Visual Communications Design Critique #2

This entry will on the 2nd logo/advertisement/brochure that I will be critiquing on. This time, I will talk about a logo's design and whether or not if it's a good logo.

Very obvious to people, it is the ingenious Starbucks Coffee logo. Starbuck's official logo is always changing, but the design centres around a mermaid-like female. This may be the concept of the company, since mermaids are mythical creatures, they may want to promote their coffee to be very dreamy and nice. This logo is a combination logo as it contains both words and images that represents the brand. In terms of colour, they have stuck with 3 colours which is a good thing as we have learnt in design and principals that a logo should not have more than three colours as it might be too distracting. On top of that, their colours are very neutral with colours using black, white and dark green, which is good because it is not too glaring but the colour combination very well put together, giving a very relaxed feel, which is what the café aims to be. 

Whether or not this is a good logo, we have to base it off whether it is Simple, Versatile, Memorable, Timeless, and Appropriate. 

The logo is simple as it mainly has one distinct image and the word 'Starbucks Coffee' around it, allowing consumers to know what it is. Versatility wise, the logo is often seen with and without the word, so in a sense the logo is versatile. It is memorable as the logo is seen on the cups of every drink, and also, very few brands has such an image as their logo, and also it has been their logo for a very long time, hence, I think it is memorable. Because of how quirky it is, it has became a signature logo and does not go out of style, hence, it is timeless and classic. Whether or not it is appropriate is subjective. This is because when you think of coffee, the last thing a person would think of is mermaid or fishes. Rival coffee bean & tea leaf, their logo is what it is, a coffee bean and a tea leaf, which is appropriate for them as it would make sense. As a result, I would say that it's logo isn't very appropriate. As if a person who is a total stranger to the logo sees it without the text, he/she would not understand what it is about and might perhaps assume that it is a logo of something related to the sea such as a boating equipment brand. 

As a whole, it fulfilled 4 out of the 5 criteria of an effective logo, so it is safe to say that it is quite an effective logo. However, they should not change it as it has become a signature logo for them and is perhaps what makes them special and different from other rival companies. 

Typography wise, I think that it was not as important as the logo itself, hence I think the choice of font and size is extremely normal, however I think instead of making the font black, they chose white so as to balance out the colour distribution and also is a better pop of colour in contrast to the dark green, and dark on dark is not good, as this may result in not being able to read it clearly. On top of that, I think it is white so that consumers know that the text is also a part of the entire logo. The spaces between each letter is not very big, I think if they want to, they can spread it out a little bit, however, currently, it looks fine. 

Visual Communications Design Critique #1

This entry is on one of the five advertisement/brochure/logo which we have to critique. The first one I will be doing is on is a print ad, on chocolate by Cadbury.

Released in 2011, this ad is about their dreamy chocolate truffle. The main part of this whole ad is firstly the chocolate bar itself in the middle which takes up the most space, which I believe is to inject into consumers that it is the main subject, and not the words or the crystals that is is surrounded with. The top is written with the words 'Move Over Naomi, there's a new diva in town'. Naomi meaning to top supermodel Naomi Campbell. This might not be effective to people whom are not savvy with the fashion industry and not understand the print ad, and this would make the ad quite obsolete.

The main concept of this ad is mainly based on relaxation and royalty. This is seen clearly in the entire ad, with its main theme of purple, which is commonly associated with royalty, and this is due to the past, where purple dyes are difficult to achieve and is expensive and are most often worn by the wealthy people. I digress. Another part which supports my inference on it's royal concept, is that the chocolate is laying on a bed of crystals, which gives the image of being very expensive. the royal concept is mainly portrayed by pictures and images, whereas the relaxing feel comes from both the colour and text fonts. The colour is soothing compared to loud colours like red, orange or yellow.

 In terms of typography, they are using does not have sharp edges, are slanted and have font size changes throughout a sentence, as seen on the top. This three factors are not seen in formal work, as it commands for consistency, not seen in this ad. Another concept is based on supermodel Naomi Campbell, whom is often deemed as a diva, yielding great presence and stature and is amazing, and the sentence 'Move over Naomi, there's a new diva in town', hinting audience that this chocolate is amazing and demands for presence and stature. 

The design principles basically uses the theme purple, and unlike most advertisements, usually, texts are a lot smaller than the actually image which is the product, we realise that the top text is in terms of length, about the same. This is because to fully understand the ad, one must read it first, so that they see why the chocolate bar is in a bed of crystals, as a diva would only expect the best. And the image, usually in the middle, is placed slightly towards the right, and the text on the left, I think this is to create balance and also to ensure it is not too cramped and too distracting and if it is, consumers would see it too over the top, and messy and not want to read and view it. Even though it uses a purple theme, we can see a gradation of purple, with a whitish tint nearer to the actual chocolate bar, I think this is to create an illusion that it is glowing in radiance.

Overall, this ad is interesting as it is slightly different from other advertisements, especially it's chocolate ad counterparts. However, whether or not the ad is useful is arbitrary, reason being one must understand the Naomi Campbell reference to fully understand the message of the ad. Hence, this ad is more likely targeted to teenagers who are more likely to be into fashion, as well as young adults who has the tendency to be interested in the fashion industry. So whether or not it serves the mass audience is questionable. However, Campbell herself was very offended by the ad and wanted to boycott it, expressing that she's very disappointed Cadbury. hence Cadbury may lose consumers who are fans on Campbell. However the stir caused, may gain them publicity, and attract more people to take a look at it. As there's no such thing as bad publicity.