Happy Cabs: Client Wants

Over the last few email exchanges with this client it's apparent they're asking for almost the same logo as their current one, a more 'cartoon' style is wanted in comparison to my designs however they have said they were 'pleasantly surprised with my designs' which apparently they weren't expecting (my thought process as opposed to how good I would be I hope..)

The above images are my attempt at something slightly more animated, they said they were happy purely having a visual representation hence the lack of Logo type, but I still feel the strongest visual identity for them would be the first mock up, which they have agreed is their favourite luckily. However they've asked for my opinion and I did suggest this would be more appropriate then perhaps what they have envisaged, I tried to do so in the most polite way possible...

In addition to this I sent them an example of what this logo would look like on business cards to try give them more perspective.

Happy Cabs: Logo Design

After researching different taxi company logos I began experimenting with a basic taxi 'frame' and
altering this so the edges were smoother, as one of my aims was to ensure the logo looked friendly, softening the edges by rounding corners achieved this feel. I had to include the visuals of a 'happy cab' but wanted to update this giving the company a modern looking image which may furthermore reach out to a wider audience such as Uber users as their branding is very simple and clean.

The outdated imagery of their current logo would only really appeal to very young audiences, broadening the demographic audience I made sure the logo was accessible to a wider group of people, maintaining the friendly fun side while looking professional, suggestive of a reliable service. A key point in the brief highlighted the fact they didn't want any typography, just  "strong visual imagery". I had to ensure my logo was to be self explanatory and recognisable, maintaining the same colour scheme throughout the logo, website and Norwich City Council sticker I feel adds to this sense of familiarity and safety as it's licenced by the council which customers can clearly read from the sticker, but can now visually make this connection subconsciously whenever they see the logo in a quicker response time.

These above designs I decided were appropriate for the context and embodied a friendly, safe and reliable feel. With the third image I added a simple emboss experimenting with the aesthetic similar to other taxi logos which appear shiny with connotations of speed however I didn't feel it was appropriate alongside the Norwich City Council sticker which is just a flat colour, although these two are obviously not linked directly I feel the overall design featured on the car would looks a lot more fluid if the two were harmonious and backs up this notion of safety and reliability.

Looking more into this concept I played around with inverting the image and using the same colour circle encasing the cab. I played around with the Norwich city council colour swatch, a green I felt was appropriate that reinforced safety with connotations of earthy, healthy vibes and the lighter blue being a swatch from the City council cab sticker.









The design including the road I felt could be quite ambiguous and distracts from the simple visual of the cab, the rectangular lines on the road don't quite match the curved edges of the cab and aren't necessary as customers don't need further context as to what the logo means.

OUGD503: Happy Cabs Brief: Rationale & Research (small responsive brief)

I took a taxi ride in Norwich recently and was talking to the driver about design work and it just so happens they were in need of a revamp of his logo. I contacted him using the card he gave me and asked if he was still looking for one which conveniently he did. His current logo is quite literally of a 'Happy cab' which is garish, outdated and doesn't fit in with the design of his website at all.

My aim set by the client is to design this taxi firm a new logo.

Seeing as this was all was mentioned by the client I took it upon myself to further research what it was that would be idealistic for a taxi firm. I found their guidelines on their website below which helped this...

The client then sent me this visual mock up of a taxi featuring the current logo, alongside the Norwich city council logo which will be closer to the rear of the car. Before starting mocking anything up I drew up an invoice for the logo design.

Current logo:




Looking at their website (which is not yet live hence the incomplete telephone number) it seems right to use colours that match so the logo will look at home on their banner, they too seem to have mimicked the colour of the Norwich City Council badge.

Importantly I need to follow guidelines dictating what service they offer;

"In modern Eco friendly, fully Licensed and Insured vehicles"

You can also pay using multiple different modern methods eg Apple pay etc, so logo must be modern

"Old school Values! Modern Way of Working!" 

Research

I started researching taxi company logos and found like their current logo, feature a lot of yellow, black and white; typical of black London taxis and American yellow cabs. They suggested speed were often 'glossy/shiny' suggestive of cleanness/ reliability but were typically more function over aesthetic. The garish yellow seems outdated and less purposely welcoming, more tacky. I did however like the use of the Trebaol Taxi (I assume that's what it's called the logotype makes it quite illegible) firm's iconography with the pinpoint.



