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Target’s new logo for their clothing line is so hard to read because they expect the reader to go against the natural way of reading in the western world, which is left to right, horizontally. The new logo is set up vertically (see below). It has received many customer comments saying it took them a while to figure out it should say a new day. The logo is designed in lower case Pitch font, with some italic letters, to have a quirky, friendly appearance, however, it falls short due to its vertical setup. Even a little bit of logo design testing would have discovered this. 
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I was out grocery shopping when I noticed Stash teas had redesigned their packaging (by Jolby & Friends in Portland, Oregon). I know it is probably just us graphic designers who geek out on this sort of thing, but showing a before & after helps people see the great impact that fresh design can make. The before is on the left (below).  The new design is a photographic style, with a romantic, storybook feel. A much cleaner look since there's no fadeouts as in the previous design. The product name is easier to read since it's white and really pops out, plus there's no compass icon interfering. The flavour of the tea is distinct, along with a lovely description of the tea. On a busy-looking grocery shelf, your product has to stand out and this package design would really entice the target market to buy.  In graphic design, there’s a system for managing colour. We use the Pantone Matching System (PMS), and it it also used by printers, interior designers, and even fashion and product designers. Each colour has a specific number so a printer will know how to add inks to create that “recipe” colour and designers will enter that number in their programs to get that colour. If a project has only one or two colours in its design (such as stationery), then it is more cost effective to print with only one or two inks, instead of the four that make up CMYK printing process. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. (Think of your inhouse printer with its four ink cartridges.) Process printing uses tiny dots made up of the four CMYK colours to create the illusion of solid colours to the eye. With a Pantone colour, there is also a mix of CMYK colours that will recreate it. However, the CMYK colour will not be as vibrant as a Pantone colour, due to being reproduced just with those four inks (CMYK). Metallic and fluorescent inks can also be printed using a Pantone colour. As a logo designer, I choose Pantone inks from a specific swatch book and it’ll be a close match to a process colour to ensure consistency through all the printed material. When there’s many colours (called full colour) on the page, such as a photograph, the project will be printed as CMYK. For the design pieces that will be on the web, the colour will be changed to RGB (red, green, blue). |
AuthorSHELLY RACKEL - A graphic designer specializing in all areas of branding. Experienced working with large and small businesses. ArchivesCategories |
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