Newspaper Ad

First Thumbnails

Second Thumbnails

Rough Sketch for Bitmap

Rough Sketch

Final PDF

For my newspaper advertisement, I have created a restaurant called “Home Bistro”. I decided to design it seven inches tall by three column inches wide (5.75 inches). With a budget of $100, the size of this advertisement would cost $84.

3 Column Inches (5.75") wide X 7 inches high=21" X $4/column inch= $84

In the advertisement, I have included the location, phone number, website, and hours of operation. This was to inform the customer of their opportunities to visit. I also included a list of the types of items available: coffee, sandwich, soup, salad, and a bakery. I also included a coupon that says “Buy Any Soup, Salad, or Sandwich Get Large Coffee Free!” This helps entice my target audience: adults looking for a new place to eat. The design for the coupon is to have a black box with the type being in reverse. I also included a slogan that can be used to entice customers into visiting “…simply homemade!” Underneath the coupon included is a suggestion or prompt to “Ask about Catering”.

In my plan for the advertisement, I intend to included a bitmap image on the top left corner. My idea is to draw an image of a coffee cup. I think that this would give the advertisement a feeling of ease and being laid back, enticing them with food that looks, tastes, and smells homemade.

Brendan Murphy

On October 15, 2010, Brendan Murphy came to campus to talk about his work. He gave a history of what he does and how he got there. He came to Pittsburg State University alumnus on a track scholarship in 1985. Now, after twenty-five years of experience in the field, he is a senior partner at the prestigious design and branding firm, Lippincott. His whole talk was very inspirational not just from the examples of his work but also from his words of wisdom.

One of the first examples of his work that he gave was of a project that he did in college while studying at to get his master of arts in design from the University of Cincinnati. For his thesis project, he did a redesign of the handicap symbol. His new design makes the symbol seem as if it is propelling forward, giving the person in the symbol more prominence than the wheel chair. I personally love the new symbol. Not only does it portray the handicapped community in a way that seems more independent and mobile, but it also appears modern, with a feeling of motion. Though he faced opposition to his new symbol, many cities and companies (such as Wal-Mart) have begun to implement it into their signage. This seems really amazing to think that someone from Pitt State has created something so early on in his career that is now nationally known.

The truth of the matter is that this was just the beginning of what now is a very successful career. His gave examples some of the rebranding projects that he has worked on at Lippincott, such as Wal-Mart, Sprint, Wells Fargo (his biggest client), Time Warner, and many more. He said that in the process of giving a company a new brand identity, him and his firm will create between 300 and 3,000 logo ideas, the amount depending on the size of the company. This really puts things into perspective. It makes me think twice about complaining about doing ten thumbnail sketches. The fact of the matter is that the more ideas that are presented, the more options we as designers have and our customers are more likely to find something that will appeal to them.

His words of inspiration were simple: pay attention in school. He stressed the fact that studying in all of the different disciplines is important to what he does. In fact, he said that 75% of his work is writing, 10% drawing and the rest is in giving instructions. This really stuck with me. For two years all I wanted to do was get my general education done so that I could get to my major courses. Often times I thought that those classes were unnecessary and would never help me in the future. I’m already finding uses for some of those classes. In hindsight, after listening to Mr. Murphy, I wish I would have paid more attention in school. One of the things he said that I liked was “Learning is a lifelong job.” Of course I already knew this, but hearing it put like that was great. Surviving in a field such as graphics is never ending process of learning new things and adapting to the styles and techniques of the time.

Overall, I really enjoyed the symposium. I’m still a little shocked when I think about all of the amazing stuff that Mr. Murphy has had a hand in creating, especially since he is a PSU alumnus. It gives me hope that one day I will be able to achieve even a fraction of what he has in his career.

Old Gap vs. New Gap

Gap introduced their “new” logo on Tuesday October 5th. Without any fanfare or commotion, the company introduced their newest logo. As seen above, the design is the word “Gap” in Helvetica, with a blue faded square behind the “p”. When I first saw it I thought it was a joke. When I think of GAP I think of a company known for their edginess, a clothing store for the “stylish” and “well dressed”. Not only is the company itself known for its aesthetical appeal, but its sister companies (Old Navy and Banana Republic) are also known for their ability to keep and set the style trends. After less than a week, Gap Incorporated announced in a press release that they will “go back to our iconic blue box logo…” The company decided to announce that they were reverting back to their old logo the same way they announced the new one: Facebook. After hundreds of their “fans” on Facebook complained about the new logo they decided to do the redo.