I wanted to move away from this and focus on a more updated modern approach to such designs. In terms of visuals I asked if he wanted to keep the image (but update it) of a smiling taxi, whilst suggested using iconography of maps such as pin points which are used by Uber, Google maps and City mapper. The city mapper designs are especially relevant thanks to the smiley face included in the map pinpoint

Looking into the Uber branding it was interesting to see their design process, the reasoning behind their use of grids:

Grid: The grid is the foundation for organizing all the design components. You don’t see it, but it’s always there. It is as invisible and powerful as our technology, keeping the disparate components of our visual identity clear, cohesive, and beautiful.

Furthermore I read an article with the Citymapper brand designer Gilbert Wedam on It's Nice That.

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/citymapper-gilbert-wedam-1

“I think the one thing that sums up Citymapper best is its ‘Get Me Home’ button. Hard to put in words, but it’s a good example of the undertone of our entire product. I, as an app, dear user, I’m around, you do your thing, no matter where crazy life takes you. But you’ll always have an escape route. Get me home.”

Back home in London I use the Citymapper app daily, aiding my navigation from A to B in the simplest of terms, giving you a route and an expected cost of that route. The best feature I find is the 'Get me home' option. Wherever you are at whatever time at the click of a button you can access the most efficient route home, the app includes uber as an option for parts of the journey and other alternatives such as only buses, alerting you also the price of transport thus has helped me save money. The ease of the get me home option becomes particularly apparent when you're intoxicated and live on the other side of London...

The key design element is 'helpfulness' which is apparent through the simplistic san serif typeface, friendly icons (use of characters and smiley faces) and simplicity of layout as well as the comforting shade of green with connotations of a more eco friendly way of getting around, using public transport rather than a car. 

For my logo however this eco-friendly aspect is not relevant but I do want to incorporate the same friendly helpful aesthetic as the transport in Norwich relies more on taxis especially at night. Having spent a weekend visiting my brother I found it very difficult to get a taxi after a night out, having to wait over an hour and queue for taxis outside a warehouse venue out of town. Considering this, the logo for the taxi company should be especially inviting as this may enable the firm to get more bookings, as well as a modern aesthetic giving connotations of being fast and reliable like Uber. 

In summary I intend the new logo to be / have connotations of..

modern
friendly
reliability (licensed / insured)

OUGD505 Idea Generation Brief 1

Design Principles

Brief 1

IDEA 1

Initially thinking about which sub-genre to choose, I considered Minimal Dubstep as I felt being somewhat in this scene attending many events throughout the last few years has enabled me to reach a good level of understanding of what it is that makes these scene individual, they rely heavily on the sound-system. This sound-system culture however is relevant to many other sub-genres like gabba and phsytrance. To make it individual to this sub-genre I'd have to look deeper into the culture behind the music, the crowd as a whole are there in adoration of the music, events have nice vibes with friendly 'dubstep heads' on a whole, however there has been a fair share of violence particularly at one of minimal dubstep's homes The West Indian Center in Leeds, stabbings and gang violence. However these are mostly associated with the drug culture behind the scene which isn't representative of the majority of the crowd as they're there for that bass that shakes your soul, entitling you to free earplugs with every can of Red Stripe.

Iration Steppas Soundsystem:
"We took our sound down there and in them days no one knew what sound system culture was about. We dropped the bass and all the Vodka, Rum, JD dropped down, man went crazy! He was like 'I didn't know it was like that kind of bass!'", reminisces Iration. It was April 1998, spirits were high and things were good.
http://packlondon.com/news/NewsDetail/289

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=2RJ3ov1-CJs



IDEA 2

Another possible sub-genre to choose from is Jump Up, a genre under the broad wing of drum and bass. It's characterised by it's aggressive nature in terms of the actual frequencies and often the crowds, whilst there is a real community behind the scene it is also quite heavily drug fuelled which can often lead to violence. I feel perhaps more confident on focusing on this sub-genre as Jump Up has been a not so guilty pleasure of mine ever since I was 17, attending my first squat rave opened my eyes up to not only a new composition of music, but a new way of socialising and dancing. Something that really caught my eye was the way people moved to this music, not only was their jaw swinging but their feet were rapidly co-ordinated, 'skanking' became a thing I had to learn. Now, travelling across the country to go to Jump Up events I often in places other than London get weird stares, I was circled by almost the whole club in Falmouth with everyone asking "how the fuck do you do that/ what is that?"



“So much love for DNB & all the Drums heads, you won’t find another scene with such loyal supporters & such energy in the raves” (Harry Shotta 2013).

