The Practical Kitchen

I decided to post another design to my blog this week and I decided to post this design from the book Swiss Graphic Design by Richard Hollis that I found in the Parkland library. The design is a poster by Helene Hassbauer-Wallrath for 'The Practical Kitchen' exhibition in Basel in the 1930's. The dseign is abstract and very structural both characteristics of the period style. The reason I like this design is because black and red are always eye-catching and this design did just that, catch my attention.

Isopure

For this weeks blog post I decided to post about a product I came across on facebook a while back for a protein drink and then came across again recently in the 2013 Graphis Design Annual in the Parkland library. The product had a poor design before as shown in the picture and was redesigned in order to create stronger brand recognition.

Isopure had a dated look and was modernized by simplifying the design. The result was the design below. The redesign became a success after it strengthened retail sales. According to CEO Hal Katz, sales went up 20% with the new design of the product.

The reason I chose this design is because I almost bought it before myself before knowing it was redesigned. The design of a product can influence a consumer greatly and I found it interesting reading the article about the design on the annual because it describes how the design affected the company's sales. Another reason I really like the design is because it is very colorful, eye-catching, and simple.

GQ Magazine

For this week’s blog post I decided to post the beginning page to an editorial I found in the GQ magazine at the Parkland Library. The reason I chose to post this is because it is eye-catching because of the colors and the playful font. The article’s main idea is the 18 best hair gods of all time. The font to this is very unique it is made of lines and breaks typographic rules. One thing that caught my attention is that if you rotate the image it looks like 2 faces. The small letters depict the eyes and the large letters depict the hair and mouths.

The function of this modern playful design is to attract readers to the article so they can start reading.

Denny's Menu

I found this menu design at Denny's and I decided it would be good example of graphic design to include not only because I am working on a recipe book as a project for a class, which is somewhat of a similar layout, but also because a menu is one the things that can influence a numerous amount of people to try new things.

For example, if a customer walks into a restaurant, the presentation the restaurant first provides will influence the consumer greatly. If they have boring and poorly designed menus they might get a bad first impression of what the food will be. The design of menus can also influence your consumer to try new stuff. For example, Denny's has an example where they provide a different special menu every so often. For this visit I came across a menu titled "Baconalia." In this menu they showcased interesting bacon specials.

The reason I chose this design is because I really like the way they work with type and pictures although the designs arent unified as a whole because every page has a different layout. However, the Designs are easy to read, modern, and show you what the menu items look like which will influence the consumer to purchase it. I think that if the designer followed a certain design on each page the design would be more unified. The function of these menus is to get consumers to feel welcomed and to influence them to try their menu items.

The Isle of the Lost

For this weeks blog post I decided to post the book cover for "The Isle of the Lost." I found this book in my little sister's book collection and she is only 7 years old so I am sure the design of the cover had a big influence as to why she chose it. The function of this book cover is to engage the reader to purchase the book. The cover is very colorful and uses playful fonts. The playful title font looks as if its a vine coming from the apple and I think its very eye-catching. The back part of the cover also uses the same vine design by having a frame around a picture similar to the title. Another reason I liked the design was because of the color choice as well, it is very bright and unique and gives a mysterious feel.

The Great Gatsby

For this weeks blog post I found the movie poster on my movie app Showbox for the newest version of the Great Gatsby. I had seen this poster before but decided to post it now because I thought it would be good to include a style in my blog post. The movie posters serves a function to inform the audience of the upcoming film. The poster merges illustrations, type, color, and nice layout. This is an Art Deco style poster and the reason I like it is because it is very fancy and elegant like most of the Art Deco period was. The type in this poster is very decorative and geometric.

Libman Broom Co.

