Overstride - first drafts

Hand-drawn initial drafts for a ligature based design:

First hand rendered drafts. Experimenting with variations of capitals and lower case type to see which best suits the brand being created. I also wanted to use the oblique options of the font in order to express movement. 

Investigating ligature techniques, and how letters can be joined successfully and relevantly in terms of the meaning and aesthetic of the word.

Illustrator Attempts: 

Using illustrator to distort certain letters, experimenting with elongating and joining letters. The large distance between the 'r' and 'i' is meant to symbolise a big step which is the definition of the word itself. These designs use Helvetica, which I later found to be the more unsuccessful of the two fonts. Out of the three, the bottom one is most successful in terms of simplicity and aesthetic, and the block connection, rather than the point, works best.

Trialling the ligature with capitals, and using Helvetica instead of Futura, to see if the same effect is given. Helvetica as a font seems too neutral for the energy drink, as although it somewhat informal, is unable to be exciting.

The final ligature-styled attempt. The 'v' and 'r' connecting is both relevant to the word itself and the message of an energy drink - being active and reaching beyond. I also played with the kerning of the letters, gradually spacing them out more and more to represent 'overstriding'.

The final design for the first set of attempts. I wanted to first experiment with lower case, and found Futura to be the affective and in-line font with my research. Looking into the colouring and composition that could be used on the drink itself.