TYPOGRAPHY DESIGN - A2 - TYPOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION (EDITORIAL DESIGN)
Week 1 - Task 1
This bottle of Dettol disinfectant spray uses three different typefaces across the front and back, these typefaces are all grotesque san serif fonts using variations of their type families and stroke depending on the information. There is a lot of type used in this design to attempt to set it apart from other similar products within the grocery store. The type follows an orange and green curved design that goes from the top right of the bottle to the bottom left drawing the eye in that direction. At the top the type is shorter and simpler type that is highly spaced out from the rest of the type. As the deign leads to the bottom there is more type that is heavier in stroke and close together which is aligned to the left of the bottle including the logo. This makes the design not very balanced as there is most of the type in the bottom left corner than anywhere else. There are also various other elements such as the hospital cross sign at the top, the Dettol logo design and a picture of a lemon and lime to display the scent of the product these which reflect the products use these are used as decoration for the product or to inform visually. The back of the bottle is also aligned to the left and is in large blocks of type with only a few uses of highlighted colours and boarders as well as bolded type to have certain parts of the type stand out. Colour and scale is also used a lot in this type design, there is three colours used with various shades of these colours used to try and enhance certain words or have them stand out more amongst the rest, such as the 'Healthy Clean' that is in the light green colour compared to the darker green on the 'multipurpose' and the other type that is darker blue, these words are also scaled bigger than the writing above it to have it be more important to read than the other type. There are also various effects used such as a white highlighted effect behind the 'Dettol' to allow the brand name to stand out amongst the rest.
I like the design in terms of how it brings the eye down through the text, the colours used are quite representative of the product. Although I believe the design could be enhanced to be more effective and aesthetically pleasing as it currently seems that the designer kept adding to the design to have certain parts of the type to stand out, it is too overloaded with text, different typefaces, colours and additional designs especially on the front of the product that becomes cramped and overwhelming to look at. The design becomes a bit messy with having so many similar but different typefaces to where it looks like a mistake compared to the back of the bottle. I think condensing some of the text on the front would make it more aesthetically pleasing and more enjoyable to look at. As well as this some words are repeated twice which I think is unnecessary such as 'hospital grade' which is at the top and under the logo. I do think it is effective for a cleaning product but could be enhanced to be more appealing.
Week 1 - Task 1
About the labels:
This first label was made with two typefaces Bright a serif typeface and Shree Devanagari a san serif font. The bright font was used for the products name and headings on the bottle to allow them to stand out in contrast to the second font. These two pair well together as they are a contrast, they aren’t too similar but still complement each other. The Shree Devanagari typeface has various versions, this allowed me to put certain parts of the label information in various styles in the type family and alter the stroke weight to have important phrases or words to stand out on the bottle. I used scale in different ways, with the most important information in larger sizes and extra information smaller.
With the second label using one typeface and a single colour, I used the san serif font Avenier Next. This typeface also had various type families within this typeface such as bold, italic, medium, demi and other options, this assisted me in creating this typeface that uses the same font throughout but was able to have it appear different due to the contrast between them. Through adding some effects and decorative elements to the product name such as with the faded glow, this also assisted in having it stand out amongst the rest of the text as well as its size being larger than all the rest.
The final label design which required one typeface and two colours I wanted to experiment with a more creative typeface. I found a script style semi decorative typeface Savoye LET. This style was slightly harder to work with compared to the previous ones due to it not have many other type family options or strokes and with it being a script style. Although the contrast with the orange and white colours were helpful and allowed me to separate the information and have others stand out more within the design, such as using the white for the products name allowed it stand out from the smaller orange text underneath.
With all the label designs I ensured the text wasn’t placed too close together even though there was a lot of information to include, especially spacing out the larger blocks of text on the back to be less overwhelming to the eye. Most of the text is aligned to the left or the middle as this felt the most comfortable way to read the information and it flowed well from the products name leading the eye to the various information on the bottle. Small dots were used to separate larger pieces of text as well, this assists with the reading of the text. I also played with curving text with the ’30 washes’ which fits nicely in the space it is placed providing some variety to the deisgn as well.
These two approaches became a reoccurring theme throughout all the labels as I felt this was the best way to display the large amount of information in an easy readable way that didn’t look too much or overwhelmed the design and provided variety to the straight text as it was important for the intended information to get to the consumer, as typography is first and doremost about the communication of information" (Frossman, Squire, Willberg. 2006). These typefaces along with using white as the colour choice in most of them and using lowercase for all the text I felt reflected the simple, clean and eco-friendly theme of the product. It is modern and aesthetic to the eye due to its simple nature, which I believe the target audience specifically mothers or fathers who may care for the environment and want something to use in their washing that is organic, eco-friendly and gentle is reflected in these typeface deisgns.
