Kerning and "Kerndown"

To exercise kerning my group took part in “Kerndown” a game invented by my tutor. In small groups we chose five letters, upper case or lower case, a consonant or a vowel. Then between us we were given six examples of companies and through kerning we had to use the letters to demonstrate this company.

For example the first one, a pest control, we kept the kerning simple as then it simply looks like a name and not like it’s trying to be classy or anything more. This pest control would then look affordable and down to earth and simply caring about getting the job done.

However with the car company example, we have given the letters big spaced kerning as it demonstrates class and a sort of design superiority. This type of logo would make a company look classy and attract a more upper class audience.

Other examples included a nightclub, where we pushed the letters together to try and communicate the idea of being close and dancing, and a is a condom company where we pushed the letters close together, especially the E and the X to represent a condom.

This exercise made us produce a logotype within a limited period of time and made us think about how kerning can communicate different styles and genres and different kinds of companies. This exercise has helped us realise how effective this way of working can be and has also improved our skills of kerning, as we had to execute each task in small periods of time.