The Special Situation Observer

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Typography and logo wordmark for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John Earles

The Special Situation Observer is a publication designed to provide investors and subscribers detailed, conceptually sound, and heavily researched investment opinions—“free of agendas.”

In brief

In the process of vetting opportunities in which to invest, the founders of the Special Situation Observer discovered that they were creating stores of detailed and actionable information which could prove valuable to other investors. Seeing the potential interest, they spawned the idea of a web based subscription service that would make this information available to customers on a monthly basis.

Scope of work
  • Logo and visual identity system
  • Publication design
  • Web
Publication design featuring illustrations by Rene Cruz for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John Earles
Publication cover design featuring illustrations by Rene Cruz for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John Earles

Fig. 1 Publication covers

Masthead design and typography for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John

Fig. 2 Masthead & logo

Financial editorial llustration by Rene Cruz for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John
Financial editorial llustration by Rene Cruz for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John
Financial editorial llustration by Rene Cruz for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John
Financial editorial llustration by Rene Cruz for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John
Financial editorial llustration by Rene Cruz for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John
Financial editorial llustration by Rene Cruz for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John
Publication design for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John
Contributors portrait by Rene Cruz for for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John

Fig. 3 Illustrations by Rene Cruz

 

 

 

As the information provided would tread the worlds of finance, law, and mathematics, we looked to those fields to ignite our thought process. We chose typography which references classic, highly stylized newspaper headers of the late 1800 and early 1900s. With its unique and humanistic qualities— the curved, sweeping style of the c, a, and e—the logo brings a relatable whimsy without losing its sense of authority or applicability to the nature of the fact based and statistical content. The guilloche pattern, similarly, is a natural fit from its origins as an anti-counterfeiting device to its new home on the website’s masthead.

We were pleased to have the opportunity to work with and provide art direction to illustrator Rene Cruz who provided a variety of spot and editorial illustrations throughout the project.

Developed on WordPress and fully mobile responsive, the Special Situation Observer website is a self contained portal for subscriptions and content distribution. In addition to being able to register for the service, users can download content specific to their subscription level with each report being marked upon download with the date and user’s information to discourage unauthorized distribution.

iphone mobile view of the website design for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John
Desktop view of the website design for The Special Situation Observer | Designed by Field of Study: A branding and graphic design consultancy | Houston TX | Jennifer Blanco & John

Fig. 4 Website homepage