Japanese Candy Boxes

I stopped by Man Lee's yesterday, which is an Asian food store at Terminal Park (there's another one by the woodgrove area). It carries a lot of interesting candies and I thought I'd compare these two that I bought to some of our better known candy :) I think one of the most interesting differences is flavor and variety. In Canada, things like Kit-Kat have flavors like dark, crunchy, white... and I think thats about it. In Japan, Kit-Kat could get a world record for flavors, some of the ones I've had include ramune, rose, green tea, apple, royal milk tea, sakura, sakura green tea, melon, gingerale etc. (http://inventorspot.com/articles/japan_kit_kat_chocolate_bars_5324) (http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/03/18/japans-strangest-kit-kat-flavors/) Besides Kit-Kat, many Japanese candies or chocolate bars come out with different flavors depending on the season and change by the year. If you miss one, you may never try it. This, in itself, is one of the best advertising schemes sadly underused in our culture.



For those who were unsure, this is PUMPKIN pocky. I had never tried it before, and who knows if I will again, but it was actually really good, surprisingly. About the package, I thought it definitely did the concept of pumpkin pocky justice. By using bold orange and green colors and the small pumpkins nestled by the corner of the label, it made it obvious what the flavor was. Pocky itself has a very distinctive logo, the baseline of the text following a subtle curve. I think it's important to note the inside wrapping of the pocky package. Unlike Canadian candy, the Japanese put a lot of effort on the appeal of the entire product and by not making the inside package silver it actually increases the experience. Floating pumpkins on a yellow ground really makes one think of autumn :) The little character of course appeals to the Japanese demographic specifically and probably would not be as effective in our culture.












This candy is called "Gummy Choco" (グミチョコ). It is small gummies encased in chocolate and, of course, you can get different flavors. The one pictured here is peach. The cases look fairly similar even if the flavor is changed. Obviously the fruits in the gummy changes along with the colour scheme, but that's usually it. If you buy strawberry however, the case can have Hello Kitty images. The cases themselves are cute and convenient (easy to open). Again, the little characters probably say more about the Japanese culture than ours ;) I especially like the little bit of squiggly writing to the right of the title (translation: From inside the chocolate comes punyo punyo gummies!). I think it adds to the fun of the design. Even the little character to the right of this saying is well placed, as it looks like he/she said it. The package overall is clear enough that there is no doubt left in a consumers mind as to what it is.

Harbour Air

After years and years of looking at this sign without a second glance, it somehow jumped out at me. I think it's because the "Charters and Cruises" font bothers me now. The handwriting font may look nice, but it really doesn't read well. Not to mention the stroke around the letter forms. It's harder to see but there is also a stroke around "Harbourside Adventures". I'm not sure why the designer thought it was necessary but I believe this sign would look fine, if not better, without it.
The best part of this sign is the dark blue strip along the bottom. It's simple and gets the message across very clearly. The use of the simple font and the icon on the right hand side help to make the clarity. I also like the shape of the design, it feels modern and friendly. I also really like that it is see-through, although I'm not sure that was the designer's choice or not.
Overall, its a nice design, despite the fact that some things bother me :)

The Crystal Goblet

Our task this week was to read an article called "The Crystal Goblet" by Beatrice Warde. In this article she discusses the importance of readable typography. She compares good typography to a crystal goblet and bad typography to a gold, jewel encrusted goblet. When it comes to book design, she believes type should only enhance the need to read the message and not be a distraction. However, this also means she disapproves of expressive type.

I think I am of two minds when it comes to this typographical argument.

I believe that yes, type can and should, in the right circumstances, be used as an expression filled element. However, I also believe there are times when this would only distract from the message. If one is advertising a high school dance or a children book it might be appropriate to use type in a fun way, however, if one was printing a brochure on the importance of not drinking and driving it may not be as appropriate. As a graphic designer, I believe it is important to know when and how to use type correctly. This will largely depend on the project at hand and the expectations of the client. In the case of most novels, I believe Beatrice has really hit the mark on its requirements. This is because, really truly, would anyone want to try to read a 500 page book set in Zapfino or Curlz MT, regardless of the content?

For my design I tried to convey my views. The headline was used to create contrast and interest in the composition. Being bold and a point of emphasis, I thought it was appropriate to use a more expressive type. However, on the body copy, I resolutely decided that this type of article called for a clear, concise presentation. Therefore, I focused on getting the quote's message across.

Hi Helvetica....

So there's this font called Helvetica...
.... and it's everywhere.




I thought I'd search for the said font on our home front. And, as I drive to school, one of the first things I noticed was the 'Pay Parking' sign in our lot. I think in the case of this sign, Helvetica actually works beautifully. There's nothing more neutral and uninteresting, albeit important, than a pay parking sign.
All genders, races and ages come to the VIU parking lot for either school or various events. This means it is important to appeal to everyone and yet no one, which seems to be exactly what Helvetica accomplishes here. It is also easily readable from a distance, which is another important aspect of this sign. The audience needs to clearly be able to identify the message from as close or as far away as they park. A simple bold font works best in this situation - all of which Helvetica is.
The actual Helvetica used was Helvetica Condensed Black, as we can tell from the shape of the "G". In regular Helvetica, it is more of a distinct circular shape.
It's interesting how much typography is ruining how I look at everything advertising. Has anyone else noticed seeing signs and thinking 'that kerning is awful...' or 'oh, they used Helvetica...'?

Futurism

This weeks assignment was to create a composition using, in my case, Futurism to represent a quote from a designer you admire (one also included in the Megg's Text).

I chose Andy Warhol because I have always enjoyed his works. There are many documented quotes from Warhol but I thought this one was really interesting. Although not directly related to design, it spoke to me.

"I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art".

I tried a variety of layouts and finally came to this. I tried to use only a few straight lines of text, including "land" because it is a sturdy word and I thought it would weaken it to tilt it. I varied the size of the letters of "ruining" so as to ruin the word itself. I also overlapped ruining on land to emphasize the function of it. I used a different font for beautiful because of society's perception of the word. Andy Warhol is in a circle to almost represent a flower or beautiful part of the un-ruined land. I also used the changing of colours over a shape or line I've seen used in the futurism style.

I think that about sums up my design for this week :)

New Efficient Lightbulb

This week our goal was to create a poster for an energy efficient light bulb designed in the style of William Morris and Peter Behrens. I created this poster keeping in mind the decorative style of William Morris' designs and the unusual shapes and sharp lines of Peter Behrens. Behrens house hold items design always seemed to have crazy designs and so I decided to change the shape of the light bulb to incorporate this look. I used the German for "New Efficient Lightbulb" and put the font in capitals so as to imitate the style at the time.

Done entirely in pencil.

Victorian Style

This week is the Victorian Era style Graphic Design. The Victorian Era was all about the fancy and decorative. Swirly, bold and drop shadowed letters were all are popular during this time. Decorative borders especially!











I chose this design from Nanaimo to represent the Victorian Era. Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember the hand pointing is similar to the style of the washroom signs from this era. Also the "Gates and Gifts" sign has flourishes on the letter forms and beautiful wrought iron decorations around it. Overall I thought these qualities were a close match to the Victorian style in the modern day.











This is my "Starbucks from the Victorian Era" design. I was trying to play off the Victorian painting styles with the way I drew the figure, but it turned out a little, okay a lot, more in my style. However, I am happy with the swirls around the logo - it just reminded me of something that would be on a Victorian logo. I did choose a serif font because in the Victorian era they used a mix of any fonts available and I assumed they would have serifs somewhere in their collections. Maybe it doesn't match perfectly, but I tried and it was fun :)

(Artwork done in pencil)