Most graphic design done for Jump Up nights (posters, flyers etc) and album artwork for the DJ's is repulsive. My favourite event 'Next Hype' occurs once every two months in Vauxhall at Fire and Lightbox complex boasting 7 arenas of screeching bass, rowdy crowds and mouthy MC's. As much as I love the music, vast numbers just come to sell drugs, start fights and support those Mc's I have trouble appreciating, due to the sexist, graphic, abusive nature of their 'bars' (lyrics). For instance one of the biggest MC's MC Bassman is a convicted rapist, my friend has actually seen this man beat up a woman in the carpark of an event venue. It's really unnerving therefore to hear him (and other adoring fans) chanting lyrics such as..



"Not a pussy tek with the bass subject"
"When me fuck a girl she screams like a cat
mmeeeeeooooowwwwww love it like dat"
"The bass is heavy - Like a sack of spuds".
"When me not around you know she use her finger, 
When me not around you know she use her finger,
When me not around you know she use her finger,
One time me catch her with a big banana"

as well as hosting nights like '50 shades of bass'.

And similar undertones of violence and sexism from MC Eksman a pioneer of the scene..



"Yo, she want some hotel sex, Hotel sex, she want some hotel sex. Hotel sex, she want some hotel sex. In the shower in the bed, bent over the desk. She says “aaaargh that feels amazing”, Ekser went stiff with the noise she was making. Up down, up down, bed starts shaking, Wall starts banging till my back starts aching."

The blatantly misogynistic lyrics alienate their female audience, contradicting their aim to attract females, promoting many nights with female free entry, there is only a handful of females I could name in the scene that have managed to push their way to recognition through the aggressive male orientated forefront, yet I've still only seen one female MC at Next Hype, once, right at the end at 6am. She absolutely blew the men out the water, MC Enamie   

RSA- Moving Pictures Brief: Research (small responsive brief)

My deliverable will be a stop motion animation I plan to illustrate by hand, this will accompany one of two sound clips, I chose the first as I feel the topics resonate most with me. The content is explained below along with the clip, the first time I heard this it clicked with me and I knew I could get truly passionate about this brief as I've previously studied and made art and literature surrounding Feminism, the implication of women feeling inadequate will also tie in with my research and interest in mental health and gender psychology.

 

The clip is 1 minute long and the aim is to create something that challenges conventions, "how does your solution benefit society" I aim to tackle this feminist and mental health perspective head on and illustrations I want to be an abstract way of delving into this topic, hopefully keeping the viewers attention as the illustrations won't be photo realistic, more abstract representations which will demonstrate emotions surrounding the context. As Dufu urges women to embrace their imperfections, I will illustrate her narrative with less than perfect drawings, highlighting a reflection of women's perspective of themselves. 

Transcript:



Research 

Considering different mediums of animation, I looked at Guldies videos and was inspired by the intricacy of their stop motion animation techniques. They're able to have blobs of Fimo suspended using wire he edits out afterwards, using meticulous precision the video is incredibly smooth.

While this seemed like a challenge, I wanted to further broaden my skills in hand-drawn animation as I feel I've lost touch with illustration recently, not remembering the last time I undertook a drawing project. I have previously done a small hand-drawn animation when in my foundation year which recieved great humoured response. This is in response to 'The Discovery Of Bacteria':

LBM (Little Bacteria Man)

http://aligray1.wixsite.com/portfolio/single-post/2016/02/15/LBM-Little-Bacteria-Man-in-The-Discovery-Of-Bacteria

I'd love to elaborate on this practice but maintain the same quirky disjointed style, My drawings are messy, not completely fluid, the animation itself has different frame sizes in LBM which I'd obviously like to rectify for this animation so it's more professional. However I aim to maintain the scruffy handmade feel with not so precise accuracy of illustrations, minor things like different shading angels but covering the same area so it's not so obvious but aiding the overall imperfection as I admired this quality from my previous attempt and feel it hones in on my individual style.

I've started to consider the fluidity of my animation, having only done a very shaky 5 second long animation before I'd like to challenge myself using a hand drawn medium, for the full minute.

I would have to draw up to 900 frames if I wanted 15 fps:

Looking at hand-drawn animation videos I found the charming work of Malcom Sutherland:

UMBRA (Animated short - HD - 2010, Malcolm Sutherland)

The Tourists- Malcom Sutherland

I've asked how many fps this animator uses and await response. I love his simplistic style with complex concepts behind each surreal experience. The subtle use of colour works really well and makes me consider wether I want my animations in full colour, with a hint like Sutherland's or just have them in black and white, placing emphasis on the conceptual message.