Gestalt Logo

The CBS logo uses the gestalt principle of closure to create an eyeball. CBS is a news station and the logo is representative of company's commitment to keeping an eye out for the latest news stories. The symbol can also have other symbolic meanings such as the all seeing eye. Although this may sound paranoid this logo makes me feel like i'm being watched. CBS has its eye on you!

The end is near: Esquire's e-ink paper

So Esquire's cover for their 75th anniversary has all sorts of flashing and moving words.

It blows my mind. How would you even lay out a page in InDesign for this?

Anyway, don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

Three newspaper redesigns this week

Three major newspapers had major redesigns unveiled this week.

Read about what Poynter Online's Visual Voice columnist Sara Quinn had to say about them.

Gestalt

The nfl logo shows the gestalt principal at the top of the logo. The white space is used to create the stars and the football. It is a very clear example of the principle because of how clearly the starts and the football are seen. The color choice is works because of how it mimics the american flag and football has become a clear symbol of America. 

Gestalt Logo

Here is the logo of visitnorway.com.

I think it works very well because the three color shapes create a human figure, while three of each represents the distinctive natural resources in Norway, to attract visitors. It best serves the company: visitnorway. 

The color choices are wise, since they are easy on the eyes, and gives the audience an impression of "green" in Norway.

Gestalt

This is my favorite Gestalt logo, the NBC logo. It uses the gestalt principle of closure because there is a peacocks body and head cut out from the color background of feathers.

Gestalt

The cotton logo represents the gestalt principle of figure/ground. In this case, the relationship between figure and ground is complex: the blue plant is a clear figure against the white cotton puff, which is in turn a clear figure against the blue background. The eye clearly differentiates an object against a background on both levels.

gestalt

This logo represents the gestalt principle of closure. the human figures with outstretched arms make the shape of a house. There is enough information present for the viewer to realize that a house is indirectly visible.

Gestalt Principle

This logo for the World Wildlife Fund is an example of the Gestalt Principle of closure. The black and white shapes create the image of a panda without using lines to achieve it. The white shapes of the the panda's head are not closed, but the viewer's eye automatically completes the outline of the bear. I think this logo is very effective as there is no confusion surrounding what the image is - it is obvious. I also really like the simplicity of this logo.

Gestalt Principle

This logo displays the Gestalt Principle of Symmetry.  It is very clear to see that if we place a line down the middle of the logo, either horizontally or vertically, the image will be the exact same on either said.  Target is the fifth largest retailer in the United States, so it is no surprise that this logo is seen by millions daily.  It is an extremely recognizable logo and the symmetry of it makes it that much more appealing.  The principle of Symmetry describes the instance where the entire figure is perceived rather than individual parts that makes up the figure/logo.

Gestalt Principal

The Coca-Cola logo is a perfect example of the Gestalt Principle of continuation. Continuation means that the logo has certain aspects that lead the reader's eye all the way through the logo. The script font used in the logo allows for the Cs to be extended purposely to lead the reader's eye all the way through the logo. It has obviously worked out for Coca-Cola, as they have one of the most recognized logos in the world. 

Gestalt Principle

I think that the Major League Baseball logo is a good representation of the gestalt principle of Closure. Even though the image does not cut off to close, it is clear to the viewer that the image is supposed to be of a baseball player. Enough white space is left in the blue and red that the viewer can still define a symbol. It viewer's perception still creates closer, even though it is not present in the actual design. 

This image represents the gestalt principle of continuity. The font is all the same except "amazon" is bold. The eye is directed from the a to the z and the line also forms to make a smile. I think this is a very effective way to carry the eye from one letter to the next and to also have the name stand out more than the ".com". There is nothing extraordinary about the typeface but I think the simplicity of it really does elicit a positive image for the company. 

Gestalt Principles- Figure Ground Relationship

The FedEx logo demonstrates the Gestalt Principle of Figure Ground Relationship. The eye first recognizes the letters as figure, but soon realizes that the EX forms an arrow, a new figure. There is an ambiguity between the figure and the ground relationship because the background is white, the letters (figures) are color and the arrow formed  is also white like the background. 

Gestalt: Color

This brand uses the gestalt principle of color.  The brand name is written in light blue and brown and they brought these colors into the smooth curve they drew to complete the logo.  The colors mirror each other and give the two elements, text and image, a sense of unity and oneness. 

