A DC comic rebranding

kieran — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:11:46 +0000

There has been a lot of talk recently over a rebranding of the comic book company DC comics.
DC (Detective Comics: the name of Batman’s first appearance) is one of the largest comic book publishers in the world, with characters that are recognised across the world and as such features some of the worlds most popular comic book heroes.

The logo that many relate to DC books was known as the ‘DC Bullet’ and was designed by one of the most famous Graphic Designers of recent history, Milton Glaser. This was replaced as recently as 2005 by a logo created as DC became part of an expanding Warner Bro’s project, to incorporate DC characters into other media such as film. The new logo was designed by Josh Beatman of Brainchild Studios. I always felt that the Spin logo ignored the heritage of the firm by trying to look digitalized where it would have made more sense to look into the history of the company and try to incorporate the traditional printing process.

Image showing the Bullet logo and the 2005 Spin logo

Now DC have under gone another rebranding.

This new branding puts the image in the mind of a hero taking the mask off themselves, revealing themselves.
The actual branding has a modern, digital friendly style, which allows the style to be portrayed across the whole of the DC Entertainment corporate identity

The new logo will be rolled out sometime in March

The design was created so that it could be interactive when portrayed in a digital format and Amit Desai, senior vice president of franchise management had this to say about the branding.

“We didn’t want a static logo, but a living identity that could capture the power of our characters and storytelling, What is special about DC content is the notion of a dual identity. When you think about our DC Comics superheroes, there’s a secret identity. When you think about Vertigo, it’s this notion of good vs. evil in many of the stories. And so, in addition to flexibility, the new logo communicates this idea of dual identity: There’s more than meets the eye. You have to take a closer look to understand the richness of our characters and stories.”

The use of touch elements was also shown on the rebranding, with a description saying how the user could pull back the D to reveal a character or the character’s logo. The other aspect of the design is its customization. The C of the logo can be fully customized to the colors of the character or story it’s promoting: silver and gray for the corporation, blue for DC Comics, or–as suggested by the graphic below–sparks for The Flash, green for Green Lantern, or a mist for Batman. All are unified by a common font–the serendipitously named Gotham Bold.

This image shows how the logo can be customized

Some of the main complaints from the public around this rebranding is its similarity to the branding of the TV station over here in the UK: Discover History.

This station branding was created in 2010 by PeterAndTom and used the same peeling image that DC have taken to literally ‘pull back the years’

New DC Comics Logo of the Day (geeks.thedailywh.at)
DC Comics Unleashes New Logos (geeksaresexy.net)
DC Comics New Logo (geekxlovin.wordpress.com)
DC Comics New Logo (philmalot.com)

A Collection Of Posters

kieran — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:30:07 +0000

Happy New Year!

I hope that the year has been good to you as it has been to me. It’s been a long road to get to where I am now and with the experience of working at a major international organisation has given me the skills to face up to whatever comes next.

A friend recently asked what was happening with my blog and why haven’t I updated it more frequently. So with that in mind I have decided to pick my blog up and give it a new lease of life.

For my first post I thought I would share some work I have had saved on my computer as inspiration for a while…

There are many poster examples floating on the web, some showcase a particular idea, many visualize trends that designers follow. Some posters do nothing but make me wish I had come up with the idea first. I often end up looking at work thinking to myself that although it’s a simple concept how comes my brain couldn’t rack up an idea like the one in front of me.

There is no shortage of inspirational work found on the web, but some of the posters in this post highlight the skills of some designers that I have found across the web. Posters need to be able to convey the message that they were created to. There is no point in create a magnificent piece of art if it doesn’t reach the potential and the audience that it was created for.

I find these posters to be some of the best that I have seen online and in no particular order I present them to you

Sample Sale

kieran — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:23:24 +0000

Its been ages since my last blog post. i thought that when i finished uni that i would be done with the whole typing thing, but talking to a variety of other designers looking for work they have told me it gives a way to keep the creative juices flowing whilst hunting a job. so with that in mind i shall give you a recap of stuff.

As i said i finished my uni course
I got a 2:1
I havent really had time to create any work due to the fact that …
I have been freelancing at Sony london studios

I have also been taking my time to look around at some interesting exhibitions revolving around graphic design.
One of which was a sample sale which featured one of my favourite uk fashion brands AnyForty

I Have An Inkling…

kieran — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:13:08 +0000

I have an inkling that Wacom’s new product will do very well.

Announced this morning, the new product will allow you to draw on any sheet of paper using the pen, plug the pen into your computer via USB, and your drawing will now be on-screen in a vector format. You will be able to edit the image fully using curves.

The only downside I can see at the present is that Wacom are only giving one nib, a ballpoint pen, when you purchase.
Imagine where this invention could go if they included a variety of nibs for illustrators to use. The possibilities are endless.

