Why, Hello There.
Oh, Bud Light…
I’m a dog person (said it) and this awesome.
Raphael Bugoslav's Logo Design 101
LOGOTYPE 101:
TYPES OF LOGOS & THEIR RELATIVE MERITS
Logo in Greek means word. While some logos are indeed based solely on the name of a company, the term has come to have a much broader meaning. There are perhaps seven or more different kinds of logo and some hybrids. The first thing I do with a new client is explain this and compare it to their needs in order to define the field of exploration.
- As soon as a company decides that whenever its name appears it will be in the same font, it is the beginning of a consistent identification. An example of this would be J.C. Penny.
- The name in an individualized style. e.g., Boston Pianos (Steinway)
- Initials such as PPG or a monogram, e.g., PSK (Pagano Schenk & Kay.) There are probably far too many initials out there to make that an appealing choice.
- The initial letter emphasized and made unique - Olin Matheson Chemical Company, which L&M improved by shortening to Olin.
- The initial abstracted and perhaps semi-legible. This now requires the name of the company appended to it, the first two-piece identifier, sometimes disadvantageous in tight spaces. Examples: Veri & Sharp and Angela Moore.
- An abstract, or better, non-objective mark such as Nike (which I didn’t design). Takes a lot of advertising but wonderfully effective when established. Only then can it be used without the name of the company.
- A pictorial mark like the mermaid I did for Clarke Cooke House, Newport. A hybrid might be a letter that also looks like a thing; a sort of visual pun as in the Newport Bay Club abstracted seagull and sail.
Each of these approaches has advantages and disadvantages. The name alone is immediate and unequivocal - good for new ventures but not really practical if the name is too long. The abstract mark, bold as a flag, easily reduces to small sizes, but takes time to establish. The pictorial mark, perhaps atmospheric and nostalgic, may not reduce well if too intricate. The strongly designed initial is removable for solo use or may be combined with the name, and so on.
Understanding these differences and the unique qualities of a company that distinguish it in the marketplace form the foundation of successful logo design.
“We’ve long wished that the iPhone or iPod touch came with an IR port so we could use it as the remote for our home theater systems. Although Apple doesn’t look like it will be building one in anytime soon, the L5 iPhone Remote ($50) is here to fill the void. This miniscule Dock-connecting accessory and companion app let you “build” your own interface using a library of buttons within the app, and then use the on-screen remote to control damn near any product you’d like using nothing but your iPhone or iPod touch.”
Barrilito. A “heavy titling typeface, its letters are inspired in wood engraving. It has capitals and small caps, the wide scope of ligatures and contextual alternates allow the designer to set interesting typesetting for titles. Available at MyFonts.”
Custom Letters of 2009 - Letter Cult. Affirms my love of typography again and again…
Damn! ““A hand-crafted leather case for The Balvenie Ambassador to present the Balvenie story from barley to bottle. The case contains bespoke boxes which are individually