< Case Studies
Mount Fuji
This project consists of the creation of a wordmark for Mount Fuji, and then building the system out onto business cards and posters.
Roles For This Project
Branding and Identity
Research
Course
Branding & Identity
Inspiration & Research
Posters and wordmarks were largely inspired by Japanese woodblock prints and Ikko Tanaka. I especially focused on the use of gradients and abstraction.
I also collected information on Mount Fuji to inform my design decisions. These findings include Mount fuji as: a power to destroy and create, the soul of Japan, a dwelling place for deities and ancestors, a stairway to heaven, and a unifying symbol.
Logo Study
The final wordmark uses high contrast letterforms to illustrate the destructive and restorative nature of Mount Fuji as a volcano and a source of fresh water. The intersections of the letterforms create a shape that pays homage to Japanese shrines located on the mountain, and accentuates the spirituality tied to it. The red color emphasizes the connection to torii (Japanese shrine gates). Lastly, the negative space in the “F” ad between the “J” and the “I” conveys the art of traditional Japanese wood joinery.
Other earlier sketches of the wordmark aimed to emphasizes the mountain’s shape, its relationship to the rising sun, and other pieces of Japanese culture.
Typography
Roashe was chosen as the baseline for the wordmark because of the way the typeface addresses crossbars and intersections within each letterform through negative space.
Andale Mono was chosen as the body typeface because the monospace font lends itself well to coordinates. Since Mount Fuji is a large geographic location I wanted to emphasize its important position on maps by using this typeface.
POSTER
The wordmark on the poster is small to draw passerbys in for a closer look and give the negative space a massive presence like the mountain. Vertical type is used to allude to the typesetting of Japanese characters, and the wordmark is reflected to once again show the conflicting nature of this UNESCO World Heritage site.
