Blue and White

  

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From what I can gather out of a google translated description this is for a book of some sort, also from Tokyo Pistol, I would assume the cover but I'm not entirely sure. The inability to identify the actual work doesn't change my ability to get a feeling of the book from the typography, one of the first things I really appreciate is the use of white space in the top, while some of the bits seem a little bit busy they're all well utilized. The actual font choice is a bit thicker, not sharp or too square looking but still professional looking. Not intimidating though, it looks informative and professional without being too in my face about the information it has. I really enjoy the color scheme as well, the contrast of white and royal blue with the subtle lighter blue for some slightly less important information.

Monkey Fish the Book

  

So that design firm I mentioned before is called Tokyo Pistol and this is a book cover design from them. I won't lie, I picked this one because of it's very intense typographic elements but originally I thought it was for a zoo or some kind of circus. It's not, but I still like the typography in this piece and I could see it on the cover of a book. I do not like the graphic elements however, but luckily I'm not here to talk about those. What I assume is the title of the book does exactly what I title should do; it catches me attention without being too intimidating, it looks very intense and important and adds to the hierarchy of the work. The pure white and black fonts do what they should, they're exciting looking, not perfect but don't grab my attention as much as the title does. The only thing I really have an issue with is the red font. Both the red on white and the red on black; the red on black looks okay at best on the gray white, and then gets lost and hurts my eyes to look at on the orange. The red on white just doesn't work at all for me, it looks transparent and event though I can't read it just looking at it strains my eyes. The more I look at this piece the less I have to admit I like it, but if I were just looking for a book it would surely catch my attention.

Price Tag

  

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Again from fuelmybrand, though I do have a few Japanese ads I plan on posting about from another design firm at a later date, a very simplistic logo. The way the font on the tag looks very sharp and in your face, which defiantly works well for a shopping site. It's sharp, but it's not too sharp to be intimidating. It still looks fun, and has an Asian feel to it while still being in familiar lettering. The fonts above and below are a little more sophisticated looking, without being intimidatingly so. They're not too thin or small or sharp to be unrelated to the above font, and the only real graphic element only exists to emphasis the typographic elements. This is a piece I don't have very many problems with, aside from the slightly awkward swirl looking string off of the side of the tag. 

Butterfly Cards

  

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I've grown very interested in fuelmybrands designs, so here's yet another one from them. The only real problem I have with this particular logo is the color scheme, it reminds me a lot of a gas station. And that's probably a combination of the chicken like color scheme and the font choice, but regardless I do actually like the font choice. Though it took me a moment to read it has a very personal yet professional feel to it, the top M looking vaguely like a present, while the M and W together remind me of a butterfly. The borderline script font is very inviting and has a personal feel to it, without being overly unprofessional. I think overall it's very successful.

ouo

  

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I've grown really attached to fuelmybrand's logo work, and I enjoy this one especially. I really like the color scheme here, it's very inviting without looking overly modern; it looks like something that people could relate to. The font itself reminds me of something sort of tavern looking, but somehow when put together with it's color scheme it doesn't look that way. It looks more like something out of a story book, or something a little more Irish. Overally I really adore this piece, from it's playful font choice all the way to the subtle little face in the double o's I didn't notice before.

w*o*w

  

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I'm a real fan of fully typographic logos, and I adore the little touches on this one. While the actual font choice doesn't really stand out much to me the affects are beautiful. The only issue I really can say I have with this is the fact the two gradients don't match at all, one is an almost obvious gradient while the other is playful and it might just be me bu it bothers me. What I adore about this piece is the hidden face within the 'wow' there's actually a little expression that sort of matches the word, and it stares at you going ':o'. It's really effective to me, and it's a logo I look twice at due to some slight variation within the text and subtle accents to further assist the typographic elements.

Test Tube Bubbles

  

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While I can't say I'm totally in love with this color scheme or the graphic element I really adore the font choice. I've never looked up science logos before, but I came across this one again on fuelmybrand, and I adore the concept here. The bubbles seem a little forced but I enjoy the way the font is a little bit blocky and broken up in some places, while unnecessarily connected in others. The font gives me a feeling of a fun innovative and creative business, but still a business that gets work done and is taken seriously; personally, that's exactly what I'd expect from any kind of science company.

