Design Practice 2 // Beer Label research

Designed by - Trimapee

These beer bottle label designs are really good looking, they prove that simplicity, shape and pattern can create good aesthetics, I would like to design a similar style label for my range, which includes transparent labels and unusually shaped label design.

Design by - Simon Alander

Features a really nice typographic label, seems to have been printed onto transparent label stickers, I really like the pattern of the type and the fact that it's transparent .

Designed by -  Ostecx Créative

the design of these labels below doesn't really impress me too much, but it still captures a historical 'Western'  style.

Design by - Thorleifur Gunnar Gíslason

These labels have really given me some ideas, I would like to base my label designs around Viking patterns and designs, asnd these designs below give a good idea how you can use space and patteren to create a set of successful beer bottle designs
 

Designed by -  Kota Kobayashi

Again another simplistic design with a lot of space, simple colours and a solitary symbol is used, it creates a really unique design, as well as consistent design throughout the label, packaging and glass.

Designed by - Fanakalo

This design is a little more generic than some of the others I have found, but the vintage style of the design reminds me of a beer design you may have found in the 1920's or 30's, the colours used are also consistent and the brown and gold of the label gives a upper class feel while fitting with the colour of the bottle.

Designed by - Dossier Creative

The fact that this design uses doesnt even use a label for it's design, I am not sure yet of the process that would be needed to be taken to produce a design straight onto the bottle, so some further research would have to be taken, but if it is not possible to produce this by hand it may bee a good option that I could propose if i choose this process.

Using this technique but using Viking designs and patterns would create some really interesting visuals.

Designed by - Art in the Age

A really nicely produced concept for a beer bottle, both the shape and size of the bottle itself it really nice, with a rustic finish using the cork instead of bottle cap, the little booklet that comes with it only adds to the visuals. 

I could link this booklet element to the viking concept by making this into a piece of armor or clothing like a scarf or animal skin.

Designed by - Dreamerworx

A strong, powerful design which features a similar style type than the vikings used in their alphabet, I prefer the way the pint glass has been printed than the actual labels them self, it creates a similar strength and power that I would like to incorporate into my design.

Designed by - Toni Garcia

simple again, as well as using a different stock with a different texture for the label, to create a matt finish on the black glossy glass bottle.

Designed by - Dow Design

nicely shaped beer bottle, agai nI like the fact that the bottle comes with a free bottle opener, which again could be linked to my project by some armor or viking clothing, The actual bottle opener itself could be formed itself from a viking weapon like and axe or a shield.

Example of vintage beer can designs.

I generally really like vintage WWII tine and can design, these may not apply greatly to the vikings but i found these really nice visually. The rusty finish of them only adds to the visuals.

Designed by - Entire

This is a more illustrative design, it fits a similar style to maps that would would find from the red coats days. this is a good example of capturing a historical element in the design. However there was no illustration when the Vikings were around apart from the paintings and carvings they did.

Design Practice 2 // Useful Website

Viking Answer Lady

This seems to be a website that appears every google search i do about the vikings, and even though the structure of the site is abit messy and confusing, the information given on each aspect of the vikings is very thorough and it seems to have a huge amount information on every area of the vikings.

Below are the links That I have read through to help aid my understanding of each area.

• Berserkers
• Viking Hair and Grooming
• Viking Beer

Responsive // Churchill speeches and quotes research

One of the elements that made Winston Churchill so successful was his literary abilities, he wrote some incredible speeches which inspired the country and the world, which gave people hope and confidence in the hardest of times

Again I have taken these quotes and references from the Winston Churchill Center and Museum website - http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/quotations/famous-quotations-and-stories

When reading through these it was surprising how many famous quotes came frm Churchill's speeches during WWII.

We shall fight on the beaches - one of Churchills more famous speeches 

As the target audience of this brief is quite young, and we have decided to refine the ages even further to just incorporate 11 - 16 year old school children, we wanted to  use a light hearted comedic approach which will more likely attract a younger audience than a more historical and educational approach.

while researching Churchill's speeches I came across this Youtube clip which by the Gregory Brothers who take one of Churchill's speeches and auto tune it to make a song.
Even though this takes away from the greatness of Winston Churchill it still appeals closely to the audience age range that we are targeting.

