Jed Micek: Process Documentation

Corporate Identity, Fall 2017

18 min readAug 31, 2017

Project 3: Museum Logo
Project 2: Olympic Bid Logo
Project 1: We Stand Together
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Project 5: Museum Identity system (bicycle heaven)

Oct, 26th

Read and respond:

The identity/logo re-design for Reon was a successful design in my opinion. First I think that the old logo was to casual looking for a telecommunications company. The new logo is simple and represents the company better.

One example that I think might be a step backwards is the science logo. First off, the old logo had a certain type of mystery to it that i think related to science successfully. The awkward shape, almost random placement of type and the slight gradien to show an illusive form all relates to science in my opinion. The new logo does none of these things. It has very straight forward typgraphy placed in side the sillhouette of a blue cube. Why blue? I’m not sure, but the black was working much better in my opinion.

One identity redesign that I think is very successful is the Louis public media. In this instance, the simplification of the design helps the recognition of the company while not having to stray to far from the previos logo. The colors are interesting, and they gives an easy way to have continuity throughout all future projects.

third drafts:

Second drafts:

First drafts/ideas:

Project 4: Restaurant Logo & Identity

Collateral brainstorm:

shaker bottle
sun glasses
keychain
stickers(for shaker bottles)
stickers (motivational quotes)
coupons
calander
cut off t-shirt
socks?
notebook(for weight lifters/yoga/diet schedule)
pre-workout/water bottle
hats(baseball or winter)
pens for taking notes at the gym
wrist band
athletic tape
duffle bag
stress ball?
post it notes
headband
candy

How:

4. Design the stickers and print them on the paper stock for stickers

7. This would be a lot of work but keeping track of ones routine is very important to this demographic of people and a calender would be a great way to remind a customer to come back.

8. I’m not sure if Iwould be able to do this here on campus, but I could always send my vector design to a company online and order some t-shirts, then cut them myself.

10. If Iwere to do this I wouldnt make the notebook myself but instead buy one and find a way to apply my logo to the cover. That could be difficult to do with good craftsmanship

15. I have no idea how i could get my designs onto atheltic tape however I have seen some far more complex designs on athletic tape before. If this is possible it would be a unique and effective way to expand this identity to the gym.

(nov 21)Read and respond:

I think this is a good example of a brand expanding its identity onto collateral items. I especially think that for this brand, the t-shirt, glasses, and coffee mug would appeal to the type of people this brand is reaching out towards. The colors along with the high exposure photographs and modern typeface all relate to the identity of this brand.

This is another great example of a creative way to expand an identity onto unique collateral pieces. This companies identity rests upon cute characters that make up the ingredients of most of the products in the store. For a collateral item, this designer had the idea to print out playful faces onto the coffee cups, this is a relatively cheap, yet effective way to expand the brand’s identity onto another object sold/or handed out by this company.

For a good example of digital collateral, I chose to look at Gary Vaynerchuk’s Instagram page. Gary Vee is an entrepreneur that also helps younger entrepreneurs get started. As part of his company “Vaynermedia” he puts out quotes on Instagram for free for people to look at and become inspired, although many of them are quite generic, some are quite personal and moving. he also leaves his logo on most of them and will respond to comments on Instagram regularly. This may seem crazy to some business owners, but today people want to feel connected to the companies they spend their money on, and Gary’s methods seem to be working quite well.

Crit response(november 14th):

What I heard: set in the reflection further from the edge/keep it simple. Maybe same distance from edge as thickness of outline. Outline thickness is good but could maybe be thicker. Make the circles on the logo image the same size as the O in dextrose. Try to play with substituting the O in dextrose with the logo image. For logo image, either keep it black or add a black outline. Spend time to clean up the fine details with logo type.

What i thought: I was suprised that the class liked the outline logo type. I think that the outline does visually help the logotype to look like one continuous shape instead of letters pushed together. Im not sure if I want to move forward with the hot pink/purple color or the baby blue/light pink.

What I’ll do: I’m going to play with the thickness of lines on my logo type. Also I will also play with the size of the logo image in relationship to the type. I will try to use the logo image as substitution in the logo type and see how that looks. Also I will clean up the details on my logotype. Finally I will decide on color.

Dextrose(restaurant) Identity system:

Third Drafts:

Identity system first draft:

Logo Color trials:

Logo Revision:

variations:

First drafts:

Sketches:

Project 3: Museum Logo

October 12th

Tag line Ideas:

Bicycle Heaven

Current Tag Line: “Worlds Largest Bicycle Museum & Shop.”

