Research: Contextual Research

Brief:

Design a Logo for an 1980s fashion brand.

*Gather Research into 1980s culture

Research

1980s Typefaces

Retro Fonts: Movies, music and visuals from the 80s and 90s. Different styles of fonts- retro script fonts to brush typefaces, bold all caps fonts to narrow condensed fonts, pixel fonts. 

Alt Retro Typeface by Andreas Leonidou is a multiline font, reminds of old colourful disco signages. It is a unitise font with rounded characters. 

Lazer 84: Lazer 84 by Juan Hodgson is a retro style brush font inspired by the 80s. The font includes numbers, symbols and accents. 

Outrunner Retro Script

Outrunner by TSV Creative is a retro script font. The font is suitable for your retro, classic and also modern design such as signature, logo, branding, invitation, merchandise.

Alien Encounters:

*Vapour wave font

*Scifi influenced-forward leaning, horizontally sliced-form and classically retro variants. 

*Famously known as the lead font in the branding that London base, vapourware record label Dream Catalogue.

A hand-made brush typeface inspired by 80s and 90s music, retro, disco, and pop culture.  Adapting a grudging look. 

MTV

Before the launch, MTV was known as the Music Channel, this logo was created by Manhattan Design on may 5, 1980.

From 1981-2010- from its launch on August 1, 1981 until March 18, 2009, the 'Music Television' caption was included underneath the logo. Many fans recognised this logo because of its unique design that allows it to become anything. 

Fred/Alan archive-1983-1992

Fred Seibert- MTV

Collaborated, visible work with branding. Fred was a Creative director of MTV. Layout ideas for early animated MTV logos back when MTV actually showed music videos all day. A lot of the MTV logos were comped for commercial bumps for TV advertising in 1989. 

Frank Olisky- young Graphic Designer worked with Fred by re-developing the MTV Logo. The bold San Serif 'M' was outlined as an idea. Frank Olisky suggested the logo needed to be developed further through graffiti aesthetics. 

Experimentations took place through acetate being layered onto of the letters 'TV' in graffiti type. The experiemntations were sent of to Manhattan Designs for refinement. The logo was developed through components logos and designs. These MTV logos were later on  animated. Cable television defined pop culture- to shape industry in the 1980s. 

Pia Mia- The Gift 2

Retro Type Example

Designed by Graphic Design Student, 'Flaus Design'. 'The Gift 2' is the second EP by American recording artist Pia Mia, it was independently on December 15,2017 through her record Label Pia Mia Recordings. 

The typeface includes a San-Serif outline- this relates to 1980s typefaces. The designer has played with kerning, a wider kerning creates a vintage as well as a sophisticated approach. The third example shows the type being applied into a composition using a circle. Main 1980s logos used the circle for unity as well as creating an harmonious approach.

American Apparel

North America clothing manufacturer, designer, distributor, marketer and former retailer based in Los Angeles, California. Founded by Canadian business man Dov Charney in 1989. American Apparell vision of the brand is to establish the heritage. The concept of selling the American dream. The business idea stemmed by Charney designing T-shirts. 

Importing classic American t-shirts to Montreal in an operation largely run from his Connecticut boarding school dorm room. Ten years later, the after school project had earned the title of America's largest t-shirt companies and the reputation of being one of the most controversial brands in the world. 

The American Apparel logo was designed using the font Helvetica black with more tight spacing. The American Apparel aesthetics was influenced by the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics. American Apparel featured in Dazed magazine. Advertised the aesthetics of hip culture and youth. The advertisement have played a significant role for shaping the identity. The company explored feminine aesthetics, however the company had backlash and was controversial. 

 Signe Pierce

American Film Director, her work spans from performance, photography, video art, art direction, GIFs, and web based art.

Photography based on the 1980s

These photos contain part of an ongoing series in Beverly Hills an exploration of the Suburban beauty and decay that makes up Los Angeles city sprawl. Reflects the internets obsession with tantalising visual content, a major content, a major form of expression for technology that lives behind and within scenes. 

Dom Sebastian: Holographic melt series

Dom Sebastian's series uses Photoshop technique to create a Psychedelic nature. This reminds me fo the holograph technique which was popular in the 1980s. To develop this idea further, perhaps screen printing with holographic foil will create this quality within the final design. 

Holographic technique applied into Graphic design, based on 1980s.

For a more traditional approach, the holographic foil technique through scene printing would be more appropriate. However exploring digital technique can be applied through Photoshop. 

To summerise, the MTV logo was the most successful, due to the logo being more recognised in popular culture. The idea of the outline type works effectively in conveying the 1980s culture. Popular colours used were pink purple and blue to perhaps convey the aspect of the sun setting.  The designs are placed on a black background to create the type to appear more vibrant. A san serif creates more of a contemporary, trendy approach which relates to the overall vibrant nature of the theme of the 1980s.