Louise Jessup: Handwriting Development

Considering Louise’s request for a more personal, hand-drawn identity, I asked that she provide me with some samples of her signature/handwriting of her name. This way, I could make the identity as close to Louise’s own hand, providing authenticity to her practice as she establishes herself as a fashion designer.

Louise Jessup: Initial Type Exploration

In beginning to establish an identity for Louise Jessup that captured the spirit of her ‘70’s Biba girl dreaming of going to a 20’s surrealist party,’ I explored a range of typefaces in use/inspired by the 1920s. This was a transitional period from Art Nouveau to Art Deco, and therefore I identified a wide selection of type styles for Louise to provide feedback on. 

Upon seeing the exploration of type, Lousie decided she would prefer a more personal, hand-drawn identity out of fear these type styles may all appear too dated. 

Dan-Air Diaries: Photographic Content

Alongside the typographic content of the book, Julia provided 2 photo albums containing photographs taken during her time as an air stewardess for Dan-Air. From these albums, I selected images to accompany Julia’s accounts before scanning them in for use in the book. I made minor adjustments to these images to maintain the candid and personal aesthetic of the images.These reinforce the content and context of the book, whilst simultaneously providing visual material which can be used break-up long-running pages of text/’diary entries.’

Louise Jessup: Collection Test Garments & Sketches

Louise’s sketches and test garments for her ‘Rose Tinted Gaze’ graduate collection provide insight into her practice as a fashion designer, and may potentially inform her branding/identity. 

The garments are all based on the draping she did for the source piece of her collection, and as can be seen from the test pieces, the clothes are flowing and light.

Louise Jessup: Brief

Client / Background

Louise Jessup is a fashion design student in her final year at Kingston University, London.  Her practice is heavily influenced by the photography of Sarah Moon, and her muse is a 70s Biba girl who dreams of going to a 20s surrealist party. Louise’s graduate collection, entitled ‘Rose Tinted Gaze’ is inspired by the draping of a source piece which has been translated into ready-to-wear tops and dresses, etc.

Job Description

Develop and design the visual identity/branding for Louise Jessup as a graduate fashion designer as well as a look-book for her ‘Rose Tinted Gaze’ graduate collection. This should draw inspiration from the collection and its context as well as Jessup’s practice/style on the whole. Resolutions should be relevant to Louise Jessup’s practice, her collection, and standing as a fashion designer. 

Target Audience 

The target market of Louise Jessup and her ready-to-wear graduate fashion collection are young women aged 18-30, similar to the following of French fashion houses Chloe and Celine.

Deliverables

The visual identity/branding for graduate fashion designer Louise Jessup, including:

• A word-mark/logo.
• A Look-Book for her graduate collection.
• Business cards.

Paint Brief: House of Theobald - Product, Range, Distribution

New brand of ‘Fine quality paint for interior homes’ House of Theobald presents a range of products, including paint, paint-brush style swatches, and a Decorator’s Manual to assist brand establishment and provide a functional aid to the interior design process regarding paint selection and product purchase thereafter. The period style identity should inspire consumer confidence in the brand via perception of heritage, while the product packaging and print collateral should enhance consumer experience and perception. As a whole, these resolutions provide a more informed and functional means of interior transformation to the consumer, in stores or at home.

Paint Brief: House of Theobald Decorator's Manual - Evaluation & Photographs

The ‘House of Theobald’ Decorator’s Manual provides consumers/amateur interior decorators with the information, knowledge and advice on how to maximise the potential of their interior spaces within period homes.

The manual sheds light on all that one should consider when planning to decorate an interior space, including architecture, light and style, colour, schemes, sampling, feature walls, period features, Eras of decoration and how to achieve the best finish when decorating. 

The hard-back cover, which picks out the bright hue of yellow featured on the cover image, uses G . F Smith Colorplan Citrine for visual cohesion. This bold use of colour also supports the context of the new paint brand, its name and aim.

Using the brand’s primary typeface, Tribute OT Roman, and secondary typeface, Shelby, throughout ensured cohesion and consistency across all outputs, including the identity and paint brush swatches. Wide inside and outside margins within the manual lets content breathe, important in representation of how the decisions you make 

as a designer, interior or otherwise, can affect 

perception of space.

