so, like i said in my intro post, my courses right now are... odd, thanks to covid. for starters, i’m only taking two.
what? clover, why on earth are you only taking two classes?
that’s an excellent question, thank you for asking! technically, this all starts long before covid. i think at most colleges it’s typical to take 4-7 courses a semester, and each course is 3 credits. well, at my college, each regular course is one “unit” (although it’s different for labs and the like), and one unit translates to 4 credits at other colleges/universities. our classes are quite intensive and time-consuming, so during a normal year we only take 4, at MOST 5 courses a semester.
nice humble-brag. so you take four classes a semester, not two?
(trust me, i know how it sounds when i say my classes are so hard we take fewer of them. i hate explaining it to my friends at other colleges.) yep! but this past academic school year, my college split the semesters into two terms each, and we take half the classes in half the time. so during this entire semester i will take my regular 4 classes, but i’m only taking two classes at a time (for seven weeks, then we took a week off, and then started two new classes).
... why??
it sounds bizarre at first, but it’s so that we (a very small school) could resume in-person classes more safely. this way, we’re only interacting with two large groups of people in a set period of time; it makes it more hygienic, it makes contact-tracing easier, and it puts us and our blockmates at lower risk.
oh. that makes sense. so what are you taking?
it is the second week of term 4, and i am taking, unfortunately, my LAST italian class :( it is remote, because all of our professors are from italy and currently live there. there are four italian professors and i have had each of them once, which makes me feel like i collected the full set.
my other class is an english/american studies class about horror movies! it’s called american nightmares, and it’s very fun so far (as scared as i am). i just watched rosemary’s baby and the exorcist for this week’s meetings. oddly enough, this is not my first class on ghost stories.
in term 1 i took italian 201 (remote again) and the intro english course, called critical interpretation, which is all about learning how to read poetry. term 2 i took 3 classes (which was hell): a class on arthurian legends (SO much fun), introduction to peace and justice studies (very engaging), and a (remote) chem class + a (remote) lab (double hell... i was taking 3.5 “units” in seven weeks). then it was winter break!
term 3 i thought i’d catch my breath with only two classes, but my class on john milton/paradise lost absolutely murdered me (do not try to read paradise lost in four weeks or less, meeting with your class twice a week for two hours at a time to discuss. that is my life advice to you). i was also taking an environmental studies class on climate change, which was a GREAT class with a fantastic professor but also absolutely depressing.
so long story short, i’m quite burnt out from this year, but i’m very happy about all the in-person classes i’ve been able to take!
My New Course "Beliefs, Truths and Knowing" Is Ready!
My New Course “Beliefs, Truths and Knowing” Is Ready!
Dear Readers:
I have spent the last month or so creating NEW content for my website, which surpasses everything I have ever created before. I’m very excited to share it with you now!
This is the new multidimensional way to teach others!
I am pleased to offer my first course called “Beliefs, Truths and Knowing” as my video tutorial to help others on the path to awakening.
It is composed of FOUR…
If anyone reading this also read the last post I made for the Fundamentals of Design (FND112 VH) portion of my posts, they would see one course on the list, Corporate Identity (G231 P01), was never really addressed. While that course had everything to do with design, I purposely left if out of my queue of posts.
For that course, we had to choose a real-life company and redesign its logo. On top of that, we had to create an identity standards guide. For anyone wondering what that is I can quote one of my write-ups for that course:
Best Buy
The first corporation I looked at was Best Buy. It has an online manual that can be accessed through a series of links, starting with one for various regions, like the United States. The manual is separated into five different slide shows, including the main cover, Visual Guidelines, Voice Guidelines, Sample Applications, and Assets. Much of the information that I needed to find was in the Voice Guidelines section, with the subsequent two describing the intended tone the corporation wanted to project and examples of the brand standards in print and on the web.
As I was looking at the primary pages of the Visual Guidelines section, the description of the logo and how it should be displayed made me realize how little attention I actually paid to Best Buy’s logo. I use services from the company every year and receive emails about deals and specials, but one thing that I did not make a serious note of logo’s characteristics. I remember seeing the yellow tag with a black outline and black, bold letters that was titled on the buildings of Best Buy Stores, but never deeply examined the stylistic choices. I never really knew about the set stroke thickness and how the main logo was to be placed in relation to imagery.
According to the manual, the main logo is supposed to be titled at a 5-degree angle at all times, clear a space from imagery that is the cap height and thickness of the “B” (when not placed on a photograph), and be scaled using proper proportions including the stroke, to a minimum width of .372″. The last part is more important than a novice would think, as most of the ill-advised uses of the Best Buy logo included parts of the logo that were adjusted in size or stroke. The rule of B is adjusted for co-branding applications by being doubled if the Best Buy logo is vertically stacked with other, partner logos.
Another thing I did not know was the name of the typeface used for Best Buy in non-web applications. Avenir Next is used for all of Best Buy’s non-web communications. To establish variety in layouts, 12 approved font styles are used for different forms of text (including main body copy, captions, and sales information). Arial is approved for the web.
