This morning we had to do a task where we had to experiment with kerning playing around with random letters. We could use the 3 consonants and 2 vowels we asked or we can use less letters. We had to use the same text to represent different businesses only modifying the position of the letters. We spent some time experimenting before deciding anything.
After some experimentation we came up with the word "Sovoj" (which seems to be an Eastern European surname, but cannot really confirm this) to represent an ice-cream company (1), a car company(2) and a bar (3).
1 2 3
1.- We believe the ice-cream company could be like that because of the arch, which in Helvetica seems very informal. Also the symmetry between the "V" and the two "O" helped the "S" and the "J" not to go far away from the context, hanging the rest of the text in a playful way, which is probably why we all had similar thoughts, because the non-linear design evokes unconcern and informality.
2.- This one seemed to me like a car company probably because of its similitude to Volvo: clean typeface and kerned enough to stay elegant but relaxed. I realised this similitude as I was writing this post, so I was unconsciously influenced by that.
3.- When we aligned the letters in this order with such a word the first thing that came to my mind was "Netherlands". Even though I have never been in Holland, this organisation of letters made me feel like this is the kind of logotype you can find in a bar in Holland. The text in Helvetica aligned in 3 levels and decreasing from 2 letters to one in the 2 bottom levels seems like the text is hanging in order from the upper letters, giving a feeling of order where it should be mess. Probably I thought it could be a bar because, in some way, I interpret that order as cosiness, a place where you can stop and feel good.
Following this activity there was another one where we had to choose a word and we had to kern it in 30 seconds to fit for the purpose Simon was announcing. The businesses we had to represent in that kerning were a Pest Control company (A), Condom manufacturer (B), Student Club (C), Luxury Car company (D), Children's animation series (E) and the last Quentin Tarantino film (F).
A B C
D E
 |
| F |
These were the thoughts we had in 30 seconds to come up with a solution.
A.- Pest control: Aligned and kerned, to convey easiness, a clean appearance (as a pest control is about cleaning in some way) and reliability.
B.- Condoms: Despite we confused the letters order, we wanted to make the logotype modern, playful but aligned. That order should convey maturity and avoid misunderstanding with childish designs, which could be very weird.
C.- Student club: I believe we tried to be grunge here (as much as we could) so every letter would look like an individual full of energy but working as a set, like a club of students is supposed to be.
D.- Luxury Car: We wanted to give more space to the letters as many of luxury logotypes are designed, but we were limited by the paper underneath. The un-kerning in the right context can convey freshness and delicacy.
E.- Childrens animation: As it would be a series we had to choose the title, which could be like an arch. I just imagined the title with vibrating and skewed letters coming up at the end of the intro in an arch so the characters can be placed under the title.
F.- Quentin Tarantino film: We decided to go for a regular kerning and alignment and place the J to make it look like a gun, as Tarantino's arguments in films are normally (always?) gun related. It is hard for me to believe that Tarantino would use Helvetica just like that, but if he has an excuse to put a gun on the title maybe he would consider it.
I personally found the quick task very teaching, entertaining and necessary to quick experiment how kerning and positioning can change the meaning of an unknown word drastically.
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