A Celebreation of Contrast: London Design Festival 2009

How many of you wish you were in London right now? Besides all the other fun stuff it’s the London Design Festival (LDF). Interesting enough, I think some great design examples appeared in LDF echo one of the aspects of typographic design our book talks about: contrast

Contrast on the page allows changes in rhythms and create appealing visual effects as the weights of typefaces, colors balance each other. Contrast allows visual variety.

Here are some great examples of using contrast in poster design in London Design Festival: they are all designed by top London designers under the brief that they can only use black and red to celebrate London as a creative capital.

(by Quentin Newark)

The poster is simply enough, yet the contrast in color makes it pop. The association we have with colors naturally make us think of tires, and the idea of the bus appears.

(By Fernando Gutierrez )
This poster based its design on the contrast between letters of “London.” And the boldness of the type conveys a message: London is the capital of design, it’s vivid and it’s strong.

This poster is my favorite among the three. The contrast between typefaces are strong, and the italic script typeface balances the bold neon-light-looking sans serif on the page. I think it captures the spirit of London: pride of the rich historical and modern pop culture.