I learned a few new things about Best Buy’s use of color and reviewed things I have already learned from my studies with AiPOD and my own observation. I already knew about not placing important elements on busy photography because that would upset any visual hierarchy and I have used content boxes to make type more visual. I have noticed the primary colors used by Best Buy. However, I did not realize that there were other colors preferred by Best Buy for its color palette nor did I know the CMYK amounts for the primary colors. The main blue used for Best Buy backgrounds is PMS 2955 C, which has CMYK amounts 100, 55, 8, 48 and the yellow used is the CMYK yellow. Other colors used include “Value Red,” alerting customers to sales, a Medium Yellow to provide more contrast on lighter backgrounds, “Blue Shirt Blue,” to mimic the color used for Best Buy clerks, “Highlight Blue” to alert consumers to important information, and “Sustainability Green,” used for environmental initiatives. Blue and white can be used as backgrounds with five shades of gray, differing from 85% - 25%, with increments dropping by 20%, to the 10% gray approved for the web.
Additionally, there are other things to note about the tag. It can be shown in the regular black-stroked, yellow fill orientation, with the white fill in black and white or grayscale applications, or with white strokes against certain backgrounds. Part of the tag outline can be shown for price information but the outline must maintain a particular size in certain advertising sections. Also, the tag can be used for patterns, but only with Best Buy’s color palette and at certain angles.
Marriott
The second corporation I looked at was Marriott, an international chain which runs hotels and resorts under at least 16 brand names. The hotels are separated by a rating system that includes luxury and extended stay locations. The manual I found online is a 12-page PDF that discusses the main Marriott brand. The manual also came with a DVD (which I don’t have), so it must have had more pertinent information on it.
The logo consists of the Marriott name in the Marriott red (PMS 7427), with changes for the international corporate offices, multiple brands, and specific properties. Unlike the Best Buy logo, there is a mention about international languages. Locations in other nations have to consult with their Regional Brand Marketing offices to discuss changes to the logo. Marriott’s corporate offices use a logo with the Marriott symbol above or to the left of the word mark. Multiple locations use the word mark, descriptor, and Marriott arc.
The Marriott brand also includes the Performance Stripe (something that I have never really paid much attention to), and I found the specifications for using it to be harder to internalize. The stripe consists of five line segments of different sizes. The first four segments have set heights and widths that may only be adjusted proportionally. The spaces between all segments are specified by values of x, which is the height of the first segment. What I did understand was the use of color for each segment, from five approved secondary PMS colors and silver gradient, and the fact that the last segment would have to be longer than the fourth and bleed off the surface. I was confused by the approved measurement scale, mostly because I was unsure of how the maker of the manual came to the value of x.
The manual discussed the approved and unapproved uses of the logo and Performance Stripe. The logo can be set in black on internal documents, for example, but should be set in white on black and dark backgrounds. What I did not consider before was the use of enclosing shapes and other graphics. It is incorrect to place the logo on other graphics and within shapes. If placed with imagery, the logo must have a clear space all around that is the height of the “M” in the word mark. The unapproved uses included changes to color (which Best Buy mentioned), changes to the typeface, changes made to alignment, adjustments made to particular elements, uneven scaling, and changes to the orientation. The logo must be set in Marriott’s typeface and set in the Marriott red over lighter backgrounds and neutral areas of photographs. Additionally, the logo may not be scaled to a width less than .625" (16mm) or 55 pixels.
Finally, Marriott uses a typeface made especially for the corporation and there are rules for the usage of its font styles. The Marriott bold is for cover headlines and Marriott medium is meant for interior headlines. Body copy at any size is to be set in Marriott light.
To be honest, I had previously contacted the owner of the company I designed a logo for, but I could never really set up an appointment to talk to him in person. I still did the assignment, while keeping this information from my instructor. Sadly, she wanted to see if my logo would be used by the company (via Google maps), but that was never meant to be. I did have a pretty decent logo, though, and would like to get my work recognized and considered by that company.
Works Cited
Best Buy Brand Expression Guidelines. Best Buy. Updated 28 Feb 2013. Web. <http://bbybrandidentity.com/guidelines-bby/cover/#>.
Before, I listed courses for which I planned to make posts. I would like to take the time to update that list to reflect what I have posted so far and add even more titles to it as well.
• Mixed Media: Done
• Introduction to Design Applications [Added]: Done
• Drawing [Added]
• Perspective [Added]
• Life Drawing: Done
• Digital Image Manipulation: Done
• Digital Illustration: Done
• Electronic Design: Done
• Typography [Added]: Next
• Advanced Typography: In the process of summarizing
• History and Analysis of Design [Added]
• Design Principles: In the process of summarizing
• Introduction to Web Design: In the process of summarizing
• College Math II (Diagrams)
• Packaging Design
• Design and Technology
• Advertising Design [Added]
• Fundamentals of Design [Added]
• Color Theory for Print [Added]
Most of these courses are in order, with the exceptions of the Drawing and Perspective courses ─ which I took long before I even started at Tumblr ─ and the last two courses on the list. The latter two were actually my very first design-based courses taken, besides a short course in Photoshop.
I am saving the last two courses for last to demonstrate how far I’ve come with two Adobe programs in particular, especially Illustrator, which I use far more than anything else these days. I also started on DeviantArt with some of the work I did in these courses.
One thing I would like to do in the future is take some of these old works and improve on them, and that goes for work in other courses, as well if I haven’t already.
