Project 2 | Design Inspirations

I've been working mostly on the logo, but also trying to think of ways to incorporate the logo treatment to the rest of the print items. The idea that I've decided to work on further is using a sans serif font with a pattern cut-out running through it. This pattern will be a classic design so it balances out the contemporary feel of the typography. I plan on playing off of the classic vs contemporary aspect throughout the rest of the designs as well. For example, I will balance a contemporary grid with classic symmetry with an axis, and contemporary sans serif fonts with classic serif fonts.

I've also been doing a lot of research online about classical patterns for the logo, and looking at a lot of images of classical architecture especially. I want to make sure that the pattern has a classic feel, but is simple enough to be seen as the cut-out in the logo. I also plan on elaborating on the pattern I come up with and use that throughout the rest of the design of the other print items.

I used this image of a Roman column as inspiration for the pattern (mainly looking at the spirals).

These are variations of the pattern that I am currently working on.

Project 2 | Soulpepper Analysis and Reading Response

After doing some initial research and looking at Soulpepper's current design system, I have a better idea for what I want to do for this identity project. Currently, Soulpepper's logo is mainly text-based, and has the added element of naming the three mandates of the company. The logo and overall other design elements also incorporate the use of lines to divide information and sections. I think some of these design elements could be utilized when I create the new identity system. I want to make sure to somehow incorporate an element that relates back to the tri-mandate since it is an important part of Soulpepper. I also want to incorporate this design element into the rest of the pieces we have to design. Since everything will be affected by this design, I've started thinking about the other pieces rather than just starting with the logo. Another design element they currently have is the use of negative space. The usually put information in the corners of the page or around the perimeter (like the business card and poster especially). I want to maintain the negative space that they have created, but arrange the text and design elements in a more dynamic way.

Another part of Soulpepper I wanted to highlight is the fact that they do classical pieces in a modern way. Since classical and modern are opposing forces, I want to bring in other elements that relate back to that. One idea I had was the possibility of incorporating curvilinear elements into the design, but maintain a linear organization with the text and typeface. One way I thought about doing this was having three curving "sound wave" lines running through the word "soulpepper" for their logo. Therefore, I want to maintain a typographic treatment of the logo (much like they have now). Adding too many extra elements would take away from the simplicity I think the design needs to maintain so it can go well with the elaborate illustrations and photographs for each season.

Reading the article by Paula Scher has helped me in the process of designing the identity system. I've only done one other identity system before this one (in Graphic Design II), and in that class we designed the logo first and based everything off of that. But after reading Paula's article, I realize that the identity design process isn't linear. Since everything should be cohesive and the design should work for all of the pieces, each piece needs to be taken into consideration before the final logo design is set. I always thought that the logo was the most important part of the identity system and that it should be designed first before going to anything else, but now I realize that since everything is integrated, it is better to think about each design piece and figure out what would work for all of them. Since the design pieces are so different (business card vs poster), it will be a challenge to find a way to connect all of these pieces in a way that works for all of them.

Project 1 Final Pictures

Final box structure

View of the inside of the box looking through the recipe cards

Opened box with open booklet of the original album covers and track listings

Project 1 Synopsis

One of the main focuses of my project is on Merzbow's connection to being a vegan. To play off of that, I decided to make a recipe box. Inside the recipe box are fifteen separate "recipe cards" which each hold an individual CD. There are four different variations to the recipe cards. They consist of a cream-colored tab card, a card that looks like a notecard, a card featuring one of the birds from the corresponding CD, and a card with a faded image of the corresponding CD cover in the background. I decided to have several card designs because in a real recipe box, not all recipe cards look the same. People use regular paper, notecards, and other pre-designed cards to write down all of their recipes. The cards are also either hand-written or printed in a font that looks similar to a typewriter. I chose to do this because this is how regular recipes would appear. The information on the recipe cards are the CD track listings and liner notes. However, because of the way the card is organized, the track listings resemble the ingredient list for a recipe (relating back to the theme).

Because the designs of the cards varied, I wanted to keep the rest of the designs very simple. The design on the lid of the box matches with the design to the two booklet covers, the CD label, and also relates to the design of the booklet pages as well as the certificate card. Using the same layout and design elements helped bring the separate elements of the package together.

In addition to the recipe cards in the hand-made box, I included a couple additional elements to make the special edition box release even more unique. The first piece is a certificate for a free 1 year subscription to a vegan/vegetarian magazine. I thought that this would fit well with the theme of a recipe box, and also ties into Merzbow's vegan lifestyle choices. The code the user has to enter into the website includes a number. This number would essentially be the package number of the special edition box (if only a limited number are produced). The next additional element I included is a booklet of all of the CDs in order (including the track listings and original album covers). Because the CDs are in individual packages (the recipe cards), they can easily get mixed up and out of order. The booklet is used to help the user keep track of the order of the CDs. The last additional element I included is a small booklet full of actual Japanese vegan recipes. Since this is a "recipe box" people would probably assume that there would be some sort of actual food recipes in it. Each booklet contains three different recipes, but to make the package more unique, these three recipes would ideally be randomly chosen from a group of twenty recipes. Since each recipe is chosen at random, each recipe booklet would be different from the others.