Free Batman

  

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As I've mentioned in the past I dislike using pieces without a solid source, however I adore this piece from it's use of my personal favorite superhero to the wonderful design elements themselves. In this poster the typography is the centerpiece, the graphics are simple and only make the typography stronger. The color scheme is subtle but impacting, the yellows bringing attention to the more important things within the body paragraphs as well as putting emphasis on the Hidden Heroes part of the title. I think it's beautiful work overall, though it ends up looking very blocky I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Splattery Mess

  

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This logo was made by fuelmybrand which is a design firm that I really care for, or at least their website. This particular piece is something I wouldn't like at all if you just described it to me. Red and blue, with a target and lots of splatters. Just sounds messy really, and honestly looking at it it's not something I would generally care for. However,I really adore this piece and looking at it I wouldn't like it if it were just the graphic with any other font. The way the font isn't perfect really fits the style that the font itself has, being a very messy paint looking style none of the letters really fall on the same place, some of them even look a little smaller while the kerning is changed on others to continue the imperfect look. The color scheme is also beautifully done, and while it's really outside of my tastes, and I'm quite surprised I like it I really do like it.

A Design

  

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I really dislike using pieces that I can't find a solid source for, however this piece is practically a profile itself which makes me feel a bit better about it. I really adore this piece, from the beautiful use of the letter 'A's as a design element to the use of bold separation in the paragraph explaining who this man is. The hierarchy in this piece is wonderfully done as well, I think it's a beautiful biography piece from it's color scheme to it's masterful use of typographic elements.

Red, Black, and White Space

  

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So you might recall that beautiful peter pan poster I did a review on a few days ago; well this lovely poster was done by the same designer for the same project but has an entirely different feel to it. Again, the graphic is beautiful and I wouldn't change a thing about it, I even like the sort of oddly placed drop shadows. And in this piece I can also really appreciate the typography. The little tab it comes up into is really clever to me, resembling a sort of bookmark, and just adds another point of interest. I adore the way they incorporate the red into the type. The small graphics only add to the strong san-serif font choice, and I also really like the way the tracking is set to be a bit smaller keeping with a very compact look. The one thing I wish they'd kept from their last poster is the way they had the word story stand out- it really just blends into the rest of the top message to me while the word another still sticks out just fine. Just as last time all in all I really like this advertisement.

Processing

  

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This reminds me a lot of our most recent project; making a bookcover entirely out of font. I adore the way this one was done as well, the graphic (which reminds me of transferring data from one thing to another) is made entirely of this typewriter styled font and it's beautifully arranged into all sorts of little things inside the larger graphic. I've always liked it when font goes over the spine, and I think it's done wonderfully here other than the fact that the title on the spine is dangerously close to the graphic. I also really enjoy the color scheme overall, the black and brighter orange on a faded looking background, and none of the font is perfectly straight; even on the spine the font takes a bit of a turn trying to keep with it's stylized font choice.

Design is a Good Car

  

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I adore how simplistic this design is, it's not much more than a car some strong white text and a light on the eye catching red-orange background. A nice use of contrast between all of the colors, and everything holds the weight it should. The car doesn't seem out of place, and while it might take someone a moment to understand that it's the end of the sentence (because 'design is a good car' isn't the first thing we'd expect out of 'design is a good...') it's still very strong. The font isn't quite as simple as it looks either, it's heavy enough (as it should be) to fit into the hierarchy, and it's not exactly a soft font, but at the same time there are hooks on the ends of the G's that add a level of interest to it and sort of prove to us they're not just a cop-out font like Ariel and Helvetica typically are. The reason I wanted to talk about this font choice was because there was a girl in my Graphic Design 1 class (I know, not entirely relevant) who has a really amazing logo- but she used Ariel as her font choice and it left me wanting more, especially because of how 1/3 of her logo was this really bold font and it just looked boring to me. I adore the way this heavier font does exactly what I wanted her to be able to find; it's still strong and very simplistic but it has that one little quirk that sets it apart.

Statistics

  

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Talk about wonderful use of heiarchy.
 I hate that when I try to find book covers with references that site the designer all I find is advertisements for books but regardless. This ad really draws you in, whether it be from confusion or, for the more competitive, because you've almost been issued a challenge; whatever the reason this is an ad that will catch your eye with it's black ridiculously large san-serif font. Of course it does clarify down below, but in a way that's almost just as confusing and not at all the direction you expected it to go. By the time the larger san-serif text has lured you in you're probably going to wind up reading the smaller text just to try and understand what the ad's even talking about- and at that point the advertisement has met it's goal. I can't get a good enough look at the book cover itself to give an accurate opinion of it, but from what I can see I appreciate the use of an almost handwritten font over a personal looking picture, the red word at the top only making the affect stronger and whomever looks at it more curious.

