Showing posts with label Brands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brands. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Inside Story

Off late, there is a lot of interest on photographs, posters of products being disassembled and providing details of all the parts inside.

There is also another recent trend called 'Exploded View'. Although this trend was originally used for Lego instructions on how to assemble the different lego blocks to build models, recently designers have been using them to display hidden technologies and to boast the hidden value of the product side. For example, the recent advertisement for Hermès watches that reveals all the gears, escapements and jewels to convey the product’s importance and the preciousness of its complexity.

In today’s world, the news is often punctuated by explosions, and increasingly there is a sense of the center losing grip and of things flying apart. The exploded diagram might make real life seem menacing. But dissection is also teaching, and showing the parts is a fundamental element of learning and study. You can read more about this by Phil Patton at the AIGA website

I tried to create an exploded view of my name below :-) For ones who are not familiar with 'Veena', it is a stringed musical instrument and an integral part of Indian Classical music. The different parts of the veena reveal some of my skillsets.





(click to enlarge)

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Lost in Translation?

My interest in typography often makes me observe signboards. Especially, how the company names are translated in local languages on neon signboards.
Bangalore requires that the sign boards be displayed in kannada along with English.
While the sign boards in English are well thought and designed, when they are translated to Kannada or Hindi they forget to carry forward the visual, specifically the type treatment of the original logo. Very few signboards redesign the structure, form, proportion and font metrics of the local script to match the original.


Eg: the below logo in Kannada just italicizes a common font in that language. It also misses the green leaf which is part of the logo. Ultimately, it is unable to visually translate the brand into the local language


This logo forgets to carry the font weight of the original logo

Many times, the translated logo, either in Kannada or Hindi seem to exist only to please the law enforcing authorities. So they are predominantly smaller in size and placed in a corner.


There are few logos which translate their visual identity very well. Below is one of my favorite.

Some may argue since the main logo is in Kananda, a lot of thought might have been put to carry the type characteristics to English.

Another logo which tries to translate(the English neon signboard is also on green background) -



However, most of the companies can also invest in finding or even creating new type in local languages which match the type of the original logo. It ultimately helps carry the brand to the local consumers.

But why does translating the type treatment matter? Simply because logos are a visual depiction of the brand. And the brand carries the company's vision and all that it stands for. Hence, it is imperative to have similar type treatments across various scripts.

p.s. The above comments are only limited to typography and have nothing against the company or brand