Month: March 2016

‘Les Barbe Magnifique’ translates into The Magnificent Beard which is grande and regal and explores the themes of French culture. 

After looking at the barbers pole image and the french connotations of the name, the colours specifically stood out and linked together. So I started to think about the French design and the french culture of both the history and French barber shops. 

I thought about the image of the barber pole and how I could use this with the French design looking at the colours and the design. 

The barbers pole and the French flag use the same colours and I wanted to look at how these two could be combined to create branding for a company.

“Red, white and blue have come to represent liberty, equality and fraternity – the ideals of the French Revolution. Blue and red are also the time-honored colors of Paris, while white is the color of the Royal House of Bourbon.”

Colour is something I would like to experiment with and explore French Culture within the design and branding and look at how vintage barbers brand their products. 

When I thought about which company to create the branding for, I thought Le Barbe Magnifique would allow for creative branding and to look at historical and modern design. So when I first began to look at how I could create the design for this, I looked at the history of Barbers and how they attract their audience. 

The classic design of the barber shops all involve simple graphics with the common theme of the barbers pole. I then looked into what this represents and why most barbers would involve this in their branding. 

“The barber-surgeon’s pole actually originated from the rod that the poor patient grasped in order to make their veins bulge – this made it easier to cut or slice open. The brass ball at the top represented the basin that was used to collect the blood. The red and white stripes symbolised the blood soaked bandages, which would be washed then hung to dry on the rod outside the shop. The bandages would often twist in the wind, and this forms the spiral pattern we see on the barber poles of today.”

The Barbers pole represents different elements of the traditional barber techniques, both traditional barbers and modern barbers use this in their design. 

I like the idea of incorporating the traditional barber style into the modern design and explore how the traditional and modern design techniques work.