Design by Humans, my favorite t-shirt store of the moment, is celebrating their 2 year anniversary. In internet years, that’s about 20, and they’re celebrating with a huge sale! The sale goes on through 7/26, and now that I’ve purchased everything I wanted I’m happy to direct as many people to their store as I can. I don’t know where else you’re going to get a beautiful, human-designed, comfortable t-shirt for $5.
While they mark their birthday with a sale, I thought I would mark their birthday by taking a look at their logo and packaging, both of which struck me as quite clever.
The logo is simple, capitalized type distinguished mainly by the 2 dots above the U in “human.” It is sometimes paired with a mark as well: the same dotted U, tilted slightly and placed in a circle. The circle is integral to the design - suddenly the glyph becomes a happy face! This smiling human character hidden within the mechanical, minimalist type adds a playful touch that matches the quirky humor of the name; It’s like a little wink to the person viewing it.
Design by Humans and Yogen Fruz – friends forever, or a lawsuit waiting to happen?
While I am a fan of the umlaut as happy-face in the logo, as clever as it is, it’s not exactly unique. Yogen Fruz, a chain of frozen yogurt shops that recently started popping up in my area, uses a very similar design. I’m not sure which design came first (probably Yogen Fruz, as they’ve been around since 1992), and I do think they’re both excellent logos (the umlaut fits well with the vaguely Euro/German sound of “Yogen Fruz”). Let’s just hope this doesn’t become a trend.
I’m ambivalent about the typeface used in the DBH logo. Apparently all-caps Gotham is the new black. Gotham has become the go-to font among graphic designers ever since some presidential candidate started using it. In this logo design, Gotham does what it does best – it makes the type look clean and fresh. However, I can’t help wondering if all this Gotham we’re seeing is going to start looking dated in a few years (I love Meta as much as the next guy, but its ubiquity in the 90s makes it feel a bit behind the times). And while I agree with the masses that Gotham is a beautiful, impeccably well-crafted typeface, on principle I’ve sworn to use it as little as possible. Like Helvetica, it is simple and perfect. Like Helvetica it articulates clean design and clear messaging. And like Helvetica, I will never ever use it unless a client specifically asks for it. I figure there’s enough of it out there in the world already without me adding more.
Design by Humans packaging – your t-shirt says hello.
When you order from Design by Humans, as I recommend you do, they send your shirts in a black plastic envelope with a big clear window in the shape of the smiling umlaut. The packaging is simple and clean, and best of all it lets the design of the product – the tshirt inside – really shine. What a great way to show off your product! Anyone who sees it will have an instant sense of what this company is about. As you can see, I bought a shirt with a bird speaking in Futura on it – because that gives people an instant sense of what I’m about.
So keep it up DBH! Great work so far, and many more years ahead!
I admit it – I’ve been remiss in updating this blog over the past few months. Part of the issue is just that I’ve been very busy. But of course that’s not the entire problem, as I am always very busy. I’ve also been having a hard time coming up with topics that are really crying out for analysis, or that warrant a full post. During the time I’ve been away from the blog, I have been more active on Twitter (follow @Rocdove). Twitter has proven to be a useful way to quickly get out a thought or share something interesting, but I’d also like to create content that goes a bit deeper than what I can manage in 140 characters.
So now I’m back, and returning with renewed vigor! I’ve decided to use the blog to not only write about design, but also to share small creative projects. I’m happy to post the first of these today – a new desktop wallpaper. I’ve been doing a lot of cycling over the past 6 months or so, and wanted to create a design that captured a little bit of the joy I feel on my bicycle.
Somehow the association between bikes and birds feels very natural to me. They’re both quick, they’re agile, they’re a little bit delicate, and they have hollow bones. It’s a very liberating feeling to know that I can get anywhere I need to go under my own power on a bike. That degree of freedom they impart reminds me of a bird on the wing.
