Hand drawn typo

Of Mice and Men

A simple graphic cover design for John Steinbeck's classic novel. I wanted create a simple image that used textures to add meaning. I linked the dead mouse with a woman's hair in reference to the death of Curley's wife.

S is for

Today I had the uncontrollable urge to draw a dinosaur. Here are the results...

original drawing

Typo bomb

After exploring which art forms share the attributes listed below I started looking at Street art for inspiration. This is a literal interpretation of "sticker bombing".

I like the idea of having the logo as a sticker, that can be given out with products and for promotion. Perhaps the idea of a bomb is too literal. If the sticker approach where to be taken, it would be most likely that the stickers would not be limited to one symbol. Established and emerging artists may be invited to contribute to sticker sheets that are included as part of the packaging of the products. Typo already produce a range of "stickable wall art" so this would be a natural progression.

Sticker Bombing

The dangers with appropriating a style like this is that it is in fashion now, but it is difficult to predict how long that will be the case. The aim is to create a logo that includes the elements that sticker bombing and punk share, (irreverence, danger and rebellion) while not completely poaching the aesthetic.

David

What is Typo?

In my explorations for an identity for TYPO I have been looking a lot at punk design. I fear however that if the TYPO logo is too heavily influenced by punk it will not stay relevant. So in order to stay true to the ideas of punk I looked at what it was that originally drew me to it. 

CLOSE UP AND PRIVATE IN MOTION from Noriko Okaku on Vimeo.

A stylish Motion graphic piece by architect and artist Sergei Sviatchenko and motion graphics artist Noriko Okaku that combines my love of collage, bowties and loafers. Finally.

wood cut typo

Vintage Typo

Here I played with the idea of punk collage typography and combined it with vintage ornamental lettering. As discussed earlier a lot of typo's imagery uses and subverts retro or vintage clip art in a "punk" way. I think there were some interesting results however they are perhaps too intricate and detailed for our purposes. 

Two Tone

Here I experimented with incorporating the paper into the texture of the design. The two tone approach hints at the screen printed punk and rock poster. 

These designs are probably still too dry and dont look hand made enough, but I like the idea of incorporating the butchers paper into the feel of the logo. Butchers paper is promenant in Typo stores, it is used as wrapping paper as well as for a place for people to test pens and markers. These logos come off as a little soviet, especially the last one, not necessarily the right direction. Perhaps using more organic shapes would create a more playful mood and stop it from feeling so totalitarian. Perhaps screen printing is to automated and if we go with something more hand made like wood cut or lino print it would add some humanity to it.

Typo analysis

Typo is a stationary and “concept” store that is a branch of Cotton On, a clothing store. It is a relatively new company, it a franchise with stores across Australia as well as products being sold inside of some Cotton On stores and Borders book shops.

Typo seems to be Cotton On’s reaction to the Just Groups stationary/ concept store Smiggle. While there are defiantly some similarities between the two stores Typo is decidedly different. This can be seen when comparing the two companies mission statements.

read more below the break

Typo logo design experiments #1

The first set of experiments for a redesign of the TYPO stationary logo. Here I played with the idea of a Typo being a defect. The sees itself as being fresh and fun so I had licence to be a little messy. I used the ink splats to try and emphasize the O in typ-O to give the feeling that something went wrong when the word was being typed. Emphasizing the last character in the word gives it a feeling of narrative. Typo being a specialty stationery store I thought the use of ink was appropriate. I chose to start my experiments with Times New Roman as it is one of the most common fonts and default in most word processors.

Showreel 2010

Callan Rowe Showreel 2010 from callan rowe on Vimeo.

waxed world

waxed world from callan rowe on Vimeo.