TYPEFACE & BRANDING: 808S & BREAKS

TYPE DESIGN &
BRANDING:
808s & BREAKS

THE PROJECT

For this project, I designed an original font by combining the typeface Helvetica and the music genre, hip hop. Though I dived into the history of its origins behind this project, I derived my inspiration from modern rap/hip hop, one of my personal favorite genres. Artists I pulled from my research include influential rappers Kanye West and Tyler, The Creator. After creating my font, I began to design the logotype for the coffee shop and events venue. Once this was established, branding elements for my shop were created (coffee cups, bags, menu, posters, etc.). Finally, I designed a font specimen book, inspecting my font's design and exploring the music genre's and typeface's influence.

DESIGNER STATEMENT

My font, 808s, and coffee shop, 808s & Breaks, is heavily influenced by today's hip hop/rap climate. I primarily focused on cutting-edge artists and albums, including Kanye West and Tyler, The Creator, two genre-bending and continuously groundbreaking artists. This is where my font's glitching/broken design came from; it's shaped by the genre's constant evolution and in-your-face music and figures. Kanye's 2008 "808s & Heartbreak" album (the album my font/shop's name is pulled from ) is considered one of the most influential albums of all time due to its innovative nature and the change in direction of the music genre forever. My approach to this project reflects this in a sophisticated, yet bold, statement.

THE PROCESS

Phase one of this project is to research and compile a mood board. I dove into the history of hip hop, learning about its origins in the seventies at a party in Brooklyn. The party, hosted in an apartment by DJ Kool, was the "Back to School Jam" and was where crucial elements, breakdancing, MCing, DJing, and rapping had come together. The first few decades of hip hop were led by artists like Wu-Tang Clan, N.W.A, Biggie Smalls, and more, known for their lyrical and boom-bap styles. I also explored subgenres of hip hop, such as "phonk", originating from Memphis (think Three 6 Mafia) and popularized through artists like Ghostemane, $UICIDEBOY$, and more. However, upon researching momentous artists and points in recent hip hop history, I was set on making my project a homage to inventive creatives like Kanye West and Tyler, The Creator for shaking up the music scene.

My research

Next, I drew up rough sketches of a few letter types to explore the ways I can manipulate Helvetica's forms to embody hip hop. For this process, I sketched out letters ranging from more traditional, old-school styles with their graffiti and spray paint elements, phonk's sharp and jagged forms, and edgy, simple takes inspired by Tyler, The Creator's past album covers.

After settling on one of my sketches, I individually drew out each character and digitalized it in Illustrator. Once I finished tweaking the shapes, I put them into FontLab7 and exported a functioning TTF file, titled "808s" after the signature tuned drum kicks present in most hip hop songs. I chose this specific version because it best represents hip hop "breaking" up into their own distinct subgenres and styles; it isn't confined to old-school boom-bap anymore. My interpretation allows room for creativity within the genre, whereas a more stereotypical spray paint/block lettering/graffiti type would be more stifling and unfaithful to today's forms of hip hop.

The next portion is to start the branding of my fictional coffee shop and events venue. The name of the shop came easy to me. One of the most powerful and ingenious albums of this century is "808s & Heartbreaks," so I named it 808s & Breaks, a nod to West while describing my venue perfectly: "808s" (tuned drum kicks) and "breaks" (instrumental loops) are staples in hip hop music, serving as the music venue portion of my brand, while "breaks" also reference coffee breaks. The colors I selected were inspired by the vibrant neons of home studios, something most rappers got their start from (and something many of them favor over professional recording studios). Then, I designed a few different logotypes for my brand, eventually settling on a simple one, letting the colors and edgy font be a bold statement. My finalized version also visualizes the jolting and energizing effect that caffeine tends to have on people. After this, I worked on branding elements for my shop, including paper coffee cups, coffee bean bags, a menu, and two events posters (one for a rapper and another for a book signing relating to the genre). For the menu, I researched name items that directly reference the music genre, like "Dirty Sprite" (Kendrick Lamar) for a coffee soda and "Hold My Liquor" (Kanye West) for an espresso and tonic. These references are also outlined on the back of the menu for those who may not understand the coffee drink names.