Finishing Touches

The part of this project that took up most of my time was creating the box. Each piece of balsa wood needed to be glued on separately and there needed to be time between when each would be glued on. I wanted to make sure that each side was set before beginning another side. Once all of the sides were glued on and set, I needed to trim off the part of the balsa wood that went over the edges. Then to make it look more polished, I sanded each edge so the pieces of balsa wood matched up. If there were any gaps between the pieces, I made a filler paste using regular glue and some of the shavings from the balsa wood. The last element to the box was the label on the lid. I printed a simple design (that matches the cover of the additional album cover booklet) and transferred it to the box lid using wintergreen oil.

Making the recipe cards took a good amount of time as well. I had to cut the paper I bought to fit an 11x17 size so it could be fed through the printer. I have four different recipe card designs, and each of them is unique. Some of them use the American Typewriter font, but others are in my handwriting. I wrote out each card information on a separate sheet of paper, and scanned that paper into the computer. Then I worked in Photoshop to select only my handwriting (and not the background paper). Next, I transferred this Photoshop file of my handwriting onto the recipe card file and printed that document. This way, it looks handwritten, but there is no chance for pen ink to smear. (Also, if this was actually produced, a person would print out the same handwriting scans instead of handwriting each individual one.)

The elements I have completed for this project include the box, the recipe cards, the CDs, and the additional album cover booklet. The only thing that I have left to do is an additional bonus element that goes with the package. After having the critique on Thursday, I have decided to create multiple options, and choose from those. Some of my ideas are a free one-year membership for the Vegan Society, or possibly an actual recipe book (similar in appearance to the album cover booklet) that contains a few vegan recipes.

Recipe cards 1 and 2 before trimming

Recipe cards 3 and 4 before trimming

Finished box with finished recipe cards inside

Finished recipe cards of all varations

Starting Construction

After several trips to Michael's I finally got all of my supplies to starting making the box for the project. This weekend I cut out the base of the box and started gluing that. I also pieced together some pieces of balsa wood to fit on a couple of the sides and the bottom of the box. I was going to glue some of the balsa wood pieces on the box, but decided not to since the glue holding the box together should sit for a while before I glue anything else on. Assembling the balsa wood on the box is going to be a long process just because I will have to spend a lot of time waiting for the glue to dry. Putting on the balsa wood also makes the thickness of the box increase, so I have to wait to make the lid until the bottom is completely done to make sure that the lid fits.

In the mean time, I have made a few templates for the recipe card designs. I plan on having four different types of cards: one that looks like a notecard and handwritten, one that features a bird from the CD cover and is typed, one that is a cream color and has a tab (handwritten or typed), and the last being one with the CD cover image faded in the background. This week I plan on finishing the box by Wednesday hopefully, and continue to refine the design of the recipe cards. I also need to come up with a design for the additional booklet of the CD cover art that will also go in the box. Having another critique might help finalize my ideas as well.

This is the main portion of the box. The masking tape is temporarily there to help keep the sides together.

These are portions of balsa wood that I glued together to put on the sides and the bottom of the box.

The pieces of balsa wood will be trimmed after they are glued to fit the sides they are up against.

More Ideas

The group critique we had in the last class period helped me figure out more details of my project idea. I still plan on going with the recipe box idea, but I've been changing what I want to do with the recipe cards. I will still create the box myself, or possibly buy pre-made one if I see one that is the right dimensions. The box will be very simplistic, so it will only have Merzbow's name and "13 Japanese Birds" on it. However, on the inside it will be a little more disorganized. The "recipe cards" will be in order according to the release date of the CD, but the actual recipe cards would be different from each other. Real recipes in a recipe box rarely look the same, so some cards will be a different color or size than others, some will be typed, and some will be a variety of handwriting. The information on the actual cards will be the liner notes of each CD as well as some information about the bird the CD is based on. In addition to the recipe cards, there will also be other pieces of paper in the box that will resemble torn out magazine articles or newspaper clippings (since every recipe box would most likely contain something from a magazine or newspaper). But instead of a recipe, the piece of paper would be an article about PETA or something about what was going on in Japan at the time the CDs were released.

I haven't looked at materials yet, but I plan to do that this weekend. I'll first be looking for a pre-made box, but I will also look into materials that I could use to create the box myself. Before the next class, I plan on organizing the CD information we were given and also gather information about the various birds.

 This is what the recipe box mock-up (7x5x5inches) looks like while open.

Each CD will fit in one of the recipe cards (which will be a folder)