Design Challenge
Lords of Dog Town is the Instagram handle of San Francisco-based street photographer Ricoh Tkebui Yuji. Our effort is to capture Ricoh's photography practice in a logo mark as well as a secondary lettering treatment. We have also added a couple of spot illustrations to describe the brand further. The goal is to reference the culture from which Ricoh draws much of his inspiration as well as the content of Ricoh's photographs.
Mission
Lords of Dog Town claims he wants to document the city. We want to make a record of his environment. The people he grew up with and the places he has seen change. The photography of Lords of Dog Town is a cultural and social record.
Lords of Dog Town is the Instagram handle of San Francisco-based street photographer Ricoh Tkebui Yuji. Our effort is to capture Ricoh's photography practice in a logo mark as well as a secondary lettering treatment. We have also added a couple of spot illustrations to describe the brand further. The goal is to reference the culture from which Ricoh draws much of his inspiration as well as the content of Ricoh's photographs.
Mission
Lords of Dog Town claims he wants to document the city. We want to make a record of his environment. The people he grew up with and the places he has seen change. The photography of Lords of Dog Town is a cultural and social record.
Research
Below are several lettering treatments derived from album art graffiti and tattoos. All cultural references poignantly inspire the work of Lords of Dog Town.
Below are several lettering treatments derived from album art graffiti and tattoos. All cultural references poignantly inspire the work of Lords of Dog Town.
Design Process
This next set of images is a sequence of sketches and notes. These notes were taken to develop the final logo mark and lettering treatment. Both the word mark and the script were given various renditions to land on the final design.
The script is based on graffiti hand styles that are intentionally done very quickly on the street. Even though this lettering treatment has an intentionally fluid style, much digital editing was applied to adjust some spacing issues of the original. The letters were shifted to avoid small pockets of negative space which can sometimes act as unwanted focal points.
This next set of images is a sequence of sketches and notes. These notes were taken to develop the final logo mark and lettering treatment. Both the word mark and the script were given various renditions to land on the final design.
The script is based on graffiti hand styles that are intentionally done very quickly on the street. Even though this lettering treatment has an intentionally fluid style, much digital editing was applied to adjust some spacing issues of the original. The letters were shifted to avoid small pockets of negative space which can sometimes act as unwanted focal points.
The primary wordmark is based on the west coast black letter, commonly found in some graffiti styles as well as in black and white tattoo compositions. Most often, this lettering style will be of someone's last name, neighborhood, or nickname. Black letter on the west coast of North America has been used to signify importance such as a neighborhood or family surname. In other contexts, black letter is the official font of the titles of newspapers, award certificates government documents, etc. The adaptation of black letters in working communities signifies importance or prestige.
Propaganda
The posters are a graphic representation of this practice. When contextualizing this brand the street was a recurring theme.
The streets of San Francisco are bustling, there is an interesting moment at every turn. Creating posters and stickers
felt like the most natural way to express the relationship between Richos photography and the streets of San Francisco.
The posters are a graphic representation of this practice. When contextualizing this brand the street was a recurring theme.
The streets of San Francisco are bustling, there is an interesting moment at every turn. Creating posters and stickers
felt like the most natural way to express the relationship between Richos photography and the streets of San Francisco.
Lords of Dog Town is a brand that was born in the street. Ricoh Tkebui Yuji documents the life that exists for many San Francisco residents that live there. Not only does Ricoh document people in his photography he also captures the scrawls and markings on walls, these messages are often not the most refined but they are the most honest.
