Wednesday, 26 November 2014

Negative Space - Design Principles - OUGD404

During this session of design principles, we had to learn about the advantages of using negative space within design, and how it can convey more than just a word or an object, but a message within these subjects.


The famous FedEx logo in greyscale with an arrow within the 'Ex' to represent their company, delivering goods.

To begin the task I had to choose a word I thought would be effective to represent in such a way. I found that choosing a word was not the difficult part. It was thinking of what I could incorporate into the word that was harder for me. I knew it had to be quick and witty, so once I'd narrowed it down to one word I brain stormed the best options I could take.



Initial idea: I chose coffee as I enjoy it and think it would be easier for me to think of idea's for something I'm interested in.


Expanding on the previous idea, I chose to discard the idea of the letters 'e' being a mug as I thought it was a bit repetitive.

Furthering my idea development I chose to draw it in a different style. This design flows better than the other two but still lacks an effective use of negative space.

 The previous designs led me to create this. I will obviously have to refine the 'e' to resemble a cup when vectorised but I think it has worked out as I set out for it to.


Scanning the image into Adobe Illustrator helped me establish where I needed to put anchor point and add the correct curves. As you can tell I chose to use a single 'e' instead of both as I think it still gets the message across that it is a cup of coffee yet keeps it simple and readable.

I wasn't happy with he live trace, so I decided to expand and use the pen tool to create anchor points on all of the edges of the lettering. This then enabled me to be able to use the convert anchor point tool to curve the lines perfectly and precisely. I did not want it to look too digital as I wanted it to maintain that hand drawn feel to make it more relevant to the stereotypical 'enjoy a coffee at home' vibe.

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