Get the wallpaper:
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I’m ambivalent about stock art. The purist in me feels that the designer, as an artist, should be able to create every aspect of a project from scratch. But the pragmatist in me knows that this point of view is unrealistic. Time and budget often stand in the way of the “purity of design.” For example, recent projects have required imagery from Hong Kong and Kazakhstan. Traveling to either of those places to take a few photos for a website is clearly insane. All the same, using stock art feels like cheating.
No designer I know is unaware of iStockphoto, the most popular in the new trend toward affordable, user-uploaded stock photography. I’ve been hunting through iStock and a couple of its competitors lately, and thought I’d post a quick comparison.
iStockphoto: As I type this iStockphoto boasts 4,705,000 stock files, and their advantage is in their volume: there’s a lot of chaff (in the form of weak illustrations and cheeseball photos), but there are enough files that it’s not hard to find quality images for just about any topic. iStock has 2 main disadvantages that I’ve noticed. First, their website often runs extremely slowly, and it is not uncommon for it to be down completely. Second, their prices are continually creeping skyward. When I first used the service 2–3 years ago, a dollar bought a credit and a credit bought a small image. Now, a dollar only buys a credit if you’re willing to spend $1500 up front. At the same time, the number of credits charged for images (especially vector illustrations) has shot skyward. As iStock becomes an institution in the field, for better or worse they seem to be creeping closer to traditional stock imagery in terms of both price and quality.
Fotolia: Fotolia’s prices are where iStock’s were a couple years ago. In a suspicious coincidence, Fotolia lists 4,705,741 photos. Perhaps this is because everyone who uploads to iStock is also uploading their photos to Fotolia. But regardless of the similarity in the sizes of their libraries, Fotolia’s search results tend to be less relevant than iStock’s. There are quality, usable images on Fotolia, but finding them is a little more of a chore. Fotolia functions well as a backup when iStock is down, or when you’re on a very tight budget.
Shutterstock: Compared to iStock or Fotolia, Shutterstock is a ripoff unless you purchase a monthly subscription. However, if you do need enough imagery to warrant a 25 image per day plan, Shutterstock is worth considering. With more than six million photos, they have the largest library I’ve seen of any site in the category. As with their competitors, a substantial portion of the images feel stock-y, but as with iStock there are plenty of quality images as well.
Veer Marketplace: Veer is the newest company to enter the field. As longtime purveyors of traditional stock imagery, fonts, and hipster graphic design merchandise (of which I admit to owning more than one item), Veer seems to be doing things a little differently with their new “Marketplace” site. Recently launched with 100,000 images, their library of affordable imagery is nowhere near as large as the competition. However, they make up for the slighter selection by having the highest quality of the bunch.
Next time I’m in need of stock imagery, I plan to try Veer first. I might not find what I’m looking for in their portfolio, but if I do I can expect it to be a great image. Plus, I like supporting Veer – they promote some of the best in new and edgy typefaces and their monthly mailings are always entertaining (I highly recommend signing up for their mailing list). When Veer doesn’t have what I need, I’ll turn to iStock and Fotolia. For me, Shutterstock’s monthly plans just don’t make sense.
The Culprit
I bought a new bike a few months back, and I’ve been riding the trails around Northern Virginia as much as the weather and my schedule permit. I saw this sign on the Washington and Old Dominion, one of the primary trails in the area. At a moderate cycling speed – maybe 20mph – I did not even come close to being able to read this monstrously complex sign. I suppose walkers would have time to puzzle it out, but it’s hopeless for anyone moving at speed or concentrating on what they’re doing.
Taking the time to decipher the sign, it tells us that bikes and inline skaters should yield to pedestrians, and everyone should yield to horses. But when I see a triangle with arrows on it, my first expectation is that I’m looking at a cycle (for example, rock yields to paper yields to scissors yields to rock). Only after looking at every single icon and arrow do I realize that this is not the case on this sign, because one of the arrows has been flipped. Instead of fighting people’s expectations, the sign should be laid out in the same way people read: left to right, top to bottom. Put the message on two lines: “Cyclists yield to Pedestrians / Yield to Horses.” I’ll admit their design is more clever and takes up less space; however the meaning is muddled. In signage the goal is clarity, not wit.