I think this logo works really well mainly because of the mirroring of color.  It is abstract, yet understandable because of the use of color

Symmetry

The McDonalds "golden arch" represents the gestalt principle of symmetry. Both arches are exactly the same in dimension and color, creating an interesting image. Symmetry creates simplicity, a characteristic very easy on the audiences' eyes. Clearly this logo has proved effective. The "golden arch" is one of the most well-known logos in the world. Almost every American thinks of McDonalds when they see the arch. 

Gestalt Principles

This example illustrates the gestalt principle of figure-ground. The foot print logo for GNOME can either be interpreted for the obvious, as a footprint, or as a G for GNOME. When I first looked at this logo I could only see the footprint and I was completely confused as to why it was even an example of figure ground. After letting the image set in, it hit me, and I though it was a nice idea. It worked out well for the company because I do not think there are too many other letters that can form into a foot print or the letter G.

Week 5 - Gestalt Principles

This is the new trademark that the Coca-Cola company in Brazil uses for entertainment purposes. It is called "Coke Leafs" and it clearly represents the Gestalt principle of closure. The two black leaves create an outline of the signature coca cola bottle, however they do not form the complete outline. Instead the trademark allows the eye (audience) to complete the outline of the bottle. I think that the design is very clever. When I first saw the the trademark, I immediately thought of the Coca-Cola bottle. However, I think that it would be much more recognizable if the leaves were red.

Resume

Sorry this is late!

Basically I wanted to create a really minimalist, clean design that looked young, modern and casual, but still expressed some level of sophistication and confidence.  To that end, I left a LOT of white space and kept the design very linear.  

I also chose very young, modern fonts: the body font is Cronos Pro, a sans serif with relatively small ascenders and descenders; and the wordmark font is Parisian, a sans serif with unusual counters and a big difference between the thick and thin strokes.  I also chose to use lowercase letters throughout - I think it's sort of daring to use all lowercase in a resume, and it doesn't detract from readability.

Finallyyy, my audience is someone in the HR department at a magazine.  That's very vague, but it's only September.  I did use this resume at the career fair...!

Chicago Tribune redesign

The Chicago Tribune is launching a new, redesigned newspaper starting Monday.

It's definitely a bit wilder than before.

Take a look at an interview with the editors:



Click on the picture to see the video.

Magazine cover design

If you're interested in magazine cover design, here's a link to the finalists for a cover design contest. There's some pretty interesting designs going on here.

2nd Posting- Resume

Sorry for the late post

Sorry for the late post, my computer crashed this weekend and I just got it back. This is one of my drafts because I lost my final resume when my harddrive died. Really the only difference is that the color looks better on my final one.

Anyway, here is my resume. I wanted something simple and clean that would be versatile in any industry. I am considering fashion communications, so I chose to use Bodoni, the fashion font, as my word mark and header fonts. With my wordmark, I was originally going to play off that my name is a perfect 6, but instead I did my first name in all caps, and my last name in lower case and then enlarged that font to be the same size as the upper case. Then a connected the B and h and continued the line down so everything looks fluid. I used the red and the drop shadow purely for emphasis. For the body I used helvetica, because I wanted to contrast a serif with a sans-serif. 

I'm definitely going to take the criticisms that my group gave me and apply them for the re-do, so any opinions would be really helpful. Thanks!

resume

First off my scann of my resume did not turn out as well as it should have because I have a terrible scanner but the what you can't see if the font. I used futura condensed  for the body text and future medium for the headers. I wanted to keep the resume simple yet still incorperate aspects of my personality. Theeye cathing power of the red and orange is something that I really relate to. I still want to work with the margins and some of the spacing, but i think for a first draft it accomplished everyhting I wanted to. It is easily faxable and still looks effective in black and white as well as color. The color does not take over.

 

My resume

I wanted my resume to have a very formal and professional look to it, but still have it be unique so that it stands out from the crowd. That's why I opted to use the boxes and the colors. Another thing that is a little different about it is I put the section headings on the left side instead of the right to make it a little less cluttered.  

If there was one thing I could've done better, it would probably be my word mark. Although it's not real boring, I think I could've done more with it to make it stand out better. 

Resume

For my resume, I knew that I wanted my name to be large and graphic, so I chose to do it in all caps and used the sans serif typeface, Flyer.  I decided to make a sort of border going down the left side of the page to add visual interest and show creativity.  I made the some of the vertical lines a lighter purple because I thought it would lead the eye downwards, and then tried to echo this in the 'L's and 'I's in my name, and with a purple line at each header.

Resume

I wanted a really clean look for my resume, and I knew I wanted big, bold letters for my last name so it would stand out.  I chose Goudy because it fit both the big look i wanted, but also had a beautiful serif style.  For my first name, I wanted a more feminine typeface that wouldn't stand out more than my last name, and I found Nuptial to be beautiful, and fit what I needed it to do.

