The Magnetic State Blog Dept.

The blog at Brooklyn web design studio Magnetic State.

  • Our Work
  • Best of the Blog
    • This Major Athletics Brand Needs a Redesign
    • Why You Need a Responsive Website
    • Interpreting Banksy’s ‘Evil’ Painting
    • Are There Breasts in the McDonald’s Logo?
  • Featured Design
    • Responsive Feature Article for Men’s Health Magazine
    • Responsive Website for Coldfront Magazine
    • Logo Design: Men’s Health Next Top Trainer
    • EverPower Corporate Reports
  • SPY APP
  • Contact Us

A Brief History of the Color Pink

September 16, 2015 by Dan Redding Leave a Comment

color pink

Stuff that is pink.

My clients in cancer nonprofits have strong feelings about the color pink. Pink is a symbolic color used to represent breast cancer, and while it is used primarily for a very good cause, there are a few pitfalls. For starters, some organizations have been accused of “pinkwashing” – or exploiting pink cancer iconography to sell unhealthy or non-charitable products. Furthermore, you’re likely to be pummeled by a tsunami of eyeball-searing pink-osity during October, a.k.a. Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Too much pink is too much of a good thing.

What is it that makes this color so charged with meaning? Pink is a symbol. The color itself symbolizes femininity, breast cancer, tenderness, and romance. Walk into any toy store and you’ll find this color used to codify the strict binary gender system of the Western world. I remember a Christmas during childhood when I was mortified to find a partially pink bicycle with my name on it under the tree. Oh, the horror – boys don’t do pink!

Recently, the color pink has appeared in the unusual context of war and protest. Despite the unusual context, pink is often chosen because of its connotations of femininity and tranquility. Pink has been worn by political protesters in Yemen – “chosen to represent love and to serve as a signal that the protests were peaceful.” In 2011, pink dye was used by Ugandan police to “humiliate” anti-government demonstrators.

sunny day real estate lp2

What looks like a Pantone swatch is actually Sunny Day Real Estate’s album ‘LP2’ aka “the pink album”

We live in the “global village” now – a world connected by technology, where the meaning of any given symbol is likely to be standardized across cultures (and usually originating from Western influence). But it wasn’t always that way.

Dicaprio Gatsby Pink Suit

Leonardo DiCaprio’s pink suit in ‘The Great Gatsby’

According to University of Maryland historian Jo Paoletti, the gendered colors assigned to babies were much more varied in the early twentieth century. “There was no gender-color symbolism that held true everywhere,” says Paoletti. Historically, it not unusual for men (or Jay Gatsby) to wear pink. Pink is a tint of red – a color we associate with masculine qualities like blood, war, and aggression. Studies show that women find a man wearing red attractive and desirable; it’s a bold color that “traditionally has been part of the regalia of the rich and powerful.”

It’s fascinating that a simple tint (white added to red) would have such a dramatic effect: the difference between red and pink seems like night and day (see below).

batista

Cool story, bro.

The rise of pink a feminine symbol may simply exist for same reason that diamonds cost two months’ salary: because marketing. From Barbie to Disney princesses and Hello Kitty products, the color pink is used as a green light for female consumers.

The more connected we get, the more universal the meaning of any given symbol will be worldwide – be it a color or a piece of fruit. For those of us in the design & branding industry, that gives us great ammunition when it’s time to defy accepted standards and go against the grain.

Filed Under: Branding

New Work: Men’s Health Fall Guide to Style

September 15, 2015 by Dan Redding Leave a Comment

responsive magazine design

I designed and developed this responsive multimedia feature for Men’s Health: The Fall 2015 Guide to Style. The feature includes exclusive video and style content in three categories (Creative, Rugged, and Sophisticated). The videos are featured as large centerpieces, followed by dozens of products and tips. This responsive minisite integrates Bootstrap-based web design with the Men’s Health CMS.

