The Robert Morris Media Arts Community Design workshop is a project established by RMU to create a new branding identity for Robert Morris Media Arts. The project consists of five students and two professors (Jon Radermacher and Andrew Ames). The professors oversee and advise the students assigned task. The total scope of the project is to create a working brand and website.
In the workshop I was given the task of handling the design elements for the overall look of Media Arts. The logo, icons, and some web layout were my primary objectives. Along with Debra Ostrander (Primary Web Developer), Josh ELsass (Video), Kenya Johns (Video), and Brock Switzer the project will be launched this summer.
With the overall look of the campaign the goal was to be clean and memorable. The logo was derived after many nights contemplating the style of the whole project. Eventually with the "cleanliness" mentality the logo was approached by using a straightforward san serif font (futura). The golden mean is applied to the elements inside of the logo based off of the solid rectangle behind the word arts. As a result of this the ratio between elements appeals to the eye because of the use of the grid.
The icons for the site were built from simple shapes. The challenge of the icons is making a memorable mark but also one that is easily recognized. The graphic design section proved and still proves to be the biggest challenge in this regard. Graphic design is everything. It is in everything we see in the world around us, because of this the simple shapes that can create all elements (rectangles, circles, and triangles) were used to define graphic design.