Final Acme Products

And here's the final pieces. I took existing bottle shapes, sprayed them white (the black top references the black eye mask of an undercover agent) and stuck printed labels on the outside.

Feedback from the final presentation:

Addition of different colors for different products within the brand could make the overall appeal more interesting.

Suggest 'breaking the picture plane' by taking some of the bubbles outside of the label shapes.

Cover the bottles in ways other than the norm, i.e. come up with other ways to cover the bottle.

Enjoyed the black highlighting of the product name and the slightly off white bottle color to contrast against the generic white of most store bought brands.

Beginning ideas for conference artifacts

Thinking about the environment that people will be a part of at this event here's a few possible artifacts looking at colors, fonts, graphics: a t-shirt, a web ad and a directional sign.

The flow of people at our conference

Who do we want to come to the conference?

Speakers (educators), designers and design students (small number - 80 attendees, 4 speakers, exclusive event)

What are the activities?

Lectures on experimenting with type, communication with type, communication history, modern communication and perceptions etc

What type of interactions do we want people to have?
- Personal Personal space for reflection, study, experimenting
- People to people Group experiments, collaboration, sharing, critique, living together, eating
- People to speaker Recorded messages, live lecture (small class/big class), sign up for one on one with speaker (big conferences can be so impersonal)
- People to environment outside reflection, small classrooms, large lecture hall, living together on site, outside lectures, art room

Conference Timeline and Concept Map II

Here's an updated version. I have really enjoyed this project - the task of finding a way to represent various levels of information on one piece, in a way that is palpable to a design team.

New Conference Title and Description

Luke and I have met and revised our language, written a new theme description and given the event a new name:

ArtType

Experiement - Learn - Create

Does advertising have to be mere type on a page making messages that we instantly understand or can it be abstract, have multiple meanings and have greater impact and aesthetic quality? ArtType is a one of a kind Type Expo in the mountains, a get away experience where you can retreat, unwind and explore the wonderful world of experimental typography away from the business and clutter of the norm. Join professionals and amateurs, get outside and be inspired for four days of play, instruction and making of beautiful letterforms that speak volumes.

The conference will address four levels of interaction:

1. People and the environment - they will spend time on their own outside drawing from nature and being inspired in the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the mountains. They will have instruction while out there. They may only take analogue methods of recording information.

2. People by themselves

They will get to spend time outside away from cell phones, laptops and noise. Being on their own will stir up all kinds of craziness.

4. People and conference speakers - the delegates will interact with the speakers by listening to their recorded messages on mp3 or tape. They will listen to the messages and make notes in a specially printed journal.

3. People and other conference delegates

They will bring their meditations, creative ideas and thoughts back to a small group where each group will be chaired by a facilitator. There they will share ideas and do experiments. At various points in the conference, groups will switch up and there will be main events where facilitators will share learned experiences and practical examples of work.

CONFERENCE WARNING:

This event is not passive participation. Be aware that you will play a very active role.

ARTIFACT MAKING

This conference will use all recycled material. There will be minimal printed matter.

ANALOGUE V. DIGITAL

There will be a lot of analogue details and work. How do we bring that together into the digital presentation and collating.

Type Conference Timeline

This timeline incorporates a few months run up to the event top left, the four day conference on the right and a concept map of the conference to the bottom. All white spaces allow for handwriting on more elements.

Finishing touches and colors

These three designs are all the same color label and bottle. The grey is cool and the blue is too. Very bathroomey.

This sandy color does lend itself to the organic/green style.
The green even more so, but I'm not sure about the color green for the bathroom. It doesn't seem as fresh as blue. Actually, I lie. I think the green is a winner for the organic feel and for the clean, cool, fresh feel. It really does look nice on the beige bottle too.

Orange and red is nice but not as nice as blue and green.

This grey and green is nice. It has that organic/upper class feel.

Final label (maybe)

Here's a nice version that really emphasizes the words 'Tile Cleaner'. I think the logo looks better in solid too.

Some labels

Spring break design field trip

Sixteen of us from the Graphic Design department went on a four day trip to Boulder and Denver, Colorado to visit CP&B, Vermillion, Moxie Sozo, Ink Lounge and Matter plus a cooperative critique with 7 students and faculty from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. It was an inspirational and fun visit. Here are a few snaps:

First stop - Crispin Porter and Bogusky, a design firm whose employees work around the clock all the time - work is very much a lifestyle for them. They are very creative and have a wonderful space. They grew from 50 employees to 600 in just two years! They do work for many major brands such as Burger King, Coke Zero and Microsoft.

Their space is basically a huge boring looking warehouse on the outside, in the middle of an industrial estate, but on the inside, very cool. Lots of different spaces to be inspired in.

Vermillion was our next stop. A much much smaller firm in Boulder, about 15 employees. One of their managers who spoke to us used to work in the big firms, Pentagram for example and have as many as 100 people under her. Vermillion is now sort of the end of the line for her, a quiet design firm, still doing very solid work of course. They do a lot of the advertising for Izze so, free drinks all round!

Moxie Sozo is about the same size as Vermillion. Quality work, small business, very creative people, quite brilliant I think at what they do.

Some of the crew: from left to right - Dmitri Kozlov, Luke Babb, Andrea Morris, Sean Shockley, Lance Flores and Abby Gallagher.

Ninety percent of Ink Lounge's work is run of the mill design for small businesses around the Denver area. More importantly is the ten percent they keep under wraps: some amazing screen printing of very individual design work.

