Table of Contents

• Overview of needs

• General branding structure

• Initial visual research

Overview of needs

Brief items

• Logo
  > Brand structure

• Homepage banner
  > “book cover”

• Header, text, and call-out fonts
  > Injection of custom typefaces

• Cover images for publication sections (6)
  > review initial research for systems

• Colors for publication sections (6)

• Consistent treatment for publication cover photos1

• Twitter and Instagram profile images
  > Logomark usage

• 5 Things to Think About newsletter banner
  > Pattern exploration

Custom CSS

We can implement custom css throughout the publication.

This allows for:

• each section to have custom styles

• each post to have its own inherit styles

Custom Typefaces

Using custom CSS also allows us to inject custom typefaces into our publication:

@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Lora&display=swap');
*{ font-family: 'Lora', serif !important; }

As of now, this restricts our typeface choice to cloud-hosted typefaces (like Google Fonts).

Brand structure

Site Structure

The publication is made up of six (+1) core sections.

These sections dictate not only how their respective posts are structured (interviews, long-form essays, etc), but also what they look like.

This allows each post to reference its section regardless of future combinations

Brand Structure

This also sets us up quite well for a unique logomark that feels in sync with the rest of the publication (and allows each subsection to have its own mark):

Directions

What methods (both visual and structural) can be pulled from traditional (and physical) methods of book making to inform how The Commonplace feels and works.

Endleaves

Endleaves (or endpapers) are pages left blank at the beginning and end of books.

We’re most interested in the first endleaf (the pastedown), which helps preserve a book’s binding.

Historically, the pastedown is both a utility (it holds the book’s contents together) and one of the primary moments of visual flourish.

Marbling

The pastedown acted as an opportunity to showcase an trans-continental patterning technique:

Infinite variations

Similar to marbling’s infinite variations and traditions, we can also look to more contemporary methods of printmaking:

Sol LeWitt

Systems with infinite variation (+ instructions):

Vera Molnar

The pairing of digital and physical methods:

Maintaining a system

Mierle Laderman Ukeles

From the Maintenance art manifesto:

“B. Two basic systems: Development and Maintenance. The sourball of every revolution: after the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?”

Whole Earth Catalogue

“The release of photographs taken during early space missions coincided with the first issues of the Whole Earth Catalog. Brand pioneered the publication and dissemination of the images, putting them on the covers of the first catalogue, in fall 1968, and all successive issues. Throughout its run, the catalogue consistently advertised the pictures and provided instructions for ordering them from the government.”

Waldorf Schools

On the introduction of multiple visual elements:

“Using wet paper and large brushes, the young children first experience the quality of each primary color individually. Later, as they learn to blend two colors, secondary colors arise from the painting. By second grade, they begin to see forms in the colors, and in third grade they are able to develop these forms themselves.”

Next Steps

• Directions build out

• Design presentation (Week of May 26)