Toy Packaging Solutions

Conceptual Design in the 60's and 70's was the breaking away of graphic design  from narrative illustration and formalism, and the embracing of historicism and reformulation of art and graphical design history into new, uniquely expressive forms and identities.  In my previous posting, in the discussion on the origins of the Bauhaus typeface, this has already been well-illustrated.

Personally speaking, I find the late 60's and 70's to be a fascinating period in design in general, and would love to better understand the ideas, goals, and movements of this design period.  For now, though, I will have to look at its use of type.

The examples I have for this posting, like the Bauhaus typeface discussion, demonstrate the late 60's/70's spirit of experimentation.  This period also saw a greater integration of layout and design, which makes the "air trix" package design a great place to start.

In spite of making use of photography for its primary design resource, the image itself is non-naturliastic, and contains very few elements.  One of the most prominent elements, the game board and the yellow game poles, have been arranged to create a specific rhythm that moves the eye across the box.  The boy's blue shirt creates striking contrast with the last yellow pole.  Color has also been greatly restricted, with hues in the primary pictorial elements - the boy's blue shirt and the red wand - matching the logo colors exactly.  This shows a high degree of planning and coordination between art director and photographer, as well as a careful and purposeful integration of type and image.

The typeface is similar to Montara, which was an Adobe Open Type Font designed in 2001, and based off of Pica Roman No.1 and Oxford Typefaces from American Type Founders, but places the slope on the "t" so that it moves from left to right.  I have not seen this replicated in any other font, and it appears to be a stylistic choice made to continue the sliding left-right movement of the entire logo.

Also note how closely the letters have been kerned together, with the letters "t, r," and "i" extremely close to create tension and rhythm, and the "x" strokes touching and overreaching the "i."  The alternating red-blue of the letters further intensifies the tension and movement.  

The leaning letters of "air" convey movement, and even seem to suggest, by their placement in coincidence to to the wand the boy is holding, that THEY have been affected by the air being blown out of it! The word is further enhanced by the unique slope formed by the transition of the counter of the "a" into the stem of the "i," then back up the "r."

Also note the hairline strokes placed around the dots on the "i'"s in order to convey movement.  This logo is HIGHLY illustrative, and though it appears on a toy box, it is very interesting to contrast with logo design that would have appeared in any medium a decade earlier.

Simon is both a famous toy and a logo.  As far as I can tell, it is a custom typeface.  It is similar to Briem Akademi, which as far as I can tell was created no later than 2001, but am uncertain if it was the basis for the Simon logo.  The most distinctive qualities of the Simon logo is the strong vertical emphasis, consistency of stroke thickness, and highly regular formation of the letters, broken up only by incidents of negative space.  Smooth curves add a pleasing quality to what would otherwise be a blunt typeface, and tight kerning further emphasizes the vertical nature of the letters.

I believe it would be accurate to characterize the Simon logo as partly reflective of the developing age of computing and computer typefaces.  However, the letterforms are also repetitions of similar forms found in the four broad Simon buttons.  A simple, restrained primary color palette and a black background gives the overall packaging a visually exciting, dynamic quality.