Neverland Exchange

Neverland

  

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Again, not a book cover but I absolutely adore this poster. Unfortunately the part I adore isn't the part I should write about for this class, so I'll leave it at the fact that it's absolutely amazing artwork done subtly enough I didn't realize how amazing it was at a glance. The typography is unfortunately something I'm not as fond of. While I'm fairly certain the font at the bottom on the square is the same as the one on the top the logo in the middle still makes it seem as if there are four fonts; this is something I'd usually understand and support the designer with, but in this case I don't understand the reasoning behind the font choice in another. You have a beautiful thin font to connect the important words, a fable looking font that isn't overly decorative but still looks like it belongs for the word story, and yet for some reason the word another just looks almost scy-fy or even documentary to me. I would have liked it so much more if either another was done in that same thin font with a stroke and maybe possibly italicized for emphasis or even just done in the same font as story. Either would have been much better than the choice that was made. The other problem I have is I feel like the font is too compact, and it leaves a lot of white space that just seems unnecessary around it. I could understand a want for some white space but the need for 3/4 of the space to be empty just seems like overkill to me. The one thing I really can appreciate is the color scheme and, assuming they're not part of the logo, the use of lines to separate the logo from the rest of the information.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

  

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I'm going to start off by saying there really isn't anything /wrong/ with this to me. The colors are fine, the graphics fine, everything legible, hierarchy really isn't bad; that doesn't mean I like it though. I honestly don't like any of it, it doesn't really match the story to me, when a story like A Christmas Carol is such a classic a contemporary feeling poster like these almost feels like a crime to me. I could probably get over the orniments; they aren't the best thing I've ever seen but neither are they the worst, but I just can't accept that san-serif harsh font. It makes it look more like a scy-fy mystery deal to me. Ya, they're neat and I can't say I found too terribly much about them to know for sure how close to the original story they were, but it just doesn't read to me at all what the story is. Another thing that bugs me is the way in A Christmas Carol the world 'Carol' is a lighter green and doesn't hold my attention the way the first two words are. Again, overall I can appreciate these posters; just not for their subject.

Killer Sausages?

  

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Looking for book cover designs, I found this lovely advertisement and while it's not exactly about the book cover I still really enjoy the idea behind it. I myself have dabbled in photography, so I can appreciate the time that was probably spent in taking an intricate picture where literally everyone is doing something worth taking a moment to look at. Whether it be the group on the cover, or even just the woman in the purple shirt who doesn't care much for what's going on so long as she can continue to eat. The photoshop job is done phenomenally, or at least it seems that way to someone like me who has only been really working in photostop for about a year. But enough about the graphics and more about the typography elements like I should be focusing on in the first place. The reason I'm so okay with putting this here even if it's strongest parts are graphics is because the typography is just as strong to me. With that bold 90's looking font choice, red to orange gradient and all, it really does have the feel of an old cheesy horror novel one would find stuffed on a back shelf in a book store. Paired with that is the very sophisticated thin font defined by simply being bolded, it makes it all come together as something more; which is what was intended. It brings a level to the piece that would have been lost has the font been thicker or even defined differently; while the piece as a whole is playful the hotel they're advertising is very grown up, but of course grown ups can have some fun too.

Dog Thoughts

  

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This is an advertisement that speaks to me, even though I'm not a dog person at all. It takes an absolutely amazing photograph and turns it into an equally amazing advertisement. Even if the speech bubble is a little bit off the idea of it is really interesting and strong to me, the entire thing seems to me to be about dog stress and that you should send them to this most likely overpriced kennel so they can get away for awhile. Just like people like to get away and go on vacation, you should do the same for your dog whom is obviously stressed out and not just laying on the ground because it can. Regardless, the overall typography is really nice to me, from a relaxed but still fairly sophisticated font choice at the bottom to the more playful personal touch within the speech bubble, I can't think of much I'd want changed.

A is What He Eats

  

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This is a piece that I think is clever but not efficiently done. I like the bolder font, along with the thin fonts at the bottom but the thin M and N look a bit out of place. This is arguably the point, but I just don't think it really works. I wish the M and N were a bit thicker to get the point across, they don't need to be as massive as the A or the letters inside of it but just enough that it shows a difference.