Of course in a more perfect world, this sign would function better if split into two: first, a sign indicating cyclists and rollerbladers should yield to pedestrians; and 20-30 feet later, a sign reading “Yield to horses.” This would give more time to read the sign, and clear up any confusion about who should be yielding to whom. Come on economic stimulus package – get me a new sign!
Anyway, I don’t usually gripe this much, but I can’t bike past bad design and let it stand.
I recently completed a few design and identity projects for Beltway Technology Connections, a startup company in Washington, DC. BTC came to me looking for a new logo and a set of print collateral to go with it. I’m quite pleased with the end result of the logo project, but in the process of creating it a lot of good alternative designs were tossed away. As they would otherwise never see the light of day, I thought I’d post a little bit about my logo design project.
The finished product
The client left this project pretty open-ended. The primary design criteria was that it fit for both of the sectors they market to: federal government agencies and technology companies. Their first logo, which they had always viewed as something of a placeholder, depicted a sketchy line-drawing of the US capitol building – fine for government, but no connection to technology. My first set of sketches included some designs that played off the building idea, and others that took the logo in a more abstract or techy direction.
A sampling of BTC logo sketches
As I continued designing, I moved the sketching process into Adobe Illustrator. I still wasn’t creating polished and complete logos, but switching to the computer allowed me to give the client a better idea of what the final logo would look like. The need to keep the building became clear through this process – the client wanted a concrete symbol for government, and the building worked very well in that regard.
The color scheme was essentially set before the project began. I had already designed 2 or 3 marketing sheets for them, and developed a color scheme of red, light-but-saturated blue, and gray. As such, my main color decision was not which colors to use, but whether to use the full palette (ie, red/blue/gray) or only a subset (red/gray seemed to work the best here).
BTC Illustrator sketches
With the decision to use the building made, I realized that the “tech” side of the logo might need to come from the style. I hit upon the idea of placing the building mark inside a circular badge. Badge or button logos are a trend among tech companies. While trendiness on its own is not a good reason to make a design decision, in this case the “glowy badge” was able to draw the connection between a government building and the tech industry. But also, round emblems are common as logos for governement agencies. So the BTC logo can be read as a stylized update on a governemental crest.
Color, shading, typeface, and building-shape options
With the BTC logo completed, we shifted focus to GovTechConnect, BTC’s flagship product. GovTechConnect is an online directory that helps bring together government agencies with high tech contractors. We decided to keep the style similar to maintain a connection between product and company.
The beginnings of the GovTechConnect logo
The mark within the GovTechConnect badge was based on an early sketch of the BTC logo. A building symbolizes the federal government, while a gear represents tech as well as the concepts of work, efficiency, and industry. A few alternate designs and a little bit of tweaking later, the GovTechConnect logo was ready for use!
Design alternatives for the GovTechConnect logo
More options for the GovTechConnect badge. I
Thanks to BTC for this very enjoyable project, and for their cooperation in posting this little window into the process on the Rocdove blog.
Where else would they be?
I normally hate shopping for greeting cards. The designs are typically lackluster, and the copy is overwrought and too wordy. I’d rather write my own message, thank you.
So I was refreshed to discover Egg Press on my most recent card shopping excursion. Egg Press is a letterpress printing company that makes some of the best designed and most adorable cards I’ve seen. Most of their designs feature awkward-but-lovable animals printed in two or three colors. Text is limited or absent, making their cards versatile and allowing me to write what I actually want.
Love it.
They print their cards using antique letterpresses. Letterpress printing seems to be emerging as a luxury art-form; honestly, I’m much more excited by their designs and creativity than by their printing process. So go check out Egg Press, a company on the leading edge of the new American craft movement working out of an old warehouse on outdated-but-hip equipment. Why am I not surprised they’re based in Portland?
Finally, don’t miss their ridiculously awesome artsy-craftsy “stitch kits.”