Filed Under: By Magnetic State, Responsive Design, Web Design

Verizon’s Redesign Looks a Lot Like Gap’s 2010 Disaster

September 10, 2015 by Dan Redding Leave a Comment

Last week, Verizon unveiled a logo “refresh” by Michael Beirut of Pentagram. The online consensus was ambivalent – Verizon’s refresh wasn’t a disaster, nor would it do much to turn the ship around for a reviled brand. The mixed feedback is odd if you consider that this logo looks an awful lot like the 2010 Gap logo redesign – the P.R. equivalent of an ocean liner colliding with an iceberg.

verizon logo gap logo

The similarities are numerous. Both logos are set in Helvetica or a close variation of it (the Verizon wordmark is set in Helvetica’s very close predecessor, Neue Haas Grotesk). Both relegate their iconographic elements (check mark and square) to sad-afterthought corner placements. Both of those icons are nearly primitive in their basic simplicity, and both use a primary color (red and blue, respectively). One of the only differences is that Gap is set in Title Case while Verizon opts for quiet, unassuming lowercase.

The Gap redesign was met with such unanimous derision that the brand reverted to the previous logo. So why hasn’t the Verizon logo met the same fate?

First of all, the Verizon logo is a “refresh” while the Gap logo was an overhaul – Verizon’s move is less shockingly new. Furthermore, Gap found out the hard way that its customers had brand loyalty and affection for their previous logo. In Verizon’s case, the brand is loathed and therefore consumers are less likely to take offense at any change (they’re too busy taking offense at bad customer service). While the Gap’s new logo felt like an utter disaster that didn’t fit a beloved brand, the Verizon redesign feels more like rearranging (or “refreshing”) the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Filed Under: Branding, Logo Design

Verizon Revised the World’s Most Boring, Impersonal, Soulless Corporate Logo

September 3, 2015 by Dan Redding 1 Comment

verizon logo

Verizon revised their logo this week – but the revision does little to change the fact that their corporate identity looks like it was designed by a bored robot. In the landscape of corporate design and digital culture, it has the personality of a spindle of blank CDs.

What is it that makes this speck of visual furniture so mundane that is seems nearly invisible? The wordmark is set in Neue Haas Grotesk – a (very) close relative of Helvetica that will appear to be Helvetica itself to most viewers. Using Helvetica (or its ilk) in your logo is a Catch-22: it’s one of the only truly flawless typefaces in design history, but it is so overexposed in corporate identity usage that it blends in with the crowd like a golf ball in a bowl of rice. Then there’s the central motif that has been carried over from the old design: a red check mark. This symbol is a red check mark. The check mark is red. It symbolizes technoloZZZZZZZZZZ

In the new logo revision, the check has been moved to the right side of the wordmark. Verizon’s Chief Marketing Officer, Diego Scotti, offers the following explanation for the identity refresh: “Our goal was to define a brand identity that stands for simplicity, honesty, and even joy, in a category that has become overrun with confusion, disclaimers and frustration.”

Now there’s a perfectly distilled jewel of tone-deaf corporate brand-speak. First of all, consumers find Verizon incredibly frustrating. Furthermore, to say that this logo has an ounce of joy in it is akin to saying that it’s neon green. Unless you love check marks so much that you cry blissful tears every time you check “REFILL STAPLER” off your to-do list. If you want to see what a joyful logo looks like, check out Google’s new ultra-friendly, humanized identity.

The logo refresh was done by Pentagram – design heroes to anyone who’s ever touched an oil palette or a Photoshop filter. Pentagram partner Michael Beirut said of the revamped logo: “It isn’t intended to be clever or flashy. It’s really supposed to acknowledge its role as being ubiquitous as a kind of brand with a big footprint and one that isn’t trying to add to the visual noise around us.”

I can see that perspective. Verizon is so huge that it doesn’t need to visually announce itself with trumpets and fanfare. But the bottom line is this: Verizon’s visual identity cannot transcend the brand’s negative reputation as long as it is lugging that sterile, clinical, uninspired check mark around with it.

Filed Under: Branding, Logo Design

Banksy is Opening a ‘Bemusement Park’ in a Derelict Resort

August 20, 2015 by Dan Redding Leave a Comment

banksy dismalandBanksy’s new exhibition is a typically daring and off-kilter stunt for the artist – and it may be his biggest and boldest idea yet. The British provocateur is opening a crappy parody of a theme park in Weston-super-Mare, which the artist describes as an “unfashionable British seaside town frequented by low-income families.” According to its website, Dismaland features 18 attractions, including art galleries, a shitty castle, a circus tent, an “oil caliphate themed crazy golf course,” and a portrait artist who draws the back of your head (“surprisingly revealing”). This twisted theme park is actually a curated art show featuring renowned artists like Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer (whose ‘truisms’ will be read aloud over the park’s speaker system).