Design Practice 2 // Beard Head - Knitted Viking Beards

I have decided to start researching related products that are outside of the topic Vikings as Warriors, I want to use vikings as a visual back bone of what ever products I decide to create through out this brief, but I want to take a more light hearted approach than to say produce way finding for a the Jorvic center.

Beardhead.com

This is an awesome website I found when researching Viking Beards. As you can see these are obviously for a bit of fun, and arguably to keep your face and head warm (but I cant imagine many people wearing these out in every day life). All the beards are made from wool, mostly knitted but other techniques are used in some instances.

The idea is brilliant and made me laugh quite a lot especially when you see some of the beards, but I think the unique concept and high quality finish will probably attract quite a lot of people, it has both a comical and functional element to sell itself and there is a large range to suit a larger audience.

These amaze me! they are such a brilliant idea and finish, this is a similar light hearted approach as I would like to take within this brief. 

Design Practice 2 // Bryan Ku - Pillow fight

 This is a really good concept and  a 'I wish I'd have thought of that' moment, this is a project called Pillow Fight by the designer Bryan Ku.

This has helped me think a little more outside the box when it comes to my concept, I think originally I was thinking to literally with my ideas and therefore i was struggling to relate my research on vikings with modern day graphic design.

This idea of taking weaponry and making them into pillows, allowing children or silly adults to fight with these weapons without injury.  

Bryan's range of pillows already consists of a viking axe but this project has really helped me get some more ideas of how I could use vikings to create products that aren't necessarily directed at vikings themselves or even historians or people who are interested in vikings, i could produce a range that uses vikings as a basis for design but could focus on a completely different target audience. For example, I could brand and package a viking beard trimming kit, which will be designed with Viking beards and and Viking culture in mind while actually being aimed at the modern day man with a long beard.

Design Practice 2 // The Berserkers

The Berserkers seemed to be one of the most infamous warriors that the Vikings produced, it is a name that has kept on cropping up when I have been doing this research. They were a certain group of Viking Warriors who were known best for taking hallucinogenics or being extremely drunk before they battled but they wore no armour and set fear into their opponents by fighting with such anger and fury

Research Source By Stephen Harris - http://stephen-harris.hubpages.com/hub/Berserkers-in-Viking-Society

Berserkers in Viking Society

Going Berserk

Berserkers were fearsome Viking warriors who fought friend and foe whilst in a heightened state of uncontrollable fury – a form of madness known as bärsärkar-gång (going berserk).
They are first heard of in the 9^th century poem Raven Song which tells of 'men wearing wolf skins' (Ulfheðnar) who were soldiers in the service of king Harald Fairhair. ¹
There are two disputed origins for the name:

• They wore a bear skin coat – Old Norse ber (bear) and serkr (coat)
• They fought bare chested - berr (bare) and serkr (shirt)

There has been speculation that the mad fury of the berserker was induced by mind-altering magic mushrooms - such as the fly agaric ². Perhaps more plausibly it was brought on by binge-drinking ³.
Supposedly no weapons could harm them. An understandable exagerration - no doubt a berserker in a heightened state of fury would be oblivious of any wounds until the battle was over.
Berserkers worshipped the Scandinavian war-god Odin and like him were reputed to be shape-shifters. Ulfr, a former berserker, was known as Kveld-Ulfr (Evening Wolf) – by day he would grow ever more bad-tempered and at night become a werewolf ⁴.
Berserkers in the throes of their berserkergang could attain the ferocity and strength of a bear, hence the name element ‘Bjorn’ attributed to so many of them.
Once the effects of berserkergang had worn off the berserker would lose all his strength and be vulnerable to capture or assassination.
Though some Viking kings had berserkers in their army they were generally regarded as brutish, stupid and dangerous to know. They had a tendency to wreak havoc upon their own folk: gang-rape and pillage being their favourite recreation.
It was their unfair exploitation of the practice of hólmganga that led to their downfall.
The upper classes of the day were not amused that a fit, young, fearless berserker could challenge them to a duel to which they must respond in person, or with a champion and, after an inevitable defeat, watch said young berserker legally carry away one’s wealth, wife, daughters and nubile maidservants.
In 1015 King Erik of Norway outlawed the berserkers.

