Kerndown

Kerning (noun form of kern), as defined by Oxford dictionaries, is a printing terminology for the adjustment of spacing between characters in a piece of text for printing. 

Thus, in the context of design, kerning underpins as aspect of manipulation in typography, where the distance between letters is either increased of decreased, for a given purpose. A key example of where we would recognise this big commercial branding would be between that of American Apparel and American Airlines. Both designs use Helvetica as their typeface and share the same first word and use alliteration. As such, despite their evident similarities, they can be distinguished through their varying use of kerning, 

Whilst Vignelli's airline design condenses the spacing between words, thus having tight kerning, the Apparel logo has clear spacing enabling two individual words to stand separate.  

Putting kerning into practice, we undertook an activity using a tangible typeface. Selecting 4 letters at random, uppercase and/or lowercase, we would rearrange them at random, considering the spacing (kerning)/placement of the letters, to create a given type of company's logotype. This allowed the class to indulge in kerning in a practical sense, allowing us to physically understand more about kerning through an activation of senses. This would thus enable us to create contextually relevant logotypes for the given category. 

our choice of kerning and placement of the letters had to communicate the basis and connotations for a given brand.  

       1)    ‘BOAX’ – Luxury car brand

This design attempts to create equidistant spacing between all of the letters to make it look clean and enhances the importance of the individual letters. The use of 'x' adds a foreign twang to the word, similar to how french words are used in high end branding, ,

      2)    ‘BOKX’ – Budget Food shop

By contrast, this design focuses on the complete opposite approach. The overlapping of the letters resembles a lack of consideration for their placement, as well as presenting this failed attempt of looking 'hip' which I've seen so much in budget logotype. However, this design may be less successful, as a food brand would seek to be reliable in order to run their business, thus this wouldn't be befitting 

       4)    ‘BONa’ – Indie band 

The idea here was to create a design that was edgy and random. Indie bands are always seeking to be the most alternative or out of the box, in order to compete in the market, so this design attempts to make something different. We flipped the first letter and lowered the 'a' below the x-height and descender. the kerning is close knit to resemble the connection and friendship needed for a bands success. 

5) 'On' - Computer repairs company 

A computer design company should be trustworthy, dependable, knowledgable, experience and precise. 

As such this design is minimalistic and clean. The two letters are close and comfortably near, yet not touching. Together they reference technology in a positive way, and present a dependable look for the company. It is a minimalistic design with nothing to detract or distract a viewer from it.