This resume is meant to go out to advertising agencies as well as possibly marketing agencies.

Resume

The idea of putting my name vertically and naturally divide my content came from the fact that my name does not have any descenders and the first letter of my first and last name have ascenders. I chose to use Bauhaus family as my headings and wordmark font because it seemed modern and clean, and very simple.

I used Book Antiqua as my body text font, since it is very easy to read, and have medium x-heights.

I didn't use color at first, and thought my name did not stand out as much as they should, so I applied red and black, both in transparency, in my resume.

Kerry's Resume

For my resume I wanted to do something with my word mark where one of the letters extended across or down the page. I chose to extend the Z becuase it allowed me to set the rest of my last name in a nice little alcove. For the rest of my resume i wanted to keep it simple and to the point. Although you can not see it here, I printed on a parchment type paper which contrasted nicely with the orange in my word mark. There are a few corrections which need to be made such as romoving "contact information," Ny to NY, and if anyone reading this as any suggestions i would caertainly appreciate it.

My resume follows the basic format but still reveals some creativity which I think describes my personality well. I decided against colors because I did not find any colors that really enhanced the overall look of the resume. My wordmark attempts to condense my parallel name, while still organizing the paper to lead the eye down. The star on the "i" is continued in each of my headers which are positioned sideways. I decided to use smaller font for the body of the resume because I do have a lot of information and I did want white-space because I think people can feel bombarded from too many words on a page. My resume is still a work in progress, but I am happy with the improvement since this class!

Resume

Here is my resume. Most of you saw it in class, but I decided to make my resume professional looking. I am not sure where my future job will be yet, so I wanted to keep it traditional. However, I did add in some color to create a little bit of excitement. I used one typeface family, ITC Veljovic Std. This family allowed me to create many variations that worked throughout the project. 

Resume JPG

My main objective was to keep my resume simple and restrained. I am most likely going to pursue a business career over a communications career, thus I felt it necessary to use a simple typeface and no color. I tried to mirror this aesthetic by creating a traditional layout for the body. 

Austin's Gangsta Resume

Here is my resume. I kept it clean cut and simple because I know that's my future employer's style. Feel free to comment, any advice would be much appreciated.

resume

Design Strategy:
My strategy was to choose a bold wordmark and an easily readable body text. The wordmark catches the eye, and the red dots lead the eye downwards toward the text. I chose a wide left margin in order for the paper not to seem overcrowded and give the wordmark the major focus.

Week 4- Wordmark & Resume Project Post

For my Resume, I wanted to show that I am creative and fun type of person and in doing that I thought adding some color was a good idea.  I think because of the way I set it up, no more color should have been added. Although I wanted it to look fun, I still wanted it to look professional.  When applying for jobs, I am looking for work that is more on the creative side so I think the creativity in my resume is a positive thing and works well with the audience that I want to satisfy. For both parts of the resume, I wanted a typeface with counters that really stood out and "Nueva std" and "Goudy Old Style" satisfied these needs. The reason I did was I think it shows the amount of creativity that I was a workplace to see.  I chose to use red as an accent because I think it really makes my name stand out and isn’t hard to read. 

Week 4 - Project Post

This is my resume. I wanted it to be simple, yet distinctive - kind of like an advertisement, considering that my audience will be an ad agency. I chose a modern san serif type, Bauhaus Std. Light for my wordmark, headers and contact information. I used a vibrant pink color because 1. it is my favorite color 2. it describes my outgoing personality and 3. it attracts the eye. I chose to use a gradient in my wordmark to help guide the eye through the body of the resume. I also used Glypha LT Std. for the context, to complement my wordmark and continue my theme of simplicity and creativity. Sooo...

what do you guys think? 

Awful Type

This is an example of ugly type, in my opinion. Usually graphics aids in exciting a certain feeling or emotion. A party club, for example, should display text that exudes excitement for the person viewing it. The very simple color depth and choice of black and red, make this type look very mundane, in my opinion. The straight rotation of the letters and simplicity in shape also led me to be less than impressed with it. There are serifs in the word, "life" and none in the word "partyclub" underneath it. In my opinion, various other typefaces could have produced a less ordinary display for the company to produce interest in the consumer. Furthermore, the dot on the "i" could have easily been made to display something that goes along with a party club, for example a crystal ball object in its place, could at least have given my eye something to make clear its an exciting nightclub. 

Type lecture

In case you're looking for Tuesday's (Monday for the military class) lecture on type, I've provided it here for you to download.