Beorn

Beorn is the Old English word for bear and is related to the Swedish Björn and Norwegian Bjørn. These words evolved into meaning ‘man’, ‘freeman’, ‘nobleman’ and finally ‘baron’.
In JRR Tolkein’s Hobbit Beorn was a “skin-shifter” who could take on the appearance of a black bear.
The extinct Cretaceous tardigrade Beorn leggi was named after Tolkein’s Beorn and its discoverer William Legg. Tardigrades are minute aquatic creatures known as ‘water-bears’.

Design Practice 2 // Viking Research - Secrets of the Viking Sword Documentary

Secrets of the Viking Sword Documentary

Responsive // Collaborative YCN Winston Churchill research

Me and Josh are doing the YCN churchill brief, which requires us to make the face of Winston Churchill known more amongst 11 - 18 year olds than Churchill the insurance dog.

This will require us to learn about Winston Churchill and what he did and why he should be remembered.

This is a short little clip which gives a general overview of what a great man Churchill was not just as a prime minister but as a human being, it focuses on his achievements in life in war.

Source - http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/why-study-winston-churchill

The Wiston Churchill center and museum website is  really useful it has a huge amount of information on Churchill 

• Timeline - http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/timelines
• Biography - http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/biography
• Churchill as a soldier - http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/the-soldier
• War Leader - http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/the-war-leader

There is much more information on here as well but these areas give a good overview of his achievements throughout his life.

Design Practice 2 // Viking Weaponry and Armour continued

The source of these informative clips is from the history channel and the website Museum Secrets 


Viking Armour

Viking Sword Fighting

Design Practice 2 // Viking Weaponary

Offensive Viking Weaponry - Source

'Laws of the late Viking period show that all free men were expected to own weapons, and magnates were expected to provide them for their men. The main offensive weapons were the spear, sword and battle-axe, although bows and arrows and other missiles were also used. Weapons were carried not just for battle, but also as symbols of their owners' status and wealth. They were therefore often finely decorated with inlays, twisted wire and other adornments in silver, copper and bronze.


The spear was the commonest weapon with an iron blade on a wooden shaft, often of ash and 2 to 3m in length. It was used for both thrusting and throwing. The blades varied in shape from broad leaf shapes to long spikes. Skilled spearsmen are said to have been able to throw two spears at once using both hands, or even to catch a spear in flight and hurl it back with deadly effect.
Swords were very costly to make, and a sign of high status. The blades were usually double-edged and up to 90cm, or a little over, in length, but early single-edged sabres are also known. They were worn in leather-bound wooden scabbards. Early blades were pattern-welded, a technique in which strips of wrought iron and mild steel were twisted and forged together, with the addition of a hardened edge. Later blades of homogeneous steel, imported probably from the Rhineland, bore inlaid makers' marks and inscriptions, such as INGELRII or ULFBERHT. Viking craftsmen often added their own elaborately decorated hilts, and many swords were given names, such as Leg-biter and Gold-hilt.
Long-handled battle-axes might be used instead of swords, particularly in open combat. The famed, double-handed broad axe is a late development, typical of the late 10th and 11th centuries. But as the owner could not hold a shield at the same time, he would take cover behind the front line of warriors, rushing out at the right moment to hew down the enemy.'


Viking Axes - Source

Viking Axes - this information openly says that these are re creations of axes that would have been found in the times of the Vikings, but these may not necessarily all have been used by all vikings, each axe was used for a different reason, some were used for multiple reasons,

The Dane axe could have a handle up to 6 ft long, which means that the warrior wielding it would have had to be very tall and very strong as well as pretty skilled to be able to successfully  use the axe.

