OUGD403 - Studio Brief 1 - Logotype

For this project the company which i have chosen to re brand is 'Barber Barber', They have stores open in Manchester, London, Leeds and Liverpool. I feel that after much research into stores around Leeds, this was the best company to choose following on from my 'Gentlemen of Letters' blog. This barbers theme is a 1940's barber shop which heavily relates to my 'Gentlemen of Letters' blog where i talk about finding a vintage store where i can create hand scripted bespoke logos.

I have taken some examples from the book 'Typography Sketchbooks, Steven Heller & Lita Talarico' which were inspirational when drawing my initial couple of logo sketches.

 This first one, 'To America With Love' was inspiring as i quite liked the retro feel which the curves and flicks gave to the typeface I have incorporated some similar techniques in my initial designs.

The second image has been very beneficial to me as it allowed me to study, in large, the italic look of a letter and the components which italic type has. This can be seen in my second hand drawn logo.

Barber Barber

These two logo ideas below are the first stages of many logos which i intend to create. I started out pencil sketching the shape and then filled it in with a calligraphy pen and a sharpie permanent marker. However, this technique is not ideal and i intend to purchase a brush pen soon. I have decided to create these hand rendered logos as i feel that the logo which the brand has now is too modern and digital. I believe that a hand rendered logo would give the brand so much more personality and would really add to the 1940's aura which the brand is trying to strive towards. The brand however, is quite new as it was only founded in 2013 but I still wanted to include when the brand was established in the logo. I decided that putting the year in numbers would break the 1940's illusion so to bypass this problem, I have written them in roman numerals which adds even more to that vintage personality of the company.

The two reflected 'B's in the logo above would be identical but it was quite hard to achieve this using my eye. This problem however, could easily be fixed when the design is scanned in digitally. I also intend to take some primary source photographs of the barbers and layer blend the finished logo onto some of these shots.