, circle, triangle, etc.)

Allowed Fonts:
Gotham
Univers
Bodoni
Akzidenz Grotesk
Baskerville
Franklin Gothic
Frutiger
Garamond
Sabon

Lev Manovich
Wednesday, March 6, 2015 6pm
Pratt GradComD Studios
123 W. 18th Street, Room 301
A lecture with new media theorist, artist, programmer, and author Lev Manovich.
Lev Manovich is a professor at CUNY Graduate Center and founder and director of Software Studies initiative.
His best known book is The Language of New Media, which has been widely reviewed and translated into eight languages. According to reviewers, the book offers “the first rigorous and far-reaching theorization on the subject” (CAA reviews); “it places [new media] within the most suggestive and broad ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan” (Telepolis).