Used in conjunction with the brand’s swatches, the manual aids the consumers’ ability to choose colours, devise schemes and match to other interior design considerations with ease and confidence, through considered and functional points 

of delivery. 

Photographic content featured within the manual of Georgian property Swinhope Hall illustrate to readers examples of the content within the book, and potential uses of colour that could be implemented within their own homes to achieve period style. 

Photographa

Dan-Air Diaries: Visual Language Development

Having explored a range of materials published by Dan-Air, I have been able to identify elements consistently used by the airline in associative printed collateral and thus have been able to form an impression of its visual language.

Typography

The airline regularly made use of bold, slab-serif typographic style in Dan-Air’s bi-annual staff newsletter, ‘Flightline.’

Though not an exact match, I found typeface Clarendon to share a great likeness to that used by the airline. A bold slab-serif typeface, originally designed in 1845 by Robert Besley of London letter foundry Thorowgood and Co. (often known as the Fann Street Foundry), it was the first typeface to be copyrighted and became hugely popular after it’s release. 

This typeface is most notably appropriate for use in the ‘Dan-Air Diaries’ publication due 

to its acclaimed heritage as a distinctly British typeface. Its use would represent the airline as a British operation, and more specifically its status as a subsidiary of Davies and Newman, a ship broking company established in London, from whose initials the airline derived its name.

Consistent Visuals

The Dan-Air word mark in almost all settings features the small plane glyph hyphenating the two words of the airline’s name. Though subtle, this visual affirms the company’s service and operation as an airline.

A common appearance across both ‘Flightline’ and ‘In Flight’ magazine is the feature of a double line in varying combinations of blue, red and white, typically interrupted by typographic information.

Colour

While a consistent colour scheme of blue, red and white is clearly evident from Dan-Air’s visual identity and associative graphics, the tones/shades featured in print vary. It is for this reason I looked to the airline’s registered logo for affirmation of used colours. 

I matched these colours to Pantone references 2736 C (Blue) and 485 C (Red).

This patriotic colour scheme is undoubtedly a symbol and celebration of the airline as a British run and founded operation. As the largest independent British airline of its time, this colour scheme is both relevant and appropriate to the production of the Dan-Air Diaries.

Paint Brief: House of Theobald Paint Can Labelling

The ‘House of Theobald’ paint tin utilises the established visual language from the brand identity, swatches and Decorator’s Manual to demonstrate what the brand’s product would look like in stores. The consistent paint-brush motif of the brand is the focus of these tins, which in comparison to many other tin designs from leading brands, is very clean, simple and clear in identification of the colour within the tin.Darker paint colours appear on off-white labelled tins, while lighter, brighter paint colours feature on off-black tins. These too feature the consistent typeface pairing of ‘Tribute OT Roman’ and ‘Shelby’ to maintain brand cohesion.These labels are printed as large stickers, easily applied to tins and also featuring a matt finish, reinforcing the matt quality of ‘House of Theobald’ coloured emulsion ‘for walls and ceilings.’

Print Interview: G . F Smith Paper Samples

As contributors to the ‘Printerview’ publication, all content will be printed on papers supplied by G . F Smith.

In order for the interviewees’ responses to be easily read, this content will simply be printed in black onto white 90-100gsm stock. 

The dividing question pages will be printed on a range of different coloured stocks from the paper merchant’s own Colorplan range at 135gsm. These bold features of colour will aid the ordering and structure of the interview content.

The cover will feature holographic foil on a Colorplan Pale Grey cover. The use of this foil, which takes on a range of colours dependant on light, subtly hints at the range of colours to be featured inside, which will be:

Park Green

Sapphire

Candy Pink

Amethyst

Citrine

Vermillion

Turquoise

Mandarin

Print Interview: Printerview Meeting with Ian Cavanagh

After visiting interviewee Ian Cavanagh  of Pressision to discuss my proposal for the ‘Printerview’ publication, I found that I needed to make compromises on some of the plans due to budget and time restraints. With this being my first experience working with a professional printers, I learnt a lot about the preparation and process of having a project professionally printed and finished.