The Ultimate Bicycle Collection
The Ultimate collection
1 roof, 4000 bicycles
Find your dream bike
A Cyclist’s paradise
A Bicycle Paradise
Where bikes go when they die (favorite of class)
The Worlds largest bicycle collection
A Collection From Heaven” *(my favorite)
Browse, Rent, Fix, or buy!
A Divine Collection
A Better Place For Bikes

Crit Notes:

Make “heaven” thicker, slightly.
Try giving heaven a little more leading from Bicycle.
Color: try to replicate a metalic golden look and try to look into some sort of print trestment in metalic.
If not gold than warm yellow. And think about doing a varnish with the ricoh(laser printer).

Response to writing a tagline:

What does the company(bicycle heaven) want to say to their audience?

It is a 2 sided organization. On one side they work on, rent, and sell bikes. On the other side they are an opperational museum which is free of charge and relies on donations to keep the ligths on. The museum is a non-for-profit organization.
bicycle heaven started with one guy and one bike, now it is the largest bicycle museum in the world(according to the new york times) and they specialize in vintage and state of the art bicycles. They have almost any part or accesory that you could imagine.
They don’t want to be known as a corporate organization but rather a friendly place to visit if you are in Pittsburg.

What value and benefits does the company bring to their audience/clients?

They have more seletion than anywhere else in the world.
They arent trying to make money, being a non-for-profit people know that it is an honest company.

How are they different than others in the field?

non for profit organization!
largest colection of bicycles iin the world!
Personal with clients

september 28th

Crit notes:

Custom hand drawn typography is a good idea however not inside the logo due to readibility at small scale. I need to enlarge the type and use the logo as a smaller element above or below the type. Moving forward im gong to use the single-circle logo with multiple wings. Wbile exploring variations I will play around with thick and thins as well as layers to give depth to my logo.

Response to iphone x:

I have to admit, this article definitely swayed my opinion on the new iphone x design. Like many, my main criticism is that the notch destroys the balance of the screen once the phone is tilted, and I know for myself at least I tilt my phone sideways for videos quite a bit. However, the author of this article makes a good argument that apple needed to do something to set this new phone apart from many other(and acceptional) phones such as the samsung galaxy. Is the notch the right move? I’m not sure if it was the best way to set this phone apart from others, but one thing is for sure, it probably was the simplest way. And we all know apple likes to keep things simple. So overall, I suspect this notch will bother me forever deep down within. But publicly, I’ll find myself defending apple’s designers due to the underling reasons for the design.

The existing logo:

10/7/17

Project 2: olympic bid logo

October 12th

Crit Notes:

Decided to go with the design with “summer olympics” and “MMMXXII” stacked vertically, underneath the logo.
Increase the scale of “summer Olympics” and”MMMXXII” to help with readability.
Give them ^ some room to breathe. Increase leading.
Color isn’t completely working. Possibly successful on the type but definitely not on the logo image. Play with color un-till satisfied.
Add space around the entire lockup and find a new unit of measure.
Play with x-height on the H A and G.
For final, choose an appropiate scale (probably smaller than 4")
Lockup lines are .75 pt. stroke and 60% black

10/3/17

Reading Response:

In regards to skeuomorphism, I would have to agree with most designers and say that a logo should first be working successfully as a solid form, and then, if possible, skeuomorphism could be considered. Especially with the direction of digital design, logos are being used in smaller and smaller scales, so its neccesary to drop what is not essential to the design in hopes of faster recognition. It was interesting to hear the author’s thoughts on how computer icons were originally designed to imitate objects in real life, but now we dont need or want these icons to look so lifelike. I agree with him on that. In general, I think it takes a lot of expirience and digital craftsmanship to pull off a professional use of skeuomorphism. In short, if you’re not really really good at it, then don’t waste your time.

9/26/17

Response to crit:

What I Heard:

In general, the class felt that it was more successful to have the large type with a small logo opposed to the opposite. Bridgette thought that when type was conveniently squeezed into the bottom of the logo it started to resemble tweezers. To avoid this she recommended giving the logo something to stand on, helping the positive/negative silhouette of a building on a surface rather than a floating object. Most people like the roman numerals opposed to numbers. The building might appear more if the mountain took less negative space. Someone said I could try to use the logo as an ‘A’ like I did already, but enlarge it to represent a towering skyscraper. People liked the ‘chicago’ enclosed within a shape however it separates the type from the logo so it’s not working. keep going with the idea of steps.

