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re-branding placebos
Posted by mattbox in
20 Mar 2011 — 7:48am
20 Mar 2011 — 7:48am
Hello there , I'm a design student currently working on a project in which I am aiming to create a logo type for placebo medication.
I have hit a wall and would like feedback to help me develop my designs.
I am currently working on a stencil logo type
based on the rounded type that is stamped onto pills & capsules (see ref1)
I started with quite a light typeface made of two sections ( to represent the pyschological & physiological aspects of medicine that work together )
My tutor suggested to thicken it up , using the omnipresent helvetica as a reference.
i've tried this but now it just looks (for want of a better phrase) ' sausage-y '
illegible would probably be a more relevant phrase to use, but i'm sure you will understand.
any help or suggestions for further development would be greatly appreciated, thanks
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| ref1.jpg | 59.17 KB |
| placebotester.jpg | 112.69 KB |
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20 Mar 2011 — 8:18am
I’m not sure stencil works in this case (I associate it with military or heavy industrial settings).
If you want to maintain the two sections idea, what about just a white horizontal line through the word?
20 Mar 2011 — 9:25am
cheers for the feedback riccard0
were you thinking like so?
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5296/5543522906_c03ef27f3a_b.jpg
apologies for the rushed lack of detail on the letterforms
20 Mar 2011 — 10:29am
Does the logo need to reflect the fact it is a placebo, i.e. a dummy? Or are you just aiming at capturing the contours of a pill?
20 Mar 2011 — 10:54am
Yes, something like that, which could also resemble the debossing to cut in half a tablet.
20 Mar 2011 — 11:28am
good question apankrat,
The project started with creating a superscript glyph that was supposed to represent the idea of a placebo ,
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5259/5543332045_e6df7cd072.jpg
I created this P+ symbol , as an alternative to the Rx symbol used on prescriptions
which would be used when placebo's were prescribed
so i guess i'm still quite hung up on the contours of the pill.
I wanted something that was a modern alternative to helvetica but with a medical/pharmacutical connotation
do you think I just barking up the wrong tree with this pill influenced type?
& cheers for the advice riccard0 I much prefer the horizontal cut into the type , it looks alot more consistant than before.
20 Mar 2011 — 11:52am
You could also be interested in the work italian designer Albe Steiner did for the logo of Pierrel pharmaceutics:
http://digilander.libero.it/sitographics/steiner%20pierel%201%20grande.htm
http://digilander.libero.it/sitographics/steiner%20pierel%202%20grande.htm
http://digilander.libero.it/sitographics/imago_steiner/immagini/steiner-...
20 Mar 2011 — 3:15pm
fantastic , this is great research
cheers riccard0
20 Mar 2011 — 5:21pm
Have you seen Pill Gothic?
20 Mar 2011 — 5:39pm
Thanks frode frank for that suggestion
I hadn't until a quick internet search just now, very nice
I really like that the different styles are defined in mili grams, a nice touch
not too sure about the lowercase 'a' though, it looks too sharp
I was thinking of using gravur condensed as a body text
& basis for the logo type
http://www.lineto.com/The+Fonts/Font+Categories/Text+Fonts/Gravur+Conden...
what do you think?
20 Mar 2011 — 5:50pm
I think it might be a fairer test of your idea if the separations were not so wide. I see an F before I see a P in the name, and so on. ?? And thinner may be better to avoid the 55 gallon drum industrial look!
24 Mar 2011 — 10:50am
Have you thought about altering the caps at the intersection? Those are what make it look sausage-y I think. Also I like what you did with the 'e' in the third draft, maybe you could do something similar with the 'a'?
24 Mar 2011 — 11:17am
To judge a logo, we really need a design brief. I'm a little confused with it being a placebo, and emphasizing that, as emphasizing that it's a placebo seems to conflict with the definition of what a placebo is.
24 Mar 2011 — 7:46pm
Matthew,
Please forgive me for the off topic comment, but I have to say that I LOVE the title of this thread. "Re-branding Placebos" would make a great title of an article or book on the topic of the potential placebo-effect when rebranding in general...
Regards,
Michael
25 Mar 2011 — 1:56am
Or pop bands in particular ;-)
26 Mar 2011 — 4:02pm
I'm confused about your assignment. Are you designing a logo to be stamped onto pills and capsules? They don't put logos on those, they just put identification codes.
On the other hand, if you're designing a logo for marketing purposes (to be put on a label or in an an advertisement) I don't know why you'd pick a utilitarian stencil font. The fact that it somewhat resembles the codes stamped on pills seems totally irrelevant to me. The codes on pills are so tiny that most folks can barely read them anyway, and they certainly aren't designed to convey anything about the product except factual data.
The whole point of a placebo is to fool the patient into thinking they're getting real medicine, rather than a sugar pill, so you'd want a logo that looked very similar to traditional prescription logos.