In their press release, spokeswoman Louise Callagy said that “At Gap brand, our customers have always come first.” In my opinion, if that was the case, they should have consulted their customers/fans. The company not only has a Facebook page but it also has a Twitter account that they regularly make announcements on. Now I don’t know how much money they spent on the logo redesign, but I think that they should have spent a little of that money in research. They needed to test the waters, to see how the public reacts to an idea before changing what can correctly be described as their “iconic blue box logo.” The fact that they didn’t know how severely the public would react shows that it was not thought through enough. The amount of money they spent changing their promotions, signs and storefronts obviously is not worth the cost. In my research, I found that they even changed their storefront at their flagship store in London, England.

It’s obvious that they now see the error of their way. Later on in the press release, Ms. Callagy says that “We’ve learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community.” They have a fantastic opportunity to communicate with their customers in the form of social networking. In my opinion, to not take advantage of this opportunity is just bad business.

As far as the design itself is concerned, I can honestly say that I hate it. I am all for using Helvetica or any similar “simple” font for marketing. I just feel that its use is inappropriate for its specific application. The fact that the logo goes from a modern style serif font that is uppercase to letter case Helvetica is a drastic change. The original logo looks sophisticated and classic, while still portraying a modern mood. The new logo is bland. It seems too corporate for a company that strives to be a part of the trendy and artistic. The new logo also portrays a feeling of being ordinary. When people buy new clothes they want to feel good about themselves. They want other people to notice them and have a positive reaction. The new logo, to me, is basically portraying “I am ordinary and plain. Don’t buy my clothes because you will look ordinary and plain.”

In conclusion, it was a fiasco. A disaster. Companies that are so recognizable just by their logo and branding should stick to what works. Change happens, but it can be done at a slower pace. Basically, what’s not broke, don’t fix it.


Image from: http://www.graphicology.com/blog/2010/10/10/315-a-gap-in-confidence.html

High School Reqruitment Notepad

First Six Thumbnail Sketches

Next Four Thumbnail Sketches

Rough Sketch

Word Matrix

Final PDF

Going into the notepad project we were told to think of what high school students are interested in and what we as students were interested in when we were in high school. In high school I was not the typical teenager, I have been a geek (for lack of a better term) my whole life. I’ve always been more interested in computers, books, and art than most people my age. So keeping this in mind, I thought of what would have attracted me to a notepad in high school. I knew that I wanted to do something involving technology because for one it interests me and for another, we are a School of Technology. I envisioned a computer mouse with the cord bleeding off the edge of the notepad. It just so happened that I found a vector art online (http://vectorart.org/mouse-vector/) that perfectly fit my criteria. I positioned the mouse on the bottom right side of the notepad so that the cord did bleed off the edge.

Another part in designing my notepad that I took into consideration is the overall setup. I looked through the notepads that I had at home and observed the pros and cons of the different styles. I noticed that the one I used the most was long and had lines on the majority of the page every quarter of an inch. I use it the most because I like to make lists on it. For the purpose of a high school student I thought that it would be a good way for them to make lists, whether it is for a to-do list, a grocery list, or whatever they would use it for. I liked the spacing that was used in the notepad that I had, this is why I changed my design from my rough sketch that had lines every half inch to lines every quarter of an inch.

We were asked to incorporate the school website as well as the title of our department, “Graphics and Image Technologies.” I also decided to include the name of the college because it seemed to balance things out better. When choosing a font, I looked for a font that looked like it would be used on an old fashioned type of computer, very digitized with straight lines and angulated edges. I chose “OCR A Extended” because of it simple, thick strokes that were historically used on computers.

During the design process of the notepad, we were also asked to find out how much it would cost to print our design notepad. We were to have them quote us the price based on a notepad of fifty sheets with a chipboard back. When I went in on September 16, 2010, I was told that it would cost $2.78 per notepad, $51.20 for fifty notepads, and $101.14 for one hundred notepads.

Overall I think that my notepad stays within a specific theme: computers. It doesn’t have as many illustrations as some, but it has plenty of writing space as well as all of the information required on it. After I had my notepad printed I was very pleased with it and am very happy wit the way it turned out.