What I think:

I think it would be helpful for the building to stand out a little more, the mountain is more dominant right now. I want to avoid the “tweezer” look at any cost. I don’t think many people would actually see tweezers however I agree that putting my logo on a ground surface of some sort will help with how fast a viewer will recognize the silhouettes. I agree that the enclosed ‘chicago’ is separate from the logo so I won’t pursue that idea. I think that the idea of steps both helps my design formally and relates to the city of Chicago.

What I’m going to do:

First, I will make the mountain take up less negative space in the logo so that the tower becomes more recognizable. Second, I need to decide what/how I will put my logo onto a ground surface. Most likely I will do some variations of steps. Lastly, I need to make a decision on typeface and scale.

Response to in class reading on color:

Most logo’s are only one or two colors primarly because logos are meant to be a quick, easy read. Im not saying that multi-colored logos can’t be a quick read(for example, google chrome) but generally the less color there is, the faster a logo will be recagnizable to the eye. This is especially true when a logo is presented in its smallest dimensions, where details are lost and the overall form and color are what sets it apart from its surroundings.
In regards to Chicago, the people there are considered hard working, and gritty people in general. They are very straight forward, and honest, yet proud. Chicago has an industrial history as well as a love for music(specifically jazz.) Also, Chicagos flag consists of light blue, white, and red starts. For these reasons I think I may go with a combinations of blues, or stay with black and white. Maybe I will add some highlight color to compliment the blues such as gold or red(for fire and the flag).

refernce: photograph of Willis Tower(former Sears tower)(icon of chicago)

Note: chicago is known as the first city to have skyscrapers and the people are proud of their industrial roots.

Whitney logo response:

When I started reading this article, my initial response to the logo was negative. However as I continued to read, I grew attracted to it’s versatility. As a single static logo, I would agree with some of the critics in the article who said it was “boring.” Once the designers started to use the “W” letterform in different configurations I realized that it was no longer just a logo, but now could develope into a full scale identity system.
A responsive design is a design that in some way shape or form is deppendant on the variables that the viewer(or user) can control. A huge benefit of using a responsive design in an identity system is that it has a more vast aray of applications and those applications could have a greater effect on potential viewers. The problem is, it can be hard to manage a design that is always changing one way or another. And, spreading a design to thin could cause it to loss its identity and influence.
I do think that the new design is boring, however I also think it’s very successful. My biggest critisism of the design is not how boring it is, I have a bigger problem with the fact that I feel like I’ve seen it before, maybe in american eagle or something? I don’t know, but it’s so open ended that it does lack a certain sense of originality. Luckly for this design team, I don’t think this will be a problem for the Whitney, as it is a big enough organization to spread is “open ended” identity successfully.

project 1: we stand together

9/5/17

Tuesday crit:

Of these three designs I would first scrap the middle design(image only) because I dont feel that it conveys the emotions im looking for as strongly as the spray paint does. For both the 1st and the 3rd compositions I actually spray painted the type in order to give the peice a more real feel to it. Also, the spray paint plays off of the idea of being real, honest, authentic with people as spray paint is used to convey messages that arent always politically correct or easily accepted. I think the 3rd design is the strongest.

Response to reading:

Back in highschool I remeber finding drawings that were impressive to me, trying my best to copy them, and then showing off these drawings to my friends. Although doing this for a few years had outstanding positive effects on my drawing skills, it had huge negetive effects on my ability to come up original compositions. And worse, I was never proud of my works. When I took drawing 1 in highschool my teacher explained to me over and over again that there is nothing impressive about copying a drawing, even if its a perfect copy. When I started to create my own drawings, they were terrible, but I got interested in design. I was creating works that couldnt exist without me, and that was something to be proud of. Moving forward, I have adopted my old highschool teachers opinions: if its not original, then its not art. The good news is that it doesnt take much to make an existing idea something new. I think designers in the near future will need to add their own person styles to logos to set them apart. every corporate logo may have already been designed but a person touch changes everything.

Over the weekend:

Crit Notes:

8/29/17

Chosen Theme: Honesty, integrity

synonyms: Candor, Sincerity, deep, real, Truthfulness, Impartiality, veracity, integrity, authentic, genuine, straightforward, transparency

antonyms: biased, prejudiced, corrupt, counterfeit, deceitful, sugar coated, political correct, partial, insincere, false identity, spam, surface level

idioms: “don’t sugar coat it” “give it to me straight” “be real with me”

quotes: “I would rather tell you a sour truth, than a sugar coated lie”

““There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”-soc.

“ Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

“ Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”

“honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom”-thomas jefferson

“ Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”

Further Reflection: Gary vee videos | Socratese quotes and “the republic” |

polotics vs buisness vs relationships? which one? all?| use a hand drawn type or a type that conveyes being genuine. | no filter |