Click here for the PDF presentation.

Wasim's Monday office hours

Because of a scheduling conflict, my office hours on Monday will be from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m.

Tuesday will be the usual 11 a.m. to noon.

And as always, if those hours don't work, you can always make an appointment.

A reminder: Résumé projects are due on Thursday.

Awful Type

Hot mess on the corner of Marshall and University:

I was walking with a friend when I saw this... my friend thought it was "artsy" and "original." I thought... if a six-year-old drew it, sure.

Technically the writing here isn't type at all, I don't think (?), and for very good reason. The text is really sloppy and sort of self-righteously hideous, like "we hipster kids are so cool, we can break the most fundamental rules of graphic decency." That extends beyond the type - the poster design is pretty bad, too. Note the inconsistency in the capitalization of words... or the fact that the words are just floating aimlessly in the middle of the page.

Artsy and original? I don't really get it, but okay.

Bad Type

This apparently is an appliance brand of some sort, probably in Europe. It's supposed to say Fuchsware, but with the font they use it's nearly unreadable. 

Some of the letters are indistinguishable, most notably the F. It also seems that some of the letters are written in script while the others aren't which is really ugly.  The strike through the letters makes it even more difficult to read. 

The really bad type even makes it appear that the "Fuchs" is another word that isn't so appropriate which can't be good for business. Whoever is responsible for this probably isn't employed anymore. 

Awful Type

This logo does not work because the type is so unreadable. The first word is a poor font to begin with but combined with the elaborate "M" from the second word it becomes completely undecipherable. I am assuming this is some kind of a surf or water sports shop and they wanted to incorporate water and waves into their logo but the method and style they used is not effective.

Augie's challenge

The typeface is benguiat bold I believe

Awful Type

The batteries in my camera were dead, so I had to take a picture of this ad with my Macbook camera. Even though it's backwards, you'll still be able to see it. 

This is an ad for a 100 Calorie Pack snack. The font is not illegible or anything like that, but it is a simple verenda font that you can use on any Microsoft Word document. It makes the ad extremely boring and unappealing to the reader. I was just flipping through Cosmo, looking at all the fonts used and this page just took me by surprise. The fact that this was more than likely designed by Nestle's graphic designer, and that someone in that position should have a wide variety of fonts at their disposal. All in all, this isn't necessarily an awful type, but the way the graphic designer used it makes it a poor choice. 

Type Challenge: Augies

Here's a shot of Augies - a restaurant on Marshall Street.


(Click on the picture to enlarge it)

Your extra challenge this week is to identify the font used in the main sign for the store.

There's a prize in it next week for the first person to get it right. Here's a hint: You will have to dive deep into the Suitcase fonts to find it.

Post your answers as a comment to this entry.

Happy hunting!

AWFUL TYPE

I think that the type of the letter “B” here is really awful! It takes a lot of time to attempt to decipher the fact that the letter is a “B”. The rest of the words are easy to understand and read, but the “B” just looks like a ribbon or something, and I feel that the only way one would know the lettering is if they are familiar with the department store. I understand that the company is trying to be original or creative in changing the typeface of the “B” but what good is that if no one can read the name of your store? The color here is very eye-catching because it is a warm color, but in order to make it better and more readable I would suggest that the company choose a different font, perhaps a script, in order to retain the desired feel.

Feeling Wilkes

Stephen Wilkes is all about feelings.

He said that Ellis Island instantly made him "feel" something special once he stepped his feet on. "Photographers need to feel the souls," he said during the lecture, "To feel things, human energy, people. The best photos are the ones that have that power so that the voices come through the work."

Stephen Wilkes is all about lights, color, and...passion.

He hold a passion for people, for distinguish angles, for colors, for natural lights. Through his work in China, and on Ellis Island, the stories were being told through the images. "As photographer," he said, "The act of discovery is sometimes the light on the table."

Stephen Wilkes is all about seeing life through vantage points.

"Where you are in life is so special," he said. "sometimes hunt clouds the mind." Go out and shoot, and wait for a little bit. Things will reveal themselves to you.

A packed Rm 101 in Newhouse may say something about Wilkes, but his images told his stories, revealing who he is as a photographer and as a person.

Aweful type

The type in the poster does not work well together because
1) the leading between the lines are diminished, so that two lines are stick together, the words are hard to read.
2) the shadow added in some letters increase the inability to read the words and to distinguish words from words.