While the contributors to the publication were in support of the project, they were only able to help with services directly provided by them, naturally. Ian advised me that having the cover and each question page foiled would require the production of 9 foil blocking dies, which would be around £80 per die, and as these are out-sourced, cost would be out of their hands and therefore out of my budget. Instead, I decided to have only the cover foiled, with the question pages inside instead printed using white ink on darker Colorplan shades and black ink on the lighter tones of paper.

Ian talked through the process of setting up the document for print, including embedding spot-colour information for the printing of white ink, and how to package the document including any images and typefaces.

Following the meeting, Pressision provided a quote for the discussed publication, which I accepted before sending the files, approving proofs, making payment and arranging delivery.

The publication will be printed on Pressision’s HP Indigo digital press, one of first UK machines with specialist ‘one-shot’ synthetic printing technology that can digitally print white ink. This method of production means the publication will use the latest technology in the print industry, physically showcasing that which is discussed within the publication and therefore the power of creative print.

Print Interview: Printerview Publication Proposal

Format, Shape & Size

The publication will be B5 (260x180mm flat, 260x360mm open). Perfect bound, this formatting will allow for the interviews to be collated and presented together, providing a clearer picture/overview of the shared opinions, thoughts and viewpoints from the interviewees regarding the print industry - Additionally enabling the use of a range of G . F Smith papers with different Foilco foils whole showing Pressision’s skill and the potentials of creative print. 

Slightly smaller than A4, this size feels like a less standardised size (in comparison to A sizes) and more like a bespoke book. It allows for the inner-pages to be printed on A4, which is also therefore cost-effective when working with a 

limited budget.

‘Printerview’ is 44 pages long in total, inclusive of the cover.

Layout

The ‘Printerview’ publication will use a standard editorial-style 2 column per-page layout within 1 inch margins for the top, botton and inside edges, and 0.75 inch margin for the outside margin.

The content of publication, the interviews with G . F Smith, Pressision, & Foilco, are to be divided into separate questions and answers. Each question will have  its own full page, acting as a starting point for the responses to said questions, of which there are 8:

What sets your company apart from other providers of the same products/services?

What does a typical day for you entail? How many projects do you typically work on?

What is your favourite part of your job?

You deal with a range of clients, from designers and agencies, to students. Is there a different approach to these clients?

What are your thoughts on the expression ‘Print is Dead?’

I often see the names G . F Smith, Pressision and Foilco featured together. Do you find establishing relationships such as these important?

What are your thoughts on creative talent in the North? Do you have to move to London to make it as a designer?

What is next for the company? For creative print?

Typography

The publication will feature two typefaces throughout - Century for body type and Alternate Gothic No.03 for small/sub headings.

Designed by Morris Fuller Benton, Alternate Gothic supplies the publication design with typographic variation. In contrast to body type Century, this typeface is sans-serif, bold, and features a consistent stroke weight. It aids the ordering of typographic information and how it is perceived by the reader while supplying visual contrast. 

The publication uses two primary type-sizes, 12 pt. and 24 pt., utilising the advice of Massimo Vignelli and his modernist principle to feature only two point-sizes of type on a page, most notably one large point size followed by half of the original point size for ordering information and establishing a clear visual hierarchy. The pt. size of 12 is also the most commonly used for purposes of commercial print matter. 

An exception to these type sizes, the cover and question pages feature typographic information at a pt. size of 50, disrupting the standard layout of the interviewee responses through emphasis of the question. Additionally, each question features the same quote mark glyph exchange as that of the ‘Printerview’ title/word-mark for consistency and reinforcement of the publication’s own identity.

Also following the principles of Vignelli,type throughout the publication is aligned flush-left,ensuring maximum readability is experienced by the reader as the gaze has one starting point and clear, distinct line-ends due to the un-justified rag line. 

Finishing/Print Technology

In producing a creative publication which showcases a range of products/skills from its contributors, as well as the potentials and possibilities of creative print, the book will feature a number of finishes and print technologies - mainly through the question pages.

Each dividing question page is to feature one of the 8 questions on a different G . F Smith paper, foiled in a different shade/grade of Foilco foil and/or alternatively use white/fluorescent ink available from Pressision.

The cover will feature the publication title holographic-foiled onto a G . F Smith stock.

