OUGD504 - SB2 - Design for Screen - Colour Scheme & Typeface

Colours have been taken from the current Amazon website to keep the recognisability of the company consistent. Colours were slightly changed to match with the Pantone swatches, which makes designing much more efficient.

For the typefaces, it was found earlier in the project that ITCOfficinaSans LT Bold was Amazon's previous typeface, before a custom one was made. Looking closely at the Amazon logo, the main difference between their custom current typeface and previous one is that the edges of letterforms are more curved and decorative. As seen below, the original typeface has curved edges on the letters 'd', 'g', 'n' and 'r'. These were adjusted to suit the new Amazon typeface style in the right example. By applying this style to certain letters, I was able to create a custom version on the typeface that is almost identical to the typeface in the current Amazon logo. As ITCOfficinaSans is already a web font, Amazon could easily commission the typographers to create a unique web font for them. Unlike many typefaces out there, ITCOfficinaSans is already web-safe; therefore, this typeface is suitable for the majority of devices.

For platforms, such as Amazon Music & Video, Amazon uses its own typeface named 'Amazon Ember'. I was able to download this online and use it when designing certain Prime platforms. This is also a web-safe font which would work on the majority of devices. Problems can occur across different devices if a typeface is not web-safe. So, choosing web-safe fonts was essential to ensure that the rebrand would physically work.

Overall, as the overall design approach is very clean and simplistic, 2 typefaces and 3 colours are suitable for the entire site. Occasionally, Arial is used for fill-in forms where custom web fonts cannot be used; however, the colour scheme and type seen above are the new guidelines to work with.