Type Experiments - End of Year Branding - Collaboration Brief

After doing some research, I came across some poster designs by Evonne Li, designed for an Ikko Tanaka exhibition. This exemplified how shape could be used to form abstract type and was something I wanted to experiment with. By having the shapes coming together to form type, it suggests ideas of collaboration, community and diversity - which are key to the university's ethos. Within the brief it was suggested that the poster should reflect 'creative community' and this design idea builds on this.

I briefly did a sketch of how the type could look and began experimenting digitally with phrases and form.

I decided to experiment with the word 'Together', reflecting how the shapes were coming together. I made sure that a limited number of shapes were used so there could be a constraining factor for the typeface. I tried a variety of different colours too, thinking about what might be bold from afar and what colour combinations haven't been used so far for branding. It was also important to consider the softer tones that the university branding uses.

The shapes worked fairly well but when placed on the black and white imagery, they no longer stood out and clashed with the background. The two aesthetics conflicted with each other, no longer appearing contemporary and consider. I considered that perhaps it would be better on a simple background, making the type the soul focus.