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Harrison Gibson Jensen

Lipstick Font

My lipstick font was created by the need for a great signature for my website. I wanted something feminine and flirty at the same time. I chose to use lipstick as my tool because it has great texture and what it implies is extremely feminine. I used a pretty, cursive writing to accomplish this font. I used no serifs, it would have been impossible to use serifs with lipstick. It would have looked blurred and messy. This font is humanistic in the sense that I literally handwrote each of these letters and numbers. This font is also quite assymetrical. Some of the letters hang well below the bottom line and some go way above the top line. With humanistic handwriting and signatures typically the capital letter is quite a bit larger than the lower case. With my font this is seen. I plan on using this font to create a signature that I will use as a logo for my business website. It is going to look amazing!

Design Presentation Poor Design

www.crippledstripper.com

Crippled Stripper

Crippled Stripper is a band located here in Southern Utah. They currently are not signed and have a half-way working website. The best information on them was accessed via myspace. When I first saw this graphic in the local clip-n-save, not really knowing what I was looking at I laughed. Then the reality set-in on what they were implying. I did further research to see if perhaps one of the members of the band was really handicapped. To my surprise nobody even associated with the band is crippled, they just felt it was a catchy name for a band.

From a design standpoint the overall artwork is so busy and confusing that you cannot really enjoy the humor in it. You have feathers, birds, a scroll, flames (poorly done), and my favorite the naked lady on a wheelchair in the middle of the picture.

Figure/Ground Relationship: The figure being the blue sign with the naked crippled stripper. The ground being the rest of artwork that the figure is resting on.

Gestalt Principles: Law of similarity & proximity are best seen in the birds and the feathers. The law of closure is viewed in knowing that the woman is sitting on a wheelchair, even though all you are seeing is part of the shape of a wheel. The law of pragnanz is seen in the scroll where it is really a series of complicated shapes, but we allow our selves to see it as the tail of a scroll. The feather point upward and outward, the flames point upward and outward, and the birds are flying upward and outward are examples of the law of continuity.

The black and white feathers, vs. the parchment and black scrollwork don’t fit together at all. Then the bright orange flames and the blue handicapped sign offer an interesting contrast. Maybe if the entire picture were in color or kept 100% black and white it would look better. There is no real texture implied here. The lines are all pointing upward and outward. The entire picture is done in the positive space, very little negative space exists.

Overall, in my opinion, this is a terrible design. It could easily be fixed to be quite effective.

Design Presentation Good Design

www.mms.com/us/premiums/

M & M’S BRAND
PREMIUMS CHOCOLATE CANDIES

Raspberry Almond
“Fun, flirty flavor in the prettiest pink! Enjoy tart and tantalizing raspberry-flavored white chocolate with a dark chocolate swirl surrounding a crisp almond center. Take a package along to enliven your afternoon pedicure – or share them with a hot date!”(www.mms.com/us/premiums/)

M & M’S corporation, has created a new premium chocolate product with five new fancy flavors of M & M’S. Chocolate Almond, Dark Chocolate, Triple Chocolate, Raspberry Almond, and Mint Chocolate. Obviously aiming at a female demographic by suggesting taking a box to a pedicure or on a hot date. The particular M & M’S are more than double the price of the regular M & M’S.

The color on the packaging was the first thing to catch my eye. All five boxes are dark jewel tones with a contrasting swirl or dots pattern in the same color, but with a brighter intensity and lighter value. Also, the silver background on the logo is highly metallic giving it a pop too. I actually get the impression they meant these boxes to look like celebrities on the red carpet with the camera lights flashing on them. The light of the fake flash from the cameras, is achieved by changing the hue and saturation of the color.

The shape of the box is not only pleasing to the eye, it has a sense of being worth more just because of the packaging. Even though these boxes only hold 6 oz. (less than a cup), vs. the bigger bags that are typically a pound, it seems worth it to me as the consumer. The lines on the box themselves, create an illusion of being bigger than they really are. The sides concave, creating a subtle curve almost looking like the figure of a woman’s body. The product window on the box reveals the almost glittering candy with several different contrasting colors.

Gestalt Principles: Law of continuity stood out to me first. The lines of the box are concave creating the illusion of being taller. The law of proximity and similarity come into play with the candy itself showing through the clear plastic window. We see the candy and assume that all the candy in the box is the same. The law of closure is seen by looking at the candy and filling in the gaps that even though we are seeing the product through the tiny clear plastic window on the box, we assume their shape is round/oval.

Figure/Ground Relationship: The figure is the candy that can be viewed through the small clear plastic window on the box. The ground is the box that so beautifully displays that product.