Proper BBQ by Tom Hayes

Crawling through Behance I decided to choose my new favourite London-based graphic designer for the first of a regular Friday feature I’m officially branding VisArt Friday where we will choose a favourite UK-based visual artist every week to share their work and why we like them. To kick off the first article in this brand new series we love the look of graphic designer Tom Hayes’ Proper BBQ branding.

There are several reasons as to why Proper BBQ has made its way into today’s VisArt Friday, one of which being the nostalgia you get, reminiscent of the stereotypical Old West, when looking at the font design and variety of textures it has been printed on.

Hayes has specifically targeted what he defined as “gentlemen” in his creative work and it has successfully captivated the men behind Inspiring Print. Perhaps it’s the masculinity associated with BBQs that has contributed to our undivided attention or maybe it’s the brilliant and simple design that we desire.

The mixture of metal, glass, twine and Hessian look and feel like very raw materials, which have been allowed to speak for themselves because of the very simplistic design approach utilising typography and border styles similar to the era they represent.

It is unclear whether or not these products are available to buy, as our online searches have been unsuccessful so far. One thing we’re certain of though is that these would be great sellers to BBQ blokes across the UK. It was only yesterday that BBC Radio 4 were discussing the stereotypes of men in the kitchen and that we’re more likely to buy ALL the gear involved with a cooking project because of our perfectionist nature compare to women who supposedly improvise.

Summary

Overall we massively enjoy the visual delights of Tom Hayes’ work here. The composition of the materials work nicely together with the simplistic design approach to create something that 21st Century cowboys of the barbeque world would be delighted to lasso off the shelf and into their kitchen cupboards.
To view Hayes’ Proper BBQ on Behance visit: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Proper-BBQ/3662161.

A Couple of Typography Tips

Recently I've been thinking of different ways that companys or organisations can get their messages across creatively in print media. This lead me to think of typography as an artistic way to do just that. It's been used by many companies previously and is commonly used to illustrate famous people based on their historic quotes, such as this one of Ray Charles:

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andydoering/4464071577/

Simple Words

If you're deciding to create a cool typography piece to promote an event or just get creative then its worth thinking about what words you're going to use. Say you've got a live music event you're trying to promote, the most obvious choice of words will be the names of the artists and bands performing e.g. Glastonbury could create a tree silhouette from the names of bands.

Some companies might have a big catalogue of products therefore the simplest words to use would be categories or even customer perceptions and values of the brand. A cool example is one of the typography pieces that create a map of the world.

Image source: http://bpblogging.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/11158-world-map-names-country-countries-typography_-colorful.png

Space

Unless if you're trying to create a sketchbook style piece like the Ray Charles example, space should be used to keep the readability of the words. It's the amazing thing about typography art. Two different artistic forms of writing and design come together to create beautiful work. Therefore, let the words you've chosen come through to exploit that secondary artistic style.

For promotional purposes, it won't be good having a cool design that loses the message so space is just as important.

Recommendations

That's all I can advise without going into the technicalilites of the design creation but it's simple yet easy to forget when creating a great jaw-dropping typographic.

If you've got any cool Typography pieces you'd like to share simply post your links to them in the comments section below. I'll pin up the ones I like the most on my Pinterest page when I eventually get that going.

Also, follow me on Twitter if you feel like getting my micro-blogging updates @inspiringprint

Image source: http://dougklembara.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/twitter-bird-typography.jpg