OUGD403 STUDIO BRIEF 1 - RESEARCH

To help me with this project I thought I'd do a bit of research into existing fonts, such as social media, social organisations, club logos, students unions and also festival logos, to give me an idea of the kind of thing that's already out there, which I should consider when designing my own font.

The logo for Behance is a sans-serif and very simplistic, kind of Helvetica and Futura style. It is very easy to read, and is bold also making it stand out.

Facebook has recently had a regeneration of it's logo, from a shadow style previously to the end of the "F" touching the bottom of the blue box. This makes it look a lot more modern and not as outdated. It is also a lot more simplistic due to the removal of the shadow, so is easier to recognise and less complicated unnecessarily. The type version of the logo is, the same as Behance, a sans-serif typeface, making it easy to read, uncomplicated and simple. It also uses lowercase letters to increase the simplicity further, and so is more recognised as a logo.

Similarly to Facebook, Instagram has also undergone a logo redevelopment, making it more legible but still keeping in style with the original handwriting style font as previously. This being a very rounded, script style typeface is unusual for social media logos, as most of them that I have found all adopt the sans-serif, modernist, bold appearance, but Instagram being a more artistic social media platform, this script style typeface works well.

The Myspace logo has also gone under redevelopment recently, with the top logo being the most recent logo for the social media giant. They have changed typefaces to a more angular, less rounded typeface, which makes the logo appear more up to date and modern, rather than falling back in time. This was part of a massive new redevelopment of the company hosted by Justin Timberlake in 2013, to compete with other social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook.

The Pinterest logo is similar to that of Instagram, also being very artistic, and adopting a script typeface for their logo. I find the curl on the top of the "T", how it joins to the "S" before it, really interesting and unique, and is something I haven't noticed before looking into social media typefaces. This adds a unique twist to the logo, making it more than just a typeface.

Tumblr has been the exception in the artistic social media logos, as is a serif typeface that is also blocky and bold, and looks more similar to those logos of Facebook and Myspace than of Pinterest and Instagram.

Twitter has taken an unusual approach to it's logo, being very unique in choosing a rounded typeface that is so simplistic, and almost just made out of curly lines. It also uses no capital letters, adding to it's simplicity.

Researching social media logos has helped me to understand more so the different kinds of logos that are out there, how some are more legible than others, and some don't use capital letters. I was also surprised how the typeface on many social media logos is very similar, using modern, Helvetica style typefaces, which is very simplistic, but perhaps that's what is "in" these days.

I also researched a few other logo's to do with socialising, as social media isn't the only way of communicating and interacting with others.

Amnesty International has a very simplistic logo that is bold and eye catching, as it aims to grab the attention of people. Again it is a sans-serif typeface, and unlike social media logos it uses all capital letters, as it has to grab people's attention and is almost shouting at people to pay attention and help. 

Anti-Slavery takes an opposite approach to Amnesty International and uses all lower case lettering instead of all upper case. This could perhaps draw people in by seeming kind possibly, which is an interesting idea.

I really like the typeface used on the festival BoomTown logo. It's kind of a slab serif and looks like something you'd find advertising a circus. This is appropriate as it's for a festival. This is a different kind of social, as it's a lot more fun, whereas a lot of the other typefaces have been bold to catch people's attention, this is bold to make people laugh and looks humorous.

Control and Mission are both clubs in Leeds and have very similar logo's. There are a few differences in the typefaces, such as the first "S" in mission is backwards to make it look a bit more interesting and add movement to the logo. Also Control uses a capital letter, whereas Mission is all lowercase. Mission therefore looks less formal as all the letters are the same height, especially accompanied with the illustration above the typeface. Both appear sleek and bold due to the sleek lettering.

As seems to be a theme with artistic social media websites or anything artistic, the logo for Leeds College of Art Students' Union uses a script style typeface for the logo inside the circle. This makes it appear fun and relaxed and informal due to the loose nature of the typeface. It has been teamed with almost a typewriter style serif typeface around the circumference of the circle for the Students' Union to appear almost as a stamp, which is an interesting idea.

University for the Creative Arts Students' Union is quite an interesting logo, as although the type is quite simplistic, the "SU" is made up of lots of individual illustrations, and is purple which adds some colour into this otherwise plain logo. This is different from a lot of the other logos I have researched. The simplistic nature of the SU helps a lot with it being legible, as otherwise you may have difficulty reading it.

Researching different existing logo's for social media and human rights organisations and social activities has helped me understand the kind of style of type that most social interaction networks are. I have found that the most common style of logo is sans-serif, Helvetica style, and quite commonly Capital's aren't used, perhaps to seem more informal, such as with twitter. This has given me a good insight into how to adapt my typeface to appear more social.