The long handled battle axe/ Dane Axe 

This video shows the way that the battle axe was used to fight, as you can see the handle can nearly be as tall as the warrior wielding it, but it can create momentum, and if used with full strength it could smash a shield, pierce Armour or fell a horse

 

We have been asked to bring in 5 examples of logos and branding to do with our chosen topic for the design practice 2 brief. It seems that Viking is quite a popular name for general businesses and brands, so as you can see below there is quite a large variety of logos, difficult to compare to each other as they in essence all are trying to promote or brand different messages, products, ethics, messages etc. 


many of the logos I have found have nothing to do with the traditional viking what so ever, either in its business or its visual identity. So it seems in many cases the word viking is used rather than the meaning that comes with vikings.

1.

Quite a dull logo, i can see it's relevance to the Vikings, the typeface used looks like the style of type that is usually represented to the vikings, but this i think is more what people portrait the vikings visuals to be like rather than the design style that was actually used.


2.

Viking Wong is a London fashion designer, so again i don' think their is much relevance to my topic other than the name that is used.

3.
 

This is related to the fact the club initially focused only on the Norwegian forest cat and as Norway is where the Vikings came from I can see how it makes sense. As a logo it is pretty horrible,The colours used don't relate to either Norway, Vikings or Cats. As logos go I think the simpler it is the better. This is not always the case but i have never been a fan of illustrated logos, they are often over complicated.

4.

The relation between vikings and boats but again the logo doesn't really represent a link between the 2 topics, it uses a bold condensed font to make it appear more butch and manly with the 'elegance' of the script font underneath but it doesn't really make itself stand out as a brand.

5.

This again uses a serif medieval looking font which is visually related to the middle ages which is all very well and good, but the cross in the centre makes it look like a 't' and The Vikings were pagans for a long time and had their own religious beliefs so the cross was not related to the vikings at all.
 
6.

Use of a bolder uppercase font, again i guess to keep a masculine and butch link to the word viking. colour relate to the specialist area of the brand, but the symbol associated with the text relates much more to the Seatech part of the brand than the Viking.

7.

this logo even though it is related due to the name it is totally different to what you would ever expect to be associated with the Vikings. it is much more slim and thin, with light more feminine colours. the flag relates more to the viking era which kind of links the logo to a viking long ship, however that probably wasn't the intention. 

8.

Another illustrative logo which is way too over complicated to be classed as good, the imagery on its own, even though a little over complicated, could pass as an acceptable logo, but then 2 entirely different typefaces have been used in random positions and it makes no sense. 
 
9.

 

i actually quite like the look of this logo, well the typeface used for it at least, I am not really sure what it is the logo for, but I think the typeface chosen suits the topic and personality of the word, this of course is just a personal opinion but it has a bold and manly, aggressive, sharp look which i would associate with Vikings.  

10.

this is another logo that i like, for Viking Gardens, it is a pretty successful logo, and this is mostly down to its simplicity I would say, nice solid bold type, with the simple imagery of the helmet linking it to Vikings, which in all honesty is a smart thing to do, what is the point of naming your business something to do with Vikings if what you do or the way you want to look has nothing to do with vikings. The colour choices are also simple and effective.

11.

The Minnesota Vikings logo is by far the most popular when you Google search 'Vikings' and as it is a logo for a popular NFL American Football team then the logo like nearly all American sports teams is bright bold  and in your face, because that is the way sports are run out there. I really like the colour scheme that the vikings have and visually I really like the illustration used as the main logo, but I would still probably say that it is too over complicated for a logo, especially with the weird script text used to go with it.However it is still a very successful logo and is known commonly around the world.  

12.

Viking FM i was surprised to find again had nothing to do with vikings visually it is just a name that was used originally, perhaps the design has evolved since the initial concept was created.  

13.

 I think this logo is again playing towards the strength and force that the vikings were matched with, the block uppercase letters, highlight that fact, and the thick simple symbol used seems to look like a man posing in a body build position, maybe representing strength.

14.

All capitals, bold masculine type, maybe the 'V' is meant to represent horns that were meant to be on the helmets of vikings? but there is again not real relevant link to the topic and logo.