For this weeks blog post I decided to post the logo for the Libman Company.  I found the bottom two designs online and the top one at home. This is a large company that makes the brooms or cleaning utensils you probably clean with and wow have they grown partly due to their redesign. This company is located in Arcola,  Illinois, the small town of 3000 that I live in. The company didn't have the best logo design until a couple years ago and it is now much more modern. The design is made up of bold blocky lettering with colorful gradients that make it feel like it is glowing and clean. The function of this re-design is to help identify the product more.

Here are some other products where the design is incorporated:

Uncharted

For this weeks blog post I decided to post a product package design. This is a PlayStation 4 game that I own and the reason I chose this is because I have always liked the cover for it and think it is a simple and well-done design. The function of the package design is to persuade the customer to purchase the product. The design for this game is simple and eye-catching. The game is based on hidden treasure and exploration which is show well in the cover. The illustration of the man is made up of a map which is very well used considering the game theme. I also like the old looking colors which adds to the treasure map theme. The bold type that reads the title of the game "Uncharted" is very eye catching and the way the type is used around it is also done very well.

Awake Granola Bar

As I was shopping for food at Wal-Mart the other day and was I looking to buy granola bars, I came across an interesting design for Awake Energy Granola. The reason I chose this design is because it uses colorful illustrations and it really caught my attention because of that. The box has a warm exciting feeling to it that just makes it feel alive and it is not designed like the other boxes on the shelves. It uses its space well by inserting a picture of the granola bar itself and by varying the size and color of the type. The type looks as if its computer generated drawing type and it caught my attention well. I believe the function of this design is to show that this product will give you the energy you need to feel awake and alive.

Deadpool

This week I decided to post about Deadpool. A movie I saw this weekend after much anticipation. The reason I was really excited about this movie is because of the brilliant marketing behind it. Its marketing from posters to videos to even its social media page on Facebook brought laughs to me even before the movie was released so it drew me in to go watch it. Anyways, these are several of the poster ads I found on the Imdb website.

The function of these posters is to attract viewers to the opening day of the movie, which was Feb. 12th. They aim at attracting attention by using comedy such as using the emojis on billboards. The poster of Deadpool sitting on his type is one I find quite interesting. The type has a 3D look to it that provides a good depth of space with Deadpool sitting on the type.

Under Armour

For this week's blog post I found an interesting layout on a soccer.com magazine I received in the mail. Under Armour has been trying to expand their soccer gear for over the past couple years and they designed a pair of very light cleats. The function of this advertisement is to highlight the benefits and the technology put into the cleats. They used a nice condensed type with an interesting center so that it looks as if the type is moving and to add a feeling of "speed." I also liked this design because of the bright colors along with the player running at what looks like a fast speed, which is what the designer tries to convey.

Nike

For this week's blog post I came across a nice design on an Eastbay magazine I received in the mail. I really liked this design because it has a nice layout along with nice color distribution. The shoe coming out through the pillow causes feathers to come out which leads me to believe that Nike was trying to promote the comfort of the shoe. The function of this is to lead readers to believe that these shoes are one of a kind and that they are the shoes that your feet will thank you for as stated in the text, "What feet dream about."

Propel

I came across another nice advertisement designed by the makers of Gatorade for their product Propel. This time though, I found this ad in the Men's Health magazine. The function of this advertisement is to inform readers the pros of Propel. By stating that their product is pure water with electrolytes they persuade readers to try their drink. I really like the design because it has bright colors that are attention-grabbing. Although it is still a simple ad, I like the simple typography they chose because it is big, bright, and I feel like it suits the product well.

Gatorade

Gatorade is a very famous sports drink and usually when people see the orange lightning bolt with a G around it they already know its Gatorade because it's a recognizable logo. The reason I chose this advertisement I found in the ESPN magazine is because I like the simplicity behind Gatorade trying to promote their new whey protein bar. The layout behind the design has a nice flow with not very much information which is why it caught my attention. The way the designer cropped the dumbbell and the whey protein bar and put them together in the center of the page helps immediately assume they are targeting people who like to lift weights and go to the gym.

Page was too large for scanner so I took a picture as well