The venue is the deserted Tropicana site, which formerly housed a large outdoor swimming pool. In Britain, they call this type of pool park a ‘lido.’

When the folks at Juxtapoz asked Banksy what he hopes visitors will take away from the Dismaland experience, he quipped, “A souvenir programme, three T-shirts and a mug. Each.”

The park is open from August 22nd to September 27th. See tons of photos at The Independent. Better book your flight to Weston-super-Mare now.

Filed Under: Artists

The Carcass Near the Gift Shop: Damien Hirst’s Shark

August 11, 2015 by Dan Redding Leave a Comment

damien hirst impossibility of death meaning

Photo of Damien Hirst’s artwork by penjelly

They say that all stories are about one of two things: love or death. Well, if there has ever been a work of art that was utterly and totally death-centric, it’s Damien Hirst’s 1991 artwork ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.’

The piece consists of a dead tiger shark suspended in a tank of formaldehyde. This infamous artwork is one of my favorite in the world. It is intended to shock – and it certainly does – but its meaning goes much deeper. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Artists

The Right Way is the Only Way

August 10, 2015 by Dan Redding Leave a Comment

Here’s a good professional standard: sometimes, the ‘right way’ to do things is the only way.

As a teenager, I learned this valuable lesson from my bass guitar teacher, Bob Valeno. I was 16 and seeking a new teacher to help me advance my skills. I wanted to play like my heroes, Flea and Les Claypool. It was 1996, so I literally opened the phone book and looked at the music ads. I called up Mr. Valeno – a family man and music teacher who spent his weekends gigging at bars and weddings around the Jersey Shore using the name ‘Dr. Bobbyfingers.’ Despite the amusing alias, Mr. Valeno was no joke.

After we introduced ourselves, I said casually, “I’m not looking to learn to read music; I just want to learn to play some of my favorite songs.” Bob replied, “Well, if you don’t want to learn to read music, that’s fine – but I’m not the teacher for you. If you want to work with me, we’ll do things the right way, and I’ll teach you to read.”

One fact immediately came into stark relief: I was a clueless kid and Bob was an experienced professional. I was so impressed by his standards that I signed up for a lesson right away, and studied with him for years. The way that he took authority over his subject and methods was a kind of confidence and knowledge that I wanted, too.

I listen to lots of punk rock and metal, where breaking the rules is a virtue. But you first need to learn the rules in order to break them.

Here’s how this applies to design. A client recently came to me looking for a new website. Her needs were perfectly suited for a website built with WordPress, and I told her so. She said, “But I heard about [insert new, untested startup CMS here] and my friend said it’s good. Can we use that?” My reply was the same thing the Bob would’ve said: “If you want to work with me, we’ll use WordPress, because I know that it’s the most appropriate fit for your needs.” Clients come to you because you’re an expert with the knowledge to make these kinds of decisions – not them. You wouldn’t go to the doctor and tell him to prescribe you laxative for a broken knee.

Do it the right way and do it once. Thanks to Dr. Bobbyfingers for the valuable lesson!

Filed Under: Graphic Design

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 28
  • Next Page »

ADVERTISEMENT

About

Magnetic State is a design studio powered by Dan Redding. We create websites, brand identity, and print design. Wanna work together? Send Dan an email.

Featured Articles

These Emojis Have Truly Surprising Cultural Origins

These Emojis Have Truly Surprising Cultural Origins

Donald Trump Presidential Campaign Logos

Donald Trump Presidential Campaign Logos

Here’s Why Richard Prince’s Instagram Portraits are Brilliant – and Misunderstood

Here’s Why Richard Prince’s Instagram Portraits are Brilliant – and Misunderstood

14 Weird Logos in the U.S. Trademark Registry

14 Weird Logos in the U.S. Trademark Registry

Visit Culture Creature!

Culture Creature is the magazine for music fiends. Visit CultureCreature.com!

Free Design News

Sign up for the Magnetic State newsletter! Receive important updates and tips from Magnetic State a few times a year.

Search

Categories

HYPE

Loading Quotes…

© Copyright 2015 Magnetic State. Privacy Policy