How do graphic designers use shapes to change the way consumers view a brand or product?

Images taken from Nintendo and the World Animal Foundation

The shapes that designers use in logos aren’t arbitrary, they’re there for a reason. The subconscious mind responds to shapes in different ways. Straight lines, circles, curves and jagged edges all invoke different feelings and have different meanings. Circles, ovals and other rounded and soft shapes tend to send out a positive and emotional message. Using circles in a logo’s design suggests community, friendship, love, and unity. Straight edged shapes like squares and rectangles give a sense stability and imply balance and triangles have a good association with power, science, religion and law. Straight lines and precise shapes also show off strength, professionalism, and efficiency. The subconscious mind also associates vertical lines with masculinity, strength, and aggression, while horizontal lines suggest community, tranquillity and calm.

    Let’s look at Nintendo. It’s a popular brand with a distinctive logo, so let’s pick it apart. First thing you notice it the color, a bright elementary red. From my last post we know that it represents energy and excitement something that makes sense for an entertainment and gaming company. Next thing you’ll notice is the rectangle around the text which we now learned symbolizes stability, power, and professionalism all things that can be said of the company itself. But notice also how the edges are rounded, bringing in the feeling of community and family, something Nintendo and their products endorse.

    It’s not just geometric shapes that impact us, natural and abstract shapes are used in design as well. Natural shapes like plant and animal silhouettes show originality organic, balance, and refreshment while abstract shapes show duality, uniqueness, and creativity. Let’s now look at a company that uses both natural and geometric shapes in their logo, World Animal Foundation. You see this logo and without reading any text you know it belongs to an animal oriented foundation. A frog silhouette is a recognizable shape and also lets you know the animals involved with this foundations aren’t domestic but wild. The rings encompassing the logo give a sense of unity and connection, showing off the purpose and ideals of the foundation, and with the desaturated green, this all but screams nature.

    Shapes play a monumental roll in our lives from the moment we’re born, growing up playing with colorful blocks, to now where these shapes are shaping our feelings about companies and giving off silent messages. The last step in a logo is the composition which will also be the last, and next, blog post.

How do graphic designers use colors to invoke feelings towards a brand or product?

SOURCE: Interaction Design Foundation

Color is a powerful communication tool and arguably the most influential aspect of design. It can be
used to signal action, influence mood, and create physiological reactions. Certain colors have even been
associated with increased blood pressure, increased metabolism, and eyestrain. So how does it work?

First think about some popular brands like Starbucks or Domino’s. Iconic and recognizable through their colors. Starbucks uses that classic deep green, accenting it with darker greys and brown. Every Starbucks you walk into has the same feel and that's thanks to color. The deep green they use is meant to represent affluence and abundance, the dark slate gives a sense of balance and sophistication, and the brown gives the natural and rustic feel. All together, just by looking at the colors you feel calmed and feel like you’ll be getting a product that is natural and earthy that is higher end. Colors like green and brown are used to give a space or logo a sense a calm as studies have shown that is reduces heart rate.

Another color that has a similar effect is blue, one of the colors Domino’s uses. Blue is one of the most popular colors in logo creation and gives a sense of trustworthiness, something Domino’s values and promises. The other half of their logo is a bright red. Red is the most popular and often used color in logos, from entertainment like Marvel and Netflix to fast food like McDonalds and KFC. Red has been shown to increase heart rates and actually activates the pituitary gland which releases hormones into the bloodstream and stimulates metabolism along with other aspects of your body making it no surprise why so many food joints use the color.

We can use this to break down other things, not just logos. Police officers wear blue to give a sense of security and trustworthiness, Marvel uses red to express energy and power, Mattel uses pink for Barbie to show off the femininity and innocence of the doll. Next time you go to a mall take a look at the businesses you frequent or those you don’t and look closer at what colors they’re using and you might just peek behind the logo.

Next post will cover the use of shapes in design.

Graphic Design and the Psychology Behind It

Image taken from Designrfix

Economic Principle: People generally respond to incentives in predicable ways.

Research Question: How do graphic designers use psychology to incentivize consumers to buy a good or service?

Sub Questions:

1. How do graphic designers use different fonts to change the way consumers view a brand or product?
2. How do graphic designers use colors to invoke feelings towards a brand or product?
3. How do graphic designers use shapes to change the way consumers view a brand or product?
4. How do graphic designers use different forms of composition to change the way consumers view a brand or product?

Resources:

1. Nickkolenda
2. CreativeBloq
3. Study
4. CompanyFolders

How do graphic designers use different fonts to change the way consumers view a brand or product?

   

Images taken from Oogazone, Wikipedia, and BL Lighting

     To be able to answer how graphic designers use different fonts to make consumers view a brand in certain ways, first you have to know what goes into making a font. To make a font a typographer must take into consideration multiple factors before choosing or creating a typeface such as the weight, spacing, size, complexity, and the height of the letters and the overall feeling a company wants to invoke. If a company wants to feel more exclusive and expensive a designer will go with a font that is thinner, slanted and cursive, to invoke that feeling of luxury. There are endless combinations of types of fonts and it’s up to the designers to find the right one. Fonts help create a personality for a company that interacts with the customer before they even enter the store and while there are a lot of font types with unique personalities, designers tend to stick with variations of the same like Helvetica, “Deviate too far from the norm and you risk alienating your audience.”
     A goal of a font is to create a sense of familiarity between the company and the consumer, when you look at a font, you know exactly what to expect, and this goes for any logo that uses text. Think of the company PINK, its font is big bold and pink but more importantly it mimics the lettering on a letter-man jacket, that college/university font and there’s a reason for that. PINK has their main logo, PINK, but they also have a crest and a puppy mascot, all things colleges and universities have. PINK’s target audience are women going into or attending colleges and universities, imitating a sorority, having their logo on everything and giving away tote bags, perfect for heavy textbooks, with purchases, and that is very clear with a simple glance at the font they use.
     Now take Supreme, a very different company that uses the same techniques to create its own niche audience. Supreme’s intended audience was skaters and now has pull in not only skating but also hip hop and rock circles, essentially the rebels of society. Now take a look back at Supreme, the logo is a solid color block with thick heavy and bold lettering, it’s in your face and its impossible not to look at, much like the fashion of Supreme’s target audience. Making the logo bold white letters surrounded by red font the perfect font for them, the visual portrayal of a rebellious, anti-capitalist message which further caters to their audience.
     Every designer has put extreme thought behind the design of the lettering of a logo, from Google’s simple and easy to read print font to Disney’s fun and recognizable cursive font. Next time your at the mall or just on instagram, take a moment to notice the logos that are everywhere, and you’ll be able to see exactly who is the target audience and what the company is trying to tell you they are. Now the font type it just the very first part of what goes into a logo and next comes a major yet oftentimes overlooked aspect of a logo, color.