I’d like to call attention to what I think is the next trend in package design: simple, “old-timey” labels covered with dense text. I started noticing this on the label of what is truly an amazing product: Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps. I have never used this product, so I cannot speak to how well it functions in its role as certified fair trade organic soap. However, in its role of making store shelves more interesting and strange, it functions magnificently.
Bronner's at a local Whole Foods, where it almost looks like it belongs
The labels are simple, printed in just one color. They have none of the slickness of most other brands of soap on the shelf, and that really makes them stand out. The label is covered with dense text running vertically and horizontally over every inch. My first thought was that this was a cute attempt to provide people with extra reading material in the bathroom. But rather than the cutesy marketing copy I expected, the text consists of a semi-coherent rant expounding the tenets of the All One God Faith. I take no issue with Dr. Bronner promoting his faith on his product – in fact, I think I prefer that to the usual salesy, consumery approach. Still, seeing this on the shelf at Target next to Dove and Dial is surreal.
But this wouldn’t be a trend if it were only one company. Meyer’s cleaning supplies have adopted a similar label, even using Bronneresque colors on their text-filled labels. Meyer’s looks a little more at home on the shelf of my local grocery store. It feels a little less new-age-hippy, and taps instead into a sort of 1940s, nostalgia-for-a-simpler-time kind of feeling.
Meyer's – it's like Bronners for normal people!
Of course, this trend can be traced back to some of the McSweeney’s covers, and from there to John Hodgman’s books and website. But I expect we’ll start seeing it a lot more. Within the next couple of years, I think we’ll see dense-as-newsprint labels move from cleaning products into every other aisle of the grocery store. It’s a look that feels un-corporate (at least, until big corporations start using it), so I think it’ll take hold especially among the ever-expanding all-natural/organic/cottage-industry set of products. I recommend reading glasses.
Posted by: Brendan on Jan 17th, 2009 Filed under: Design, Rocdove
Jewelry at Egan Day is displayed in glass bell jars by Philly artist/glassblower Sarah Zwerling.
I mentioned Egan Day on this blog when they first opened a few months ago. The two owners, Kate Egan and Cort Day, have created a space that feels like a relaxed art gallery for jewelry. Their current selection includes work by the visionary jewelry designer Ted Muehling, as well as three other talented designers.
I uploaded their new website yesterday afternoon, and just added it to the Rocdove portfolio. We worked hard to design a page that matches the natural but elegant feeling of their store – in the end I think we succeeded.
If you live in Philly or are planning to visit anytime soon, go check them out. I recommend stopping next door at Monk’s for mussels and a beer when you’re done shopping.
I’m a big fan of the new Delta logo. They were able to simplify, refine, and refresh their image while still holding onto the core of the old design. What I didn’t realize about the new logo, however, was it’s connection to the company’s logotype throughout the 60s and 70s.
Connecting through Atlanta, I noticed the big red “Fly Delta Jets” sign and immediately recognized the inspiration for the new Delta type. I remember seeing this sign years ago and thinking how weird it was that it had no connection to the logo. Turns out, Delta has had so many logos that I was just thinking about the wrong era. Delta’s logos from 1959 through the early 80s use a very similar sans. None of the old logos are a perfect match for the slightly awkward, industrial letters of the sign, but they are a whole lot closer than any of the logos I remembered.
Fly Delta Jets sign at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta
Delta's logo, 2007–present
The new letters are a sleek refinement of the old – keeping the connection to the brand’s history while trading gawkiness for a style that is more professional, if slightly more generic.
I’ve been a fan of Squidfire since I found out about them a couple years ago. I have several of their shirts myself, and I’ve bought quite a few of them as gifts – they always seem to be well received. Going back through my photos over the past couple years, it wasn’t hard to find their products popping up a few times in my snapshots.
Squidfire on me & my friends
I like how their designs feature interesting characters and drawings without feeling overly clever, ironic, or branded. They just released a new set of designs in time for holiday shopping, and I just picked up a few. Hit their online store and check them out while they’re still on sale!
