Brief 2 : Nada Brand Development

Back to pen and paper

Over the past few days Tom and myself have been developing the Nada brand by going to the extent of developing our own typefaces to use within the packaging and the brand guidelines. We have been developing a range of typefaces that are based around pasta and noodle shapes. 

Initially we experimented with a range of different ideas where we explored each letter fom of the alphabet. This included the process of drawing as many examples as possible to collect a foundry of examples in which we could later strip back and develop. 

We wanted to push ourselves within this brief and we are doing that through creating our Typeface for the Nada brand. We developed the idea of creating a bespoke and adaptive typeface for the brand in an effort to use the branding as way to represent every woman, and that every woman is different and the Nada brand embraces that. Furthermore the typeface will be developed through looking at pasta shapes and forms and reflecting this typographical letterforms.

Initially we experimented with a range of different ideas where we explored each letter from of the alphabet. This included the process of drawing as many examples as possible to collect a foundry of examples in which we could later strip back and develop.

Stripping back ideas

Using the process of stripping back our ideas, we liked the idea of using the zigzag / wiggly pasta shapes so therefore Tom sketched out some ideas based on our previous brainstorm. 

Working on the whiteboard

We found that working on the whiteboard was a good way of visualising our ideas and it was really different way of working as we could see our process in a larger scale in front of us. This was much more effective than jumping straight on to the computer.

Developing more unusual ideas

Again we looked into the shapes that pasta and noodles come in and we thought about how we could apply this to a typeface in a less obvious fashion. We are interested in using the stroke weights that highlight certain parts of the letterforms to show off the curves in the pasta. Concentrating on developing contrasting weights would also bring diversity to our range of typefaces. 

The process of elimination 

Throughout the development of today process, elimination was key to stripping back ideas that don't quite work. The examples below show a diverse set of ideas key to the development of our typefaces.

Finalising ideas on paper

Tom finalised some of the strongest ideas on paper by stripping back the over decorative examples that did not effectively communicate the letterforms. The good thing about this pen to paper process shows what works, and how you can build upon ideas by using a simple sketch. However we need to consider how they will work digitally, as the geometry and the maths behind the letters may be unclear to work with at this stage.