Field Notes -- Typography in Australian Graphic Design

Our reading this week discussed Typography in Graphic Design, and I read it while on my looonnnngg flight to Australia; I decided before I landed that my research this week would be in how the Australians were using Typography in their Graphic Design.

from http://www.paulvickersdesign.blogspot.com/
an excellent blog I highly recommend

It took about 5 seconds to find the first example; Vodaphone has a Sydney campaign that is plastered on the luggage carts trolleys they have in Customs (pictured right).



This is part of the "Go Global" campaign, and features three posters: this one pictured, one of the continent of Australia, and the final of Planet Earth.  Since these subsequently zoom farther out in view, the entire campaign echoes the global theme when viewed as a whole as well as individually.  The ads are a collaborative between Aussie advertising agency JWT, Yello Brands and Am I Collective.

Although it was originally created in 2007, Australia Post's ad campaign to get people to send more letters has proved so popular that they are still prevalent today; this one was one a bus stop just outside the airport*.  The campaign pictures various people interacting; one of the people is pictured normally, the other appears like they are made out of the letter background.   The tagline: “If you really want to touch someone, send them a letter”.  The campaign has won a number of awards and has been mentioned in numerous publications:



http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2007/australia-post-touch/

These posters remind me a lot of Stefan Sagmeister's work where he wrote on people such as Lou Reed, albeit a very toned down, Hallmark-type variation.  According to the blog, The Inspiration Room, the print advertisement was developed at M&C Saatchi, Melbourne, by creative director Steve Crawford, head of art Murray Bransgrove, art director Rebecca Hannah and copywriter Doogie Chapman, with photographer Christopher Tovo and retoucher Ed Croll.



http://www.bos17.com/



The 17th Biennale of Sydney (right) was recently held last August and there are still a few of their posters up around town and brochures in the Sydney hotel lobbies.  I included it here not just because the graphic design of the poster is visually interesting, but because it is integrated with its website,  forming a great example of graphic design carrying through as a total corporate image.  Barnbrook's Australia division was the ad agency:

My last example came from a magazine ad for Himage, a company that produces mens' grooming products.  The Australian typographer and graphic designer is Andi Yanto.  I really loved how he used the type, giving the feeling of shaving in an unexpected twist.

 

picture by me!  Magazine is OZ G7

 *I got a terrible picture of it and was declared "barmy" (ie crazy) by the Aussie friends I am staying with!

Field Notes: The Penguin Logo and its various incarnations

Penguin Books is celebrating 75 years in 2010, and to celebrate I thought I'd post their logo evolution this week as part of our field notes.  They are from the back of the book "Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005" by Phil Baines.  I was amazed at how many changes one logo went through -- sometimes several in one year!  The whole notion of a stable symbol that people recognized over many years was definitely not used at this corporation until the 1950s.

1935 Original

This is their first logo, designed in 1935 by a junior staff member
named Edward Young.  He sketched penguins at the London Zoo
for the logo design.

!937 logo

1938 logo

In 1937 the logo changed and became a little more
squat with an elongated bill.  1938 saw the penguin
get a little funky walk but go back to his original
size.

L to R: 1946, 1946, 1947, 1947, 1947

The Penguin underwent quit a few changes during the tenure of Jan Tschihold, Head of Design at Penguin from 1946-1949.  We met him in our reading with the New Typography, and read abouthis influence on graphic design, starting on page 318.  The penguin pretty much stayed the same with slight changes and the addition of a book.  However, in 1948, Tschihold was either on vacation or had a three martini lunch because the logo became the funkiest in the whole series.  Ok, I'm speculating on the three martinis, but really, look at it:

1948

1950

By 1950, Jan Tschihold was no longer at Penguin and the logo got a new, curly look.  This logo lasted for a while, including through Penguin's 25th Anniversary in 1960.
It's the one I remember from paperback books I checked out of the library.

The logo changed again in 1987, with minor changes in 2003 to the bird we would all recognize today.  For their 75th Anniversary, Penguin Books spruced up their logo
by adding an oval orange field to surround the bird.

Bird changed to this style in 1987,
Orange field added in 2010 

Art Nouveau's influence today

This week I got to play with a friend's large stash of glossy, high-end fashion magazine collection while I was helping her with a collage.  I was immediately struck by how much some of the Art Nouveau sensibilities have snuck back into our advertising lately (last couple of years), especially the work of graphic artist, Ramid Malinic.  After finding out his name when I was researching the Smirnoff ad (middle), I looked for more of his work.  A small sampling is shown below:

 The flourishes, definite nature themes and swirls are definitely taken from the Art Nouveau.  Ramid has replaced the typical female form with product, updated the colors and modernized the stylings but the influence is there.  I'm not the only one who has noticed this -- while looking at his work on the web, many of the sites I visited commented on this.

This style has also crept back into other advertisements, with the advent of computer graphics.  Flourishes and swags, birds and flowers, are now layered in the background of many ads.  Once I made this connection, I'm now looking at ads differently -- its like playing "where's waldo" when looking through magazines.