BWG Brand Guidelines by Mash Creative

Mash Creative have developed this brand guidelines document as part of a total rebrand of Black Watch Global, an intelligence and risk management consultancy. This is the best example I've seen so far of nailing a guideline book so it is easy to understand and easy to flick to the information needed. Its simple, big and bold, which is what you need as a designer when trying to find the right font or colour for a particular brief.





























































I have decided to split up the guidelines book I am designing into 5 small handy publications so the ease of access of information is even quicker compared to looking through a document of this size.

Project Magazine - Ipad

I was reading about Project magazine in the news this week. It's the first magazine solely for the digital format. This is obviously a huge step towards the expected, and this is a consideration that has to be thought about in regards to any new magazine releases. Obviously it has to be pitched right in regards to the target audience. For instance, there would be no point in making a magazine such as nuts or zoo digital only because the target audience are usually teenage boys so the likelihood they would have an iPad would be slim. However, for my magazine, Arkitekt, the target audience may have the need for an iPad or other tablet pc, so it makes sense to launch as a digital copy too.

Virgin launches iPad-only magazine called Project
Richard Branson The magazine will eventually be made available to other tablet devices
Continue reading the main story
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* Times readers fall after paywall
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Virgin Tycoon Richard Branson has launched what he says is the "first truly digital" magazine for Apple's iPad.

The publication, called Project, is a monthly style and culture magazine that will be sold through Apple's App store.

The publication comes head of an expected launch of a digital newspaper for the iPad called The Daily.

The newspaper is expected to be launched by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

It is part of Mr Murdoch's continuing efforts to find a sustainable model for his newspaper empire, which has seen increased competition from free content on the internet.

In July, his Times newspaper began to charge customers to access its site, resulting in a 87% drop in readership online.

At the New York launch, Mr Branson dismissed suggestions he was engaged in a war with Murdoch.

"It's not a battle," he said. "It's all about choice, and a fair bit of competition doesn't hurt."

Project features video, sound and links to augment features on topics such as a new Jaguar car prototype and the film Tron: Legacy.

"On every page there will be links to expand the story," the editor-in-chief Anthony Noguera told the AFP news agency.

The magazine will cost £1.79 ($2.99), but Mr Noguera believes people will pay.

"It's a quality piece of editorial, so you have to pay for it," he said. "This is an expensive product to make."

However, reaction to the magazine has been muted. Digital media blog Paid content, for example, said it "frustrates with complexity".

Tech blog CNet said that "the articles themselves, as well as the messages in the souped-up advertisements for brands like Lexus and Panasonic, can come across as afterthoughts when there's so much audio-visual distraction" already on the iPad.

Source BBC

I also found this youtube video which gives a sneak peak into the magazine and how it will look. The video features are really cool. They bring the content to life but the rest of the stuff is pretty standard and replicates the normal layout of a magazine. It will obviously be much harder to mock up my magazine quickly because of its square format.

Chris Welsby

Found this really impressive example of branding with simple geometric shapes. This is both handy for my Arkitekt brief and the Helmore brief. Simplicity and solid colour with refined type really works well with this project.

Aleix Bague

I have been trying to track down this particular photographer for some time. Ollie had referred me to images of the Basque Health Department which was built recently in Bilbao, and I thought the building would be a perfect feature in my magazine. I eventually tracked down Aleix's email address and emailed him with no real expectations. Two weeks later Aleix's got in touch and sent me the high resolution images I asked for.

Here some low resolution copies of what I had been sent. These compositions will work beautifully in my samples spreads and feature cover.

Style Guides

I am looking at style guides as a possible route for my arkitekt brief in order to expand it and not have me designing a lot of the same thing. My original plan was to create covers and spreads for the magazine, but I felt that once I applied a design style to one spread, it would look the same in the next. I feel this is great opportunity to produce a document that could past on to other designers working on the magazine once this brief is complete.

With that in mind have made inroads into finding existing brand guideline documents to get a feel for the content, and then I can apply this to my own guidelines for the magazine for the font usage, size, leading, weight, and so on.

This is a brand guideline document for the university of cambridge. As you would expect you have a cover, contents page and short introduction. Afterwards there is a section on the identity and it's usage, the minimum negative space that should surround it.

Theres also sections on the colour palette and imagery. This is a little more intense than I would be looking for but I would still look to get into some hard-nosed typography and layout.

Open publication - Free publishing

The content is more important than the aesthetic but over cluttering the pages makes the whole design feel a little clumsy.

Open publication - Free publishing - More logos

Massive type sizes help legibility but not doesn't look professional in this format.

Open publication - Free publishing - More portfolio

Uncluttered, and smaller type sizes can be read comfortably and there is an acceptable level of balance between the pages.

Open publication - Free publishing - More raw

*Spotlight* Madethought

Madethought are a London based multi-disciplinary agency with a full archive of interesting work with a breadth of inspiration. I can't really pin down how they work because everything looks different. I picked out a couple of pieces that tied in with my current concerns and are both typographically led.

The first image for future laboratory uses type and image in a way that I have not seen before and does look effective in it's delivery. This can only be used for small chunks of text which can be hidden and wouldn't work for type that was to suppose to communicate, but aesthetic, to me, this works and is effective. I'm unsure about the use of a singular columned layout, and would perhaps split the copy up into two or three columns for my designs.

