VISCOMTWO. Icon List Update.

going for gold
suit
swim cap & goggles
starting block
whistle
stop watch
splash
lane lines
flags
medal
towel
*i was going to post documentation of my intuitive drawings but a) they're bad and 2) i'm having a b' of a time getting them to document well. some of them are too light of drawings, others are fine however.

DP. 30. Borja Bonaque.

Yes, I know I've already done one blog post today, but I meant to blog about this yesterday(i think), but I never got around to doing it, so I thought tonight would be the perfect night to catch up on some much needed blogging/inspiration.

This artist's name is Borja Bonaque. Get acquainted with his work.

He is a graphic designer from Spain. His work is a wonderful mesh of geometric, grunge, retro, classy. However, all his work may be amazing, but what I am going to focus on is his Duet Type typeface.

This is quite the exceptional piece of typography here. I have an appreciation for many different styles and types of design. But my one, true love is typography so I tend to be waayyyyyyyyy overly critical of type face choices on anything and everything. This, however, is quite wonderful, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to let it off easy. There are still some quirks about it that annoy me. First and foremost is that "I" and how it is the only letter that isn't technically uppercase. There are some weight balance issues in when the crossbar connects to the stem it gets a little wonky in weight when curving from thin outward. Though one thing that I much appreciate is that the "W" and the "M" are the exact same shape just rotated. It's a very calligraphic element of this typeface(if the harsh thin thin and bold thick thick wasn't calligraphic enough for you). I'm drawn to the very structured aspect to this font but yet it still has subtle fleur details. Curved edges and curly circles at the end of some of the strokes. Not too overly rigid.

sources: grain edit, borja bonaque.

DP. 29. Kix Cereal.

Kix cereal was introduced in 1937, that's 73 years ago. The box has gone through many different stages in those past 73 years. Here are two of my favorite, more boxes are linked to in the sources below.

Vintage always seems to end up being much, much prettier than whatever the hell is out now-a-days. Kix has just recently released new packaging for it's cereal box and I'm just not feeling the change.

Here's what the box before looked like:

Yeah, okay, it was running rampant with too many strokes, gradients, and oddly ballooned text. But, at least it was playful, young, and full of spunk, everything that Kix cereal should be seeing as it is targeted as a child's cereal(though I'm now 20 and I'm still in love with it). The new packaging seems more targeted towards the parents(mothers) of the children. When I was a kid, I didn't want anything to do with anything vegetable related. But that's part of the main focus of this new packaging. Healthy.

Okay. The packaging isn't horrific, it's actually quite nice, but it would function a whole heck of a lot better if it wasn't on a Kix cereal box. It's too tame and too much reliant on the healthy symbol of eating popped corn(isn't that what Pops Cereal is, anyways?). I liked how Kix and Pops stayed distant from each other even though they're essentially the same sort of cereal. It makes sense that the new packaging is trying to emphasize the healthiness of it seeing as everything is on a health craze now. Kix is just working on making their product relevant after almost 75 years in the business. It's a task that I'm sure is not easy, and was well thought out before implementing. I just wish they would have kept the playfulness of the old box still in this new design. Even just something as simple as the bouncing in of the dot into frame and onto the 'i'. Over all the rebrand is a nice refresh, just not appropriate for this cereal.

Oh and every once in a while big-named corporations come out with old-style vintage versions of their current products for a limited time, and this is just a pure treat in my eyes. It gives me hope that people still know what good design is.

sources: theimaginaryworld.com, gentle pure space.

Blog Colors.

sixty percent grey & seafoam.

DP. 28. The Pew Center.

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a collective of seven different initiatives that support and financially back local arts organizations and heritage groups. Before this redesign of their group, there wasn't a single ounce of consistency between throughout any part of the organization. The seven different initiatives had separate logos and The Pew Center had no set identity in itself. The redesign helped fix all of this(thankfully so).

The logo for The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is what's pictured above. It definitely has a lot going on within itself. There are 8 different colors within this design, 7 for the different initiatives and the 8th one is for the city of Philadelphia itself. Honestly, the colors scare me(and by 'scare me' I mean they aren't the most aesthetically pleasing colors ever chosen by man). In some ways I feel that there are way too many different colors going on within this logo but the concept behind it is fairly nice. However, I feel that the execution behind it could have been refined even more.

These are(possibly) how the different initiatives are represented, and as you can see for yourself, the scalability of this identity has it's issues. The colors on their own are pretty nice, but them all lumped together is a little overwhelming to the eyeballs. Also, the type-face choice is not my all-time favorite ever, though I understand the need for a condensed type-face to make this identity plausible.

Though, after all is said and done, I do enjoy this new identity much more than what originally was put in place.

SOURCES: UNDER CONSIDERATION, JOHNSON BANKS.