Set about trying to develop the logo of Reductress into something that has a more contemporary aesthetic and will therefore appeal to younger ages to encourage more people to read about and get involved with feminism and feminist publications. I wanted to create a logo which reflects the satirical tone of the articles without having to rely on the scripted, flowery, 'girly' type style, which is an obvious dig at the stereotypes towards women and what they would enjoy in reading and looking at.
I found that Reductress has an additional shorter logo version with the R and a miniature version of the flower alongside it: 'R*', and decided to look at recreating this. Using ink and a square paintbrush to produce results that are bold with thick lines, I looked at mostly making sans serif letterforms as this has a more modern feel, and to how I could take the characteristics of the original 'R' logo letterform and only slightly change them so that it would keep some design consistency between the print and the online blog.
Looked at the negative space forms that make up the style of the scripted R and also how it has an upturned leg and involves a very smooth rounded bowl and a dynamic almond shaped eye. There is also a variety of line weights within the letterform.
I looked at subverting the line weights into a letterform which feels heavier and more dense, to take away this scripted aesthetic. Additionally I took away the negative space between the ascender and bowl and which gave it a more contemporary aesthetic, making it bolder and less detailed.
I found that the R's I made that used more rounded forms and less details were more successful in being suitable in conveying satire, as it's fun, playful and not as serious as those which involve serifs and follow the more conventional line weights and proportions of the letterform R.
Found that simple is best again and again throughout this process, first when attempting to create a new R: traced over the original and established lines across the letterform from where two lines meet on the letterform (eg. between the stem and bowl at the top), from which the new letterform could not cross. The result was an odd 'R' which could have been developed but I realised the process it was created from had no relevance to the concept of feminism nor satire.
When trying to recreate the flower symbol to be less conventional I looked at reflecting the bold thick line aesthetic of the 'R's I had created in the flower symbol by forming the petals out of rectangles and triangular tipped rectangles and so on. I did it in an abstract free hand manner so that they would reflect a human quality (an important element of feminist publications and the aesthetic of zines). When I felt these weren't working I also looked at recreating the flower in the more typical way, with the petals looking realistic. I also played with forgetting using bold thick lines and instead did the opposite, creating a 'flower' which is made up of open ended triangle outlines and one triangle outline. This is to reflect how this publication 'fills you in' with information, articles, funny perspectives etc, and also how feminism is one important pillar of society.
Once I realised that perhaps I was not playing around with the R* as creatively as I could be, I stopped just playing around with the R and flower symbol separately and thinking I would simply put them next to each other like the original logo does, and started to play around with developing both parts together. I found that picking the best one of each (flower and R) and then placing them together was not a good method as both could have very different styles and not work together. Once I found an easy way of putting them together by having the flower as the eye of the R, I started to work on the ideas I had digitally as it was difficult to see the logos in a positive light when they did not have the professional finish or quality they needed as a result of being made from ink.
Looked at which symbol looked best in this R and variations on where the eye should be placed (right and left sided looked interesting but most peers preferred the central one for simplicity).
Decided on this one as the flower has substance in its concept and the R is rounded, playful and gives of a sense of satire. Then started to playing around with colours, layout and the use of different materials, eg. using the collage materials in a layer beneath this R.
I looked at creating patterns using this logo that could be appropriate for a front cover and how I could lay out the logo in different ways and how these would emphasise the satirical element to the magazine. I found putting them in a less structured way such as upside down or tilted to the side and repeated was one way of doing this, however the tutor pointed out that one of these was less satirical than the original zoomed in super large R simply put on the page, so these different perspectives is something I need to think about. I also looked at adding texture in with the use of bitmapping but found this took away the bold quality of the logo and made it feel slightly more serious.
Although I was still playing around with the red white and black colour scheme taken from the blog, it gives too much of a Labour magazine aesthetic or a tabloid feel, which can put people off from wanting to read it and understand what it's about: There needs to be more white than red if I am to choose this scheme.
After recognising this I decided to add in more colours to these designs which helped to improve the aesthetic to be more playful.
TUTOR FEEDBACK:
- What do my audience look at? The Guardian? How can I put a similar aesthetic into my publication
- What are the ways I can keep it cheap? List workshops they offer inside in various cities they are held = Reductress' way of making money.
- Keep it as an insert to increase audience and keep it cheap
- Think of the paper stock = off-white newsprint type for a professional and real feel to the insert
- Instead of this polished design aesthetic why not produce a publication that involves the shitty stock photos that the website Reductress uses with scribbles on top and crappy writing inside: More appropriate way to show satirical
- More NAFF, terrible drawings and text
- Could put in QR code to take the reader to the blog = ways of connecting the physical print with the online version: Have a customised mouse icon you would have on the computer dotted around the page, eg. a mouse icon as a hand with a middle finger up as the pointer
TO LOOK AT:
- Rough Trade Magazine
- Steve Hockett
- Moonsick Gang
ROUGH TRADE MAGAZINE
Even though I find some of the editorial layout of this zine a bit too tacky and made to be in your face a bit, I can see why it was suggested to look at as it has this purposefully DIY aesthetic and a less serious more hand made feel to it that would work well with the satirical tone of Reductress. The text layout in some pages I think needs work (eg kerning in the page above) but that is the chosen aesthetic the designers wanted. I would take inspiration from the way they use different type, type layout and type sizes to create interesting differences between each page, but the overall lack of polish on the zine is not something I would want to copy as my insert is towards an audience of the ages 20-28 who would want something that feels more professional.
STEVE HOCKETT
MOONSICK GANG
The doodle style of Hockett with his use of lots of white space, and a mixture of textures from paint and pen alongside the playful unrestricted style of Moonsick Gang are two ways of working and aesthetics that I would like to take forward. The styles of the two designers are appropriate for a satirical playful feminist magazine and I would use elements from both styles alongside other focusses I have found through feminist zines and magazines (such as large use of different type styles) to produce another idea.
Was suggested by the tutor that the 'R' logo I have created could be adaptable with different covers like the Moonsick Gang have created for the Identity system of Masaki Komoto: If the main article in the insert is about food for example could the eye of the 'R' be an illustrated piece of food?
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