Paint Brief: House of Theobald Photographic Content

The images featured within the ‘House of Theobald’ Decorator’s Manual will show relevant accompanying imagery of period property, Swinhope Hall, which happens to own to inspiration for the brand’s name, Mrs. Theobald. This Georgian home is filled with period features such as intricate cornicing, chair and picture rails, grand fireplaces and more - the subjects of which all feature within the publication as it informs and educates the consumer on how to achieve such a style. This 

reinforces the book’s content and context.

Paint Brief: Decorator's Manual Proposal

Format, Shape & Size

The ‘House of Theobald’ Decorator’s Manual will be a square, hard-back, perfect bound publication (250mm x 250 mm flat, 250 x 500 mm open).

The square formatting of the publication is less common in regard to other such books, though feels altogether more substantial than a standard A or B size format, suitable for a substantial manual such as this one. 

A hard-back will supply the book with a more durable, protective cover that will ensure the longevity of the book as a manual which may be used semi-frequently, even if only for reference. The cover will wrap around the perfect bound text block, which will be made up of 32 double-sided (print to both sides) custom 250mm x 250 mm square sheets - making a 64 page publication.

Layout 

The book will use the following margins:

Top: 31.75

Bottom: 19.05

Inside: 64mm

Outside:50mm

As a square publication, this will allow for adequate space to surround centred passages of typographic content and images throughout the manual, relevant in regard to the content and its concern with space, light and style. 

Pages will range from typographic copy alone, to singular images, to typographic and illustrative visuals (paint Brushes) used in the forming of cohesion with the brand’s swatches/

paint colours.

Typography

Typography throughout the manual will use both the brands’ primary typeface, Tribute OT Roman, and secondary typeface, Shelby.This will ensure cohesion and consistency across all brand outputs and printed collateral.These typefaces captures the brand’s motive to provide interior decorators with knowledge regarding the selection of colour and methodologies for transforming the spaces of period homes. They also reinforces the archaic tone of voice provided by the name ‘Theobald,’ which in itself represents the bold personage of those who use the brand’s fine quality, rich-pigmented product. In addition to this, they instil a greater sense of personality and character, apt in representing how personal an endeavour in interior decoration is in being a reflection of those who live within a home. 

Finishing/Stock

The hard-back cover of the ‘House of Theobald’ Decorator’s Manual will be covered in a wipe-able plastic coating. As a book which may be out around paint, brushes and tins, this will protect the book from any potential damage and or marking from paint.

The cover will use a bold colour, informed by a photograph featured on the front, representative of the brand’s ‘bold’ context. Inner covers will conversely be a more muted tone for balance/a harmonious cover scheme that doesn’t take away from the content with the Decorator’s manual.

The text/block content of the publication will be printed on 160gsm, matt stock for accurate colour and finish representation of featured colours and photographic content. 

Dan-Air Diaries: Airline Identity & Visual Language

In order to gain inspiration from and to identify the visual language used by Dan-Air, I explored a range of materials published by the air-line from the time period during which Julia Burton worked as an air-stewardess (1984-1992).

These materials included ‘Flightline,’ the airline’s bi-monthly staff newsletter, and ‘InFlight,’ which as the name suggests, was Dan-Air’s in-flight magazine.

As a result of the airline no longer being active, and due to the long period of time which has passed since the cessation of operations, there is very limited information to be found regarding the airline’s identity and printed collateral.

The Dan-Air logo is presumed to be a custom typographic treatment. It is notably sans-serif, italicised and features strong contrast in weight of stroke. Additionally, the dash (-) in-between the two words presents itself as a small glyph of a plane, representing the company’s service as an airline.

Throughout its time in service, Dan-Air explored a range of typographic and layout/compositional styles in ‘Flightline’ and ‘In Flight,’ predominantly serif and slab-serif in classification (in contrast to the Dan-Air word mark), as well as more bespoke, hand-rendered treatments, all  typical of the time.

Dan-Air used a consistent colour scheme throughout its life time, for everything from its word mark, printed collateral and staff uniform etc. A scheme of blue, red and white almost certainly used in representation and celebration of the airline being a British, UK founded and based company. There is not much consistency when it comes to the use of specific tones of the colours featured in the airline’s printed matter, though are most typically mid shades, bold and vibrant. The airline’s print regularly featured a double-line of combinations of these colours.