Allan Galbraith
BDes (Hons) Graphic Design
Branding Time Machine
Branding Time Machine is a retrospective video series documenting the evolution of visual identities.
Driven by a personal fascination with the systems behind the logos we pass by every day, the series aims to frame branding as a vital yet under-appreciated art form.
By analysing certain brands or entire decades, from the optimism of the 2000s to the graffiti-esc textures of the 90’s, this project reviews how design has evolved culturally, offering a light-hearted look into the brands that shaped us.
One of the pictures of the Y2K episode, focused on certain design era trend names coined by the Consumer Associate Research Institute. This one being focused on “McBling”, being that of fuzzy, shiny and chained textures.
Some episodes usually have tongue-in-cheek jokes, such as this archive image doctored to be a parody of Pets.com’s slogan. “because pets couldn’t have seen a bubble bursting.”
Branding Time Machine EP1 focuses on one of Allan’s reasons for becoming a graphic designer, being that of Sky, a subscription television provider.
Allan grew fascination to Sky after seeing their logo on vans and billboards, such as in this picture captured by CARLOS62 on Flickr.
A funny gag referring to the Sky ‘egg’ logo being short-lived and hatching to reveal the later 1998-1999 Sky logo.
A snapshot of the “Newlyn” era, with certain iconography used from 2000-2004.
In the Y2K episode, Allan discusses how brands tended to encompass the messaging of brands that existed during Y2K, using light typography and cut-cornered graphics.
The Y2K episode mentions how Frutiger Aero was one of the design trends that followed it.
A snapshot of the rendering process Allan took to rendering both episodes of the Branding Time Machine.