The front cover for the publications are also type led are made individual by the use of minimal colour. The typeface could be said to make the document seem dated but I think it adds to the character.







This is another example of the portfolio for The Mill, which uses a minimalistic but tone setting and professional looking coloir palette. The oversized typography is once again apparent and works when presented in this manner.

When used with print finishes such as embossing it would add value and lift the finished piece.

*Spotlight* Winkreative

Global agency with studios in London, Zurich and New York. I picked out some magazine layout design to display for Casa Da Abitare because its use of typography (type choice, leading, kerning, weight, size) in relation to frame, format and composition. Good use of a strict grid system which allows the layouts to breath but also has enough content to keep the reader interested. I am a fan of the oversized headlines so this is right up my street, and I can take ideas from this for my Arkitekt brief.

Winkreative re-launched the interiors magazine in April 2008 with a full editorial and design overhaul. Winkreative repurposed the magazine to stand out from similar titles with a new logo and bold new look to appeal to advertisers and readers ranging from informed customers to trade professionals.

Baseline Magazine

I decided to look at other magazine layouts up close to get a feel for what the current trends were and what stocks were being selected and out of the few that caught my eye, this magazine (Baseline) seemed perfect in terms of stock choice, layout, size and colour usage. Inside there was both coated and uncoated leaves, and the front cover was also uncoated. It just seemed appropriate for this type of publication as people who buy want to see the type up close, want to feel and touch, and smell the paper too.

Included on the front is this wonderful uncoated stencil art poster which tied in with the theme of that months magazine.

On the inside the grid systems differed slightly depending on the content, it was as if each page had it's own structure even though there was still an overarching theme connecting the pages together. The reason this works so well is because there is a real attention to detail. I deem it quite important for me to look at magazines outside the catchment area I working within, because I can take ideas from existing publications such as this one.

Competitors

I took the liberty of photographing rival magazines to get an idea of the sort of theme and aesthetic used. There may be common themes throughout a few which I need to be aware of, as well as picking out workable grid structures, colours, fonts used, etc to see if there are any reoccurring themes.

The first magazine is 'Architectural Review' which is a high end magazine aimed at professionals and ethusiasts.

The Architectural Review is the only truly global architecture magazine, providing diverse and incisive coverage spanning all parts of the world. With a 114 year history as the world’s favourite architecture publication, it is a leader of debates and a must-have for architecture and design communities around the world.

The use of serif fonts and slab serifs such as the use of Clarendon on the cover does add value. The body copy is something we are expected to read in comfort and for a long duration. The layout is certainly not groundbreaking, but it is appropriate for the reader.















































The next example is Detail Magazine, which is a building and construction magazine aimed at professionals.

Each issue of DETAIL is devoted to a specific constructional theme and provides a comprehensive treatment of the subject in the various sections of the journal. The main section is the Documentation, containing an analysis of selected projects, in which buildings from around the world are covered in depth. In addition to the aesthetic quality of the architecture, constructional details play a central role. All plan drawings are redrawn in-house true to scale and in consultation with the architects, planners and engineers responsible for the original design. This affords readers ready access to the projects and a swift means of comparison at a uniformly high level.

Again the layout is clean and tight with enough room to showcase imagery effectively. It's design seems less expensive than Architectural Review, perhaps because of the use of sans serif typefaces, and the use of the 3 column grid appose to the 4 column on the AR. The stock feels cheaper and the leaves inside are not as weighty as AR. The overall consensus is that Detail Magazine feels and looks quite cheap.

Toko

Toko, formerly based in Rotterdam, Holland and since 2008 permanently operating out of Sydney, Australia, are a multidiscplinary design agency.

I picked up this link from Aisleone which is a great resource for inspiration involving type and grid. Toko tend to work with type and layout for the majority of the work and they also have some nice examples of corporate identity and exhibiton artwork.

The first example pictured here is a poster designed as part of the lyrics & type poster series, where designers, illustrators and typographers are invited to design posters featuring the lyrics of established artists.

This design is representative of the multilayered sounds together with the lyrics which are threaded through the sound.


I have also included this work for Code Magazine which is dedicated to documenting style. Toko designed the whole design style for the magazine and has the Code as a long standing client.

All the spreads incorporate this torn effect which links to the content of the magazine. They do not report on the latest fashion, they dig deeper into the origins of fashion and I feel the torn effect really works well with those values.

Lucía Castro

Another spotlight, this time looking at Barcelona graphic designer Lucia Castro. I first discovered her work for Sit Now Catalogue as I was searching for publishing and editorial design.

The use of colour, type choice, and scale make this appealing, and fits in with the new typographic approach I admire alongside the Swiss influenced graphics.

The design approach was also applied to poster format which works equally as well.



























I have also chosen this book design as an example which appeals to me. The use of the grid system ensures the accuracy of the layout and type choice works well with the content. A serif face just wouldn't have the same impact, particularly with reversed out type shown here.

This work is in total contrast to the work from Matt Keers in terms of colour usage but it appeals to me as much as it's much more difficult to work with the freedom of colour.