The pen in this case has a sensitivity of 1,024 levels, meaning that the harder you press whilst drawing the thicker the lines will appear on Photoshop/Illustrator.

Priced at £125 plus VAT and available from October 2011 onwards I can see the Inkling doing great business for Wacom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXbBA1DRE84

The End….

kieran — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:17:56 +0000

So my exhibition has come to an end, today was spent taking the work down as well as the boards that we used to hold the produced work. All in all I feel that it has been a successful exhibition for not only me but the whole class.

I have included a selection of photographs of my exhibition and the layout of my work

As a way to show a higher number of posters than would be possible with such a small space, I constructed a video which used static and showed sections of my posters appearing. This allowed the audience to see little snapshots of other pieces of work.

As well as the animation I used other designs from the project to create a series of postcards that again gave ability for the audience to see other pieces of the project, this time at full scale. These postcards seemed to be extremely popular as when I took them I had over 200 and I returned today with only 23. These postcards also had my details and a list of software skills on the back in a mini CV format. This works well as a company may see the postcard and would instantly be able to contact me or find out what skills I have.

Can someone from Spain explain this

kieran — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 20:42:32 +0000

I saw today that the Spanish football team Getafe have a new advertising promotion…

could someone from Spain explain this to me please

Relentless Energy Drink Rebranding – the cans

kieran — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:03:28 +0000

In addition to my last post which focused on the ‘Relentless‘ energy drink rebranding, I was sent some images showing the packaging as it will look like when in stores.

These shots show the cans as they will look in stores. Hopefully you will start to see them soon as they are being released in the next month.

what are your opinions on both the illustrations, and how they work on the cans?

Relentless Energy Drink Rebranding

kieran — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:08:08 +0000

I was recently sent by Email some details about the rebranding of the ‘Relentless’ energy drink, and now I have been given the all clear to share I thought I would.
It gives an insight into some of the thinking behind the branding of an already well known product.

Relentless Energy Drink unveils iconic new Virtue designs for 2011

Symbols of nature, imagination, skeletal forms, and beautiful birds are all intertwined in the brand
new iconic visual character of Relentless Energy Drink’s new product packaging-
giving each of the five variants a unique virtues visual identity for a new decade.

Through this new dynamic artwork the Relentless Energy ethos, ‘No Half Measures’, is brought
to life in all five variants with strong references to the tree of life, water, anatomical forms,
and the beauty of nature, which are all at constant struggle with one another, but each
succeeding in their own way.

Origin (Vision)
Inferno (Suffering)
Immortus (Endurance)
Devotion (Obsession)
Libertus (Mastery)

In addition to these ‘Virtues’ visuals, is Relentless Energy’s brand new insignia, which is featured
on one side of each can.
The ‘R’ entwined with the image of the crow symbolises dark nature, and yet at the same time personifies great beauty.

Sam Grant, Relentless Energy says “The individual artworks are very detailed to help visualise their
complicated backstory. Each personifies its own unique identity, bringing to life the virtues of the
five variants. While each one is separate they all flow in to the No half measures ‟ethos”

Relentless Energy Drink – Inspiration behind the design

Symbols of nature, imagination, skeletal forms, and beautiful birds are all intertwined in the brand new iconic visual character of Relentless Energy Drink’s new product packaging – giving each of the five variants a unique virtues visual identity for a new decade

Origin (Vision)
The illustration of the treelike nerve symbolises the spread of an idea. Man’s imagination required to be an artist are represented by beautiful birds, which are offset by the skeletal forms that make up the man’s neck. The overall emphasis of the head format brings to life the attribute of Vision through design, in a reflective way.

Inferno (Suffering)
The main principal and focal point is the Tree of Life. With a strong colour pallet of deep red, fiery orange and bright yellow symbolising the struggle and suffering of life, defining hell’s efforts to drag our tree down into the raging abyss. The tree remains in full bloom, showing that the suffering has not been in vain.

Immortus (Endurance)
Focused around a raging sea storm with a central swirling vortex, it reflects the cyclical nature of the natural world. The power of the wave is brought to life with shattered classical columns, beautiful plants and anatomical forms. At the bottom of the wave lies Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who flew too close to the sun and fell into the sea below when his wings melted — a stark and relevant reminder of nature’s enduring power.

Devotion(Obsession)
The human heart symbolising the passion artists have to their subject and what they are trying to create. This is explicitly brought to life with the statuesque hands clasped around the anatomical heart, which in turn is held by a venus fly trap made from human bones. In nature, of course, the fly trap is seductive to flies and other insects, but it can be lethal too. The same is true in art, where the idea being an artist appealing to most but only the few can withstand its darkside. Snakes are the ultimate symbol of seduction and wrap around the borders of the illustration.

