(revised logo)
Well, this summer I was asked to design a cover for a curriculum framework book and a couple of kits to help teach the curriculum. The project is based on the ACCESS curriculum for teaching young children in a childcare "family learning" center. I worked with the group of professors that created the curriculum and they wanted a logo that displayed learning and curiosity so we chose a magnifying glass with the acronym inside. They also wanted colors that reflected this and then colors of their school where they developed the curriculum. So the colors are green, red and blue. Each kit, however would have a different color that reflected the content.
Well, this summer I was asked to design a cover for a curriculum framework book and a couple of kits to help teach the curriculum. The project is based on the ACCESS curriculum for teaching young children in a childcare "family learning" center. I worked with the group of professors that created the curriculum and they wanted a logo that displayed learning and curiosity so we chose a magnifying glass with the acronym inside. They also wanted colors that reflected this and then colors of their school where they developed the curriculum. So the colors are green, red and blue. Each kit, however would have a different color that reflected the content.
At this point, we had the logo, colors, typography, book cover and labels. But over the break it expanded to not only the cover, but posters, the interior of the book, kits and the overall identity as well. At first I was feeling like this was a lot to take on. It will eventually be nationally distributed so I'm under a lot of pressure to make it look good. So far this winter I've worked on the overall identity, revised cover, revised logo, and three posters. I know it could be a lot better. I just am stuck on how. The main focus is that the material is clear and comprehensible. And the charts (which are used to teach how to use the curriculum) are specific to the material so I can't change the arrangements. Each poster was given to me in a word file with the basic arrangements. I recreated them in Illustrator and changed what I could. But I'm missing something. Help?
First, some of the stuff I did this summer:
book cover original
Here are some original logo options with the original choice highlighted (it is applied to the label below) But I revised it and the revised logo is up top.
Each educational kit would be a plastic container with a label on top and side. Here is the top label with the old logo.
Here is a revised version of the book cover, created this winter. I'm not entirely happy with the typography and I'd like to add some kind of glow to the magnifying glass:
Here is instructional poster 1, showing what the acronym ACCESS means:
instructional poster 2:
and 3:
i thought your original book cover looked better because of the center of interest created with the magnifying glass and type. i also like how most of the kids are looking in toward the type (generally speaking).
ReplyDeletethe new book cover doesn't have a lot of focus and the images aren't working cohesively. there is no clear relationship between them. the best i can see is that the magnifying glass kid is looking up toward the stacking girl.
it looks like you're using univers and maybe century. the acronym poster, and most all of the type, could be more stylish somehow. perhaps you go more extreme in the weight shifts (light and black weights) or you try mixing the type more.
the charts are pretty homogenous with all univers. also try some more stylish forms for the arrows and boxes. recall the more successful infographs from visual language communication models. what made those interesting to look at?
The communication models that had different shapes and forms were more interesting. What about using rounded boxes? or just two corners rounded. I'll try it out. And I totally agree on the cover. I'm going to combine the two covers and bring more color back in. Thanks a bunch Tyler! This was a huge help!
ReplyDeleteFor the mark, the text inside the icon is problematic for flexibility, legibility and scale change. Strive for better integration of text + icon.
ReplyDeleteFor the book cover approach scale changes of the various elements for more dynamic layout and offering entry points for the viewer. Employ spatial relationships from image-to-image and image-to-frame. Think about positive and negative space.
The acronym poster looks like a true-blue typography problem and right now isn't engaging. This is straightforward content, but doesn't need a default solution.
The instruction posters/infographics are great problems to work through if you really dive into structuring and hierarchy of the content (even before stylistic concerns).
Plus, I agree with Tyler that you can push the stylistic components. Explore a range of more ENGAGING & CLEAR graphic shapes and color treatments. For inspiration browse through:
http://infosthetics.com/
http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Transparency
What an exciting internship project. It's quite a system, and therefore has lots to consider! Planning is key - for future applications and all contexts and variables.