Stephen Wilkes

A1 was absolutely packed by the time I got there, so I found a free six inches of space on the floor with the intention of leaving after twenty or thirty minutes. Instead, I spent a full hour and a half straining to see the pictures on the screen and awkwardly rubbing against the total strangers squashed into the space beside me.

If that doesn't speak volumes about the power of Wilkes' work, I don't know what does.

Wilkes really IS all he was cracked up to be. I was particularly moved by his photographs from Ellis Island. The colors were absolutely unbelievable - the longer exposure added so much depth and brillance. Some of them were actually rather surreal in that sense; the color was so bright and pure as to be otherworldly.

Wilkes did occasionally wax ridiculous with his talk of "strange feelings" and ghosts, but there was a very strong, distinctly human mood in his architectural photos - I had to give him that. He has an incredible ability to capture feeling. The Ellis Island photos were particularly powerful, I think, because that feeling was so overwhelmingly tragic.

The China photos were, I thought, more unsettling than anything. Wilkes' portrayed China - both visually and verbally - as a speeding monolith on the verge of global domination. His factory photographs showed uniformed, uniform workers at state-of-the-art machines. He frequently spoke of China in terms of the "collective." It was certainly fascinating, but I didn't feel the same communion with the China photos as I did with the Ellis Island ones. Obviously they were all incredible, but the first set was my personal favorite.

I hope he has a show at Syracuse some time... I'd definitely recommend seeing it.

Stephen Wilkes

So, I thought that the Stephen Wilkes presentation was pretty amazing. His photography was outstanding and his stories that corresponded to each shot were really interesting. When he was speaking about his Ellis Island adventure, I found it interesting that he only shot when he was "welcomed" in the rooms. I can't imagine what kind of experience that must have been ... feeling the presence of the past inhabitants. I also think that it is really awesome that he has travelled all around the world and been fortunate enough to learn about different cultures. His China photos are particularly special because they show the countries change/improvements over the years. I never thought about how "fast" the country was growing and how much more advanced they are than the United States. Stephen Wilkes (both him and his photography) definitely made me consider the differences between the east and the west and also the possible results of those differences. From all of his photos, my favorite would have to be the sunset over the Pacific Ocean (the one where the sun was a bright yellowish-red) or the Ellis Island photo of the sink, mirror, and reflection of the Statue of Liberty. But...they were all amazing- each possessing different qualities.

Awful Type

I found this interesting typography while searching the web. While it is eye catching and seems intriguing, I have no idea what it actually says. Most of the letters are not readable, which could be a huge problem is someone ever used this type for an advertisement or anything that people will have to read. It also seems that most of the letters connect and flow into each other. It is hard to tell if one shape in this image is supposed to represent two different letters. For example, the second shape seems to resemble an "i" and an "r." The only thing that could possibly help this poor typography is separating the letters so they are at least more visible.

Awful Type

Can you see it???

I found this type in Phil'sFonts in the "2Rebels" designs.  I couldn't see any of the typeface in the smaller preview, so I clicked on it in order to see the blown up version, and could only slightly see the "light" version.  As for the regular and bold weights, they are also extremely hard to see, let alone read.  The idea behind this typeface is interesting as it uses small circles (bubbles) to form each letter.  The designer most likely wanted a very light and airy look to the font, but it would have been better executed had the lines around each bubble been more defined.  I can't imagine using this typeface for anything because it is so illegible.

Uh Oh Awful Type

Publish Post

ok this is really obvious as to why it is so bad. ALthough the font its self is fitting to the audience, it is very youthful, the positioning of the words is cause for a cringe. It would have worked it the colors of each word were different as apposed to  each letter. This would allow the eye to distinguish the individual words much faster.  A small graphic or punctuation could have also been used to seperate the words. It was just not a smart choice by the designer to put the two words so close together. Despite the placement the colors and the font are very appropriate . They express a youthful feel. It was just executed poorly.

Weak Type Face Mixed With Ugly Colors

I was browsing the inter web and stumbled upon this poster for a band.  After trying to decipher what the poster was trying to say for about 5 minutes i decided to give up.  Although the poster did grab my attention the bright color scheme made my brain hurt.  It seems as if the band did not really care if people could actually read their poster and just wanted to grab people's attention in anyway possible.  It reminds me of a maze that you would attempt when you were a kid and then give up on after 10 seconds.  On the bright side, if you blur your eyes and look at this image it is more interesting than looking at static on a TV.   

Awful tpye...

Although this may seem inappropriate, look again. MEGA FLICKS, a video store, chose a terrible type face for their store front sign. I think in this case anything else but this type would have worked. I don't think there is anything else to say about what they could have done...it is just bad, but funny.