We spent a few hours with some RMCAD students in the loft of Michael McCoy in downtown Denver. It was good to give and hear feedback in a place other than our own studio. It was also good to be around Michael and his work and work by the other students too. This is Sean presenting his environmental type project.

The last place we saw was Matter. A very cool letterpress studio in Denver. The manager Rick is hilarious. He is a very learned man. Has an amazing library and extensive knowledge in print. He's also from England which makes him even cooler!

Conference Timeline and Concept Map

The concept map for the proposed Type Conference continues to evolve and change as I move forward in this exploration process.

The timeline (shown below) shows the period before the conference across the top, the conference week down the right hand side and after the conference running back along the bottom. This, like the concept map, will change more as we go along but for now, I think it's working, as a way to present all the relevant time sensitive information.

Type Conference deliberations + revised bio

We live in an image saturated world where pictures are worth more than words, text is read less and less by the generations coming up underneath us. One thing that doesn't change is our desire to communicate. We still have many things to say. Are there other ways to say them and what does the future look like for designers who are using type? ________ is a four day get away in the heart of the Apalacian Mountains. We will explore areas of new technology related to type design, issues of legibility, current perceptions and demographics. Professional typographers, designers and researchers will offer expertise in type education, history, and the use of type as image both now and then. The future of type is in your hands. You are the next communicators. Experiment, play and network with like minded thinkers and designers and inspire yourself to communicate in a whole new way.

As a designer, would you pay money to attend this conference? Why or why not?

Yes. Now that the theme is a little more broad and exciting. I think a catchy name and an explanation in a tag line would help.

Does the theme invite multiple interpretations and an interesting range of possible talks, workshops etc?

Yes, the conference content is broad enough to attract a range of professionals. It is also open enough to allow for many possible outcomes, i.e. there's not a single, final outcome, it feels more like a round table event.

Is the theme suitable for contemporary and forward looking design practice?

Having a place to experiment and 'play' will be a central theme of the conference. With that in mind and the roundtable idea will allow for the forward, future, advancements in typographic design to happen.

What could improve the theme?

We have developed a list of subjects to be covered in the conference which will help us develop the theme: legibility, new technology, type education, current perceptions, type and image, experimentation, and type history.

Theme/Title ideas

Future Typographers

Exploring Typography

Type Matters

Compose

Future Communicators

UpperCase

Future Type - Explorations in Legibility and Perception

Type Design - Beauty and Functionality

Keywords for subtext:

Future, culture, innovate, create, speak, type, breaking tradition, movement, forward, pioneer, perceive.

Possible conference names and tag lines:

TYPE MATTERS

Explorations in Perception and Legibility

UPPERCASE
Pushing Typographic Legibility and Perception

Revised Bio for main speaker - Phil Baines

Phil is a British typographer currently working in England. He began not as a designer but as a catholic priest at Urshaw College in Durham. After his time studying Phil turned unexpectedly to graphic design. He graduated from St. Martin's School of Art in 1985 and two years later from the Royal College of Art in London.

Since completing his studies Phil has been a freelance graphic designer doing everything from print work for small publishers and art organizations to type sequences for TV commercials. Phil's work is characterized by very technical detail. He has completed editorial designs for clients such as Goethe-Institut - London, Matt's Gallery and Phaidon Press. He also teaches typography on the BA Honors graphic design course at St. Martins.

More recently in the late 90s, Phil has been assisted by several alumni from St. Martins to take on larger commissioned projects. One of his better known projects is the design of a type face called You Can Read Me for Fuse, a design magazine by Neville Brody. Phil is the author of two books Type & Typography with Andrew Haslam and Signs: Lettering in the Environment with Catherine Dixon. Phil will bring an extensive amount of typographic knowledge to ________. We are very excited that he is joining us.

Further mockups for Acme

Here's some mock layouts using the new logo. I think it's beginning to look persuasive!

Acme logo change

The bottom logo of the three sketched ones actually fits better with the theme of the undercover cleaning agent...

Here it is in vector format:

Design mock ups for Acme Cleaning product

Some initial wireframes over sketches.

Illustrator mockup.

This is the other logo. Not sure how readable it is though.

Tighter with added dimension and labeling.

Front and back. It definitely has that undercover/agent feel but it's still lacking something.

Here's a variation on that theme using a single color.
Changing the color.

Using that color on the other logo. Not as strong. I wonder if the logo is really definitely working yet? Maybe looking at another option might help.

Conference Theme

Luke and I are going to work together. For real. Here's our conference theme, first shot

COMMUNICATING WITH TYPE
We have much to say in our world. The internet is full of text to read, newspapers are becoming obsolete, digital communication is changing right before our eyes. How effectively are we communicating today? Are people really reading what we write? Are there new ways to capture peoples attention with type in our over saturated, fast-paced world that will still be meaningful and get results?

Spend three days on a retreat with some of the best minds in design, multi-media and communications and hear how type can speak in ways that you never thought possible. Try workshops in type design experimentation, hear mind blowing stats from professional psychologists and researchers in the field of communications and get inspired in your own type design and image making.

Other Bathroom Cleaning Products and Inspiration

Some interesting design links:

Seventh Generation

Method

Meyer's

Conference Discussions

the effectiveness of communication
media in the 21st century
are we communicating?

Tasty markup

Hmmm, a good bit of marking up of a web page doesn't go amiss for the programmers to read from! They will find this really helpful in making my webpage.