Libertus, Sugar Free (Mastery)
The pitch black triangle in the centre of the composition represents order, while chaos can be seen looming all around it. Through the figures of the guardians we see serenity and calm. The artwork shows Neptune beating chaos away while two gargoyles guard the gates to mastery from either side. A visually breath-taking examination of this variant’s attribute of mastery brought to life

Novus: An Evaluation

kieran — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:18:16 +0000

The whole basis of the third year of this degree was to expand into an area which I feel I could produce the most visually exciting and stimulating pieces of work. I decided to focus on technology as it is both an interest of mine and is one of the most important aspects of our society.as soon as I had settled on the subject the main focus for many was to give a reason for this project I felt that there was no point in creating interesting visuals if I had no message, no story or no concept.
The research stage of my project took a fair amount of time as I strived to get the broadest amount of information as I possibly could. I didn’t want to restrict myself with one aspect of technology so I took the time and looked far wide with my research and slowly over time narrowed the view down which became the basis of my work.
One of the most interesting aspects of this project soon became one of the downfalls of my research. Technology is always changing. As I was researching there were more and more interesting developments were occurring across the world, one such being the Egyptian uprising against the president which focused on the government restricted Internet service. Some of these developments were so important that I felt they had to be explored visually and as such became posters in the final piece.
A great deal of research was spent in my project creating questionnaires to gain other people’s opinions on the subject. These questionnaires were shared among my peers and also were sent out to individual freelance designers or companies to gain knowledge on both how they use technology and why they use technology. The results given help to focus the areas that the designs will concentrate and help me to eliminate some potential ideas as they did not seem relevant once the results were given.
Once I’d finished gathering my research the next stage from me was to make sure that the project contained one visual identity. I wanted to create posters that you could instantly tell were part of this project. In this state, most of the development was based around finding a template I could use. Within my posters I explored with a variety of different styles with one even having body text running vertically alongside the poster. I finally settled on an unobtrusive design which I made sure it did not overpower the visual impact of the final pieces.
When creating the actual body of work one feature I wanted to explore was to start using typographic features. I wanted to demonstrate the power of type, whilst retaining the power that typography can have over both the audience and the designs.
Although the actual subject matter was a complicated one I believe that with this project I could show that less is sometimes more. The main ambition of this project was not to preach my point of view to the audience but rather to give them enough information to make their own decisions on how technology has impacted on their lives .I tried to keep my own personal opinion out of my mind when creating these places as I did not want to push my ideals onto the audience members.
A factor that I took forward from my last project was the idea of contrasting the technological world with handcrafted elements. I know that I wanted to visually explore using handcrafted elements to visually expand on belief that the audience may have held one of my sketchbooks became a fully hand drawn piece of work in itself as I took to using different materials to try find a visual identity for the project. In the end the basis of the sketchbook actually became a poster in itself demonstrating how even today the pencil is still the most important piece of equipment a designer can have.
I took a handcrafted element on a journey with my posters as although it became the basis for many idea it also led me to create a hand rendered texture to give the impression of screen-printed and in my posters. The original idea would have been to physically screen-print my posters are due to time restraints I want to give the illusion that the designs had been crafted by her the reason for this was a game to highlight the contrast between how rendered elements and the clean cut ideals that the technological world is based on.
For my texture I actually scanned in a pair of my own jeans to give a rough weathered effect which works well especially concerning the darker colours although for some of the posters I actually had to do with the layer to make the effect truly visible.
When I think back to the beginning of the project and the ideals that I had I realised that I didn’t come away with the same results that I originally intended to a random create an animation showcasing the timeline of technology but I’m glad that I went in the other direction and explored with printed materials as the process of printing is in itself a development of technology. I feel that I spent too much time casting ideas. I feel I was too broad for too long and that I should move started to narrow my design give me the maximum time for alterations and suites if I could go back I think I would have created less posters as it is as it seems some ideas are too similar in a certain circumstances.
I would also try to make sure that I have given an even representation for the audience to make their mind up looking back at my posters I feel that although there is an even number for and against some messages are a lot more impactful from one side therefore skewing the arguments and when analysing it seems like I am leading the audience into making my assumption in technology.
The main purpose of my project was to give the audience are enough information and I feel that I have completed that task. I feel that all those certain parts of the project could be re-focus that overall it does exactly what I set out to there is a purpose behind everything and it doesn’t just fill like the designs are visual just for the sake of it. All of my designs when you look at them I hope you can see that there was a purpose behind the idea I have just picked subjects out of thin air. I have taking feedback from the design community and have use different points of view and have taken then on a journey. Without these messages this series of posters would just be an empty shell.

Help Japan, Be Creative (kieranshalloo.com)
Colour changing (kieranshalloo.com)
Etsy Finds: Concert Posters (casasugar.com)

Operation Novus: Mission Complete

kieran — Sun, 15 May 2011 23:24:36 +0000

So here we are, the final hand-in has been completed and as the final part of the marking scheme I must upload all the final piece’s into the online community. so take a seat and enjoy yourself

http://bit.ly/mJ1rEX