Invisible Design

Invisible Design (or Some Jobs are Bigger than Others)

Not every job that I work on has a final output that I can claim creative ownership of – I often work on small jobs where my creative contribution is not immediately apparent and the design decisions that I have made are not immediately visible. This small logo that I designed for DES Talks, Susanna Beaumont’s new design podcast as part of her brilliant ongoing project, Design Exhibition Scotland, is a case in point. As an adaptation of an existing design, a designer would not expect to be credited for their work but, in this post, I hope to reveal the sometimes invisible design processes, thinking and decision making that go in to all design jobs, even the smallest, most humble ones.

The brief was to create a new online logo for the DES Talks podcast, adapting the existing DES logo, and working within a square format of 3000 x 3000 pixels with a maximum file size of 512KB using the orange of the original logo as the key colour.

I developed multiple iterations before arriving at a final design: working with the existing DES logo and colour, I tested several layouts with different settings for ‘DES Talks’ – in upper case, lower case, title case and other variations. Each iteration created a different relationship between the existing logo and the additional words but I was drawn to the connection that happens between the uppercase letters of ‘Design Exhibition Scotland’ and the abbreviation ‘DES’ when it is also set in uppercase – it makes sense of the acronym. This connection is emphasised when the word ‘talks’ is set either in lower case or in title case. I was undecided between these two settings but the client opted for ‘Talks’, which I think settles the meaning of the word as ‘(a series of) talks’ rather than ‘Des speaks’ (though that ambiguity is fun).  

In most of the iterations that I designed, the Design Exhibition Scotland logo is positioned on the left-hand side and runs from the top edge of the square: I found that the logo didn’t feel right – too arbitrary and ‘floating’ – when placed elsewhere. It’s always a challenge working with logos designed by other designers and it’s generally a case of finding the ‘sweet spot’ where the logo feels rooted in the layout (this becomes even more of a challenge when working with multiple logos designed by multiple designers – but that’s another story). In the final design, the letters ‘DES’ are aligned with the bottom edge of the DES logo, further emphasising the connection between ‘Design Exhibition Scotland’ and its acronym.

I’m not sure exactly what typeface the logo was originally designed with as I was given a vector, with outlined letters to work with – it looks to me like the typeface was condensed and angled to create an italic. After looking at lots of similar sans-serif geometric typefaces, I selected Futura as the typeface to sit alongside the DES logo. On closer inspection, the vectors included some stray elements that suggested that the original logo had an inline element – I had to tidy these up and remove them as, when outputted as a PNG, it showed as tiny cracks on the letters, despite the outputs being very small in size. I would have liked to refine the letter spacing of the original logo but as it is already established and widely in use, I thought it best to leave it alone.

The logo was designed with two colourways: with an orange background with white lettering and with a white background with orange lettering. It’s clear that in the two examples of the logo in use online, shown below, that the orange background version is the strongest, particularly on the desktop version of Apple’s podcast browser which has a white background that contrasts nicely with the orange logo.

As a further development, I introduced gradient backgrounds, using the shift from white to orange with contrasting coloured elements to create movement, depth and visual interest in the design. I felt that this was something that I might explore further but, in the second round of presentations to Susanna, she decided that the flat background was more suitable and I made that version ready for use. Given that the logo will be usually viewed on a small scale and not always at the optimum resolution I think this was the right decision for maximum legibility.

The DES Talks podcast can be found on various platforms including Apple Podcasts – or by searching for ‘DES Talks podcast’. www.designexhibitionscotland.co.uk

Work in Progress with Genevieve Draper

Work in progress with the artist Genevieve Draper on her publication, Slow painting, to be published to coincide with her exhibition at the Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh in July 2025. This is the first time that the artist has made a publication so I have been working very closely with her, guiding her through the various stages of making a book. Originally titled Genevieve Draper: A Retrospective, the title has changed several times to become Genevieve Draper: Slow painting, to reference the artist’s identity as a Slow artist and her carefully considered approach to painting. It has been a pleasure working on this book with Genevieve, not least because of the many interesting conversations that we have had about painting, art school education, and maintaining an art practice. The book is currently being printed by Gomer in Wales and I look forward to seeing the finished book which includes photography by Antonia Reeve, and essays by Penelope Curtis and Erlend Clouston.

www.genevievedraper.com