For the third year in a row, we have dedicated the month of May to letters. The first time we presented their creators, the second time – calligraphy, this year we have focused on logos and logotypes, so… on four consecutive Mondays you will see the works of four (five) colleagues who have dedicated their creativity to this difficult mission. We started with Svetoslav Stankov, continued with Кristian Terziev, It's Letter Collective's turn...
Letter Collective
A specialized studio in the field of calligraphy, lettering and type design, founded by Zaklina Zhekova and Todor Georgiev. The team is based in Sofia and has been operating at full capacity since 2018.
Education:
Jaki graduated from the Master's program "Calligraphy" at the National Academy of Arts in 2016.
Totskata graduated from the Master's program "Font" at the National Academy of Arts in 2015.
Professional experience:
Jaki has professional experience in the design and development of fonts, as well as in advertising before that. She specializes in the art of the written letter and type design.
Totskata worked for some time as a graphic designer in the advertising industry. After that, she became a freelancer and for several years a lecturer in type and graphic design. Behind her is the personal project 359 Sans - a font family of 20 strokes, as well as many other smaller developments defending the cause of "Bulgarian Cyrillic".
Exhibitions/projects/awards/participations:
2019 / “Imperfect Alphabet”, UniArt, NBU
2019 / “Grafema”, Plovdiv
2019 / “Serigraphs”, Soul Kitchen
2019 / “New Bulgarian Typography II”, Sofia University, Sofia
2019 / “New Bulgarian Typography II”, MDHHS, Gabrovo
2019 / “New Bulgarian Typography II”, Typomania, Moscow
Awards:
Behance – Project “Lettering & Calligraphy 2018” featured in Graphic design selection on Behance 2018.
Grafema LC – first place by public vote in the Modern Cyrillic 2019 competition, organized by Paratype (Russia).
Participations:
Plovdiv 2019 / exhibition and calligraphy workshop “Grafema”.
Plovdiv 2019 / calligraphy workshop in cursive writing for the Plovdiv typeface project.
Sofia 2019 / printing and typography workshop for children, UniArt, NBU.
What does it actually mean to make logos/logotypes? Tell us about your process.
T: Some say that this is the aerobatics of applied graphics, others would firmly say that this is the font or the poster. All three disciplines have in common that the author must work terribly intelligently. In most cases, dozens, and sometimes hundreds of sketches and samples are needed, as well as research and studies. A good general culture is required, no matter how far-fetched it may sound. A good idea can sneak into anyone's sketchbook, but in order for each project to be of a high standard and a cause of pride for both the client and the author, the necessary time must be allocated and the necessary efforts must be made. After reaching a quality idea, it must be transferred from paper to the monitor. This must also be done in an intelligent way. Aesthetics is only one of the levels that must be covered. You need to think about where and how the logo will be used, and all the technical details must be assessed accordingly. Ultimately, the important thing is that the final product works – on the front of the post, on the business card or on the embroidery on the shirt. We dare to say that we have experience in this area and we know what we are doing.
Is the logo/logotype an illustration? Why:
G: A logo is a graphic sign that aims to present a relevant product in society. The clearer and cleaner the graphics are, the faster it would be perceived by observers. As long as the purpose of the illustration is to be able to tell a story through the various forms of fine art. The illustration is characterized by having very clear detail, as long as the logo strives to be more minimalist.
What is your dream logo/logo? Why:
G: We try to find and provoke ourselves through various projects. We don't have a specific product that we dream of creating a logo for. In each project we discover and learn new things, which makes us feel happy about the work done.
T: I'll be more direct. For any product, there can be a challenge, it can be interesting and fun, but how often do you get to make a logo for a car company, for example? I don't dream of that, but such things are born rarely and I would be happy to work on a project like this.
What do people most often NOT know about making a logo/logo? What are the pitfalls?
G: Most of our clients contact us to create a personalized, drawn inscription or font for their brand. Usually our work begins with researching and creating dozens of handmade sketches. For us, sketching and drawing the basic shape of the logo by hand is important. Once the client approves the direction, we begin digitizing and transferring the image into software and refining the details. What the client most often does not learn about our work is the dozens of developed sketches, until we come up with two or three final versions to present to the client. That is why we try to share with people more and more sketches and photos from the work process on our social networks and on our website.
Favorite examples that have inspired you in your work? (authors, works or similar, maybe a picture or two)
Z: There are good and bad examples all around us, it is important for a person to train his eye to recognize and filter out such examples. Respected names from whom we learn are Stefan Kanchev, Boris Angelushev, Vasil Yonchev, Dimitar Trendafilov, Hermann Zapf, Adrian Frutiger, Doyald Young, etc.
T: It is inevitable that we draw inspiration from those before us, but my muses in recent years have been among the living, still active artists. I mention a small part of the many names that after about 50 years they may be called Great: Kyle Letendre, Marc Caneso, Nils Thomsen, Erik Marinovich, Ales Santos, Yury Veselov, Jed Chisholm, János Kőrös, Julien Priez and last but not least Kosyo Kokalanov and Miro Zhivkov from our own country.
I also recently discovered Peter Csuth, who seems to be an unheard of name, but he does incredibly good things.
Website: www.lettercollective.com
Facebook/Instagram/Twitter page:
https://www.facebook.com/LetterCollectiveDesign
https://www.instagram.com/lettercollective/
https://dribbble.com/lettercollective
https://www.behance.net/lettercollective
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