As part of the founder's members of the Asociación Mexicana de Tipografía (Typography Mexican Association) (AMT), the first thing was to build its own identity, and then there's were an open call to submit and develop a design proposal for the AMT's new brand, so, I started to work on my exploration and consolidate a proposal.
First of all, the criteria was having a typographic solution, because this is a Typography Association, with professional and teachers of graphic design, type design, calligraphy, editorial design, lettering artist, printers and other different profiles around the making and managing of type.
Also, main key concepts that let us grow our brief just as:
• Association: organization of individuals with a specific purpose, inclusive, flexible, diversity, direction (towards a place), dynamism, proactive, organization, men and women.
• Mexican: Identity, that is from Mexico, native of this country. Spanish, history, language, local, global, indigenous languages, opportunity, culture, representation, history, future, union, future, projection, dynamism, diversity.
• Typography: lettering, calligraphy, chirography, mechanical representation of writing, technology, creativity, structure, contrast, rhythm, reading, culture, industry, business, book, web, typographic unit, perfection.
Perhaps the most visible element in a typographic brand is precisely when acronyms are used together with a name that represents it in an appropriate and immediate way, which becomes a visual identifier that can be understood, pronounced and easily transcribed in the environment and the environment. human universe in which it converges.
The logical option, in this case of the Typography Mexican Association, is to take the initials of each of its main words: AMT, or in this case, AMxT, highlighting the 'Mx' as a singularity of 'Mexico'. Being a simple and immediate way to identify it, which can have many advantages, but in the environment we live in today, information crosses and survives in many ways, and this is also the case, especially in the digital media and the SEO environment.
Starting from the concepts that affect an Association environment, where diversity prevails, the practice of thinking around a related activity —in this case, typography—, a personalized development and design (custom type) of the initials AMxT is made in a single line in three weights: light, regular and bold in a sans serif style, suggesting the contemporary idea of variable font technology that can generate a diversity of alternatives based on these three weight variants* (it can even be extended to variables of width, style or typography changes), which adhere to the idea and spirit of dynamic diversity of the brand that is widely applicable on its own context. In the composition there is also a small emphasis on the 'T' to suggest a serif ending arm or a stencil module, with the idea of showing the idea of diversity, differentiation, collaboration and complementation.
The design is composed of the initials in uppercases, but the letter "x" is included as lowercase to strengthen the idea that it is a Mexican organization with its association with the "M" as it is a widely known ending especially in relation to internet in the '.mx' url termination and even the AMT has determined in its internet domain page tipomx.org and typomx.org. At the same time, it suggests the basic concept of what in the theory and practice of typographic design and its related areas we call "x height", which also triggers the graphic representation of uppercase and lowercase, enhancing the concept of diversity.
In the same way, the Zipolite typeface —designed by Elí Castellanos, a prominent Mexican typographic designer— has been proposed to compose the name of the Association with two lines, in its Medium and Extra bold variants, in combinations of Uppercase, lowercase and small caps, placed in the space of what would be considered the descendents, also giving an approach with a certain editorial sense, enriching the previous concepts.
About the color palette,the red color refers to passion, warmth, active, humanity, also one of the colors of the Mexican flag. Gray as a contrasting color together with white, help to give a more sober and solid environment, and can also be shaded to lighter and intermediate grays to complement other possible uses.
The elements that complements the proposal of the graphic system, there's rectangular shapes of different sizes that has been taken in reference to the movable type blocks of traditional printing, which move and position themselves dynamically and randomly accompanying the logo and other id graphics, which also have the function of defining spaces, delimiting and being a guide for other graphic elements, as well as opening up an infinite number of aesthetic possibilities, with a contemporary feeling.
At the end, my proposal was not the final choice, but it is something that I'm feeling proud of, cause spreads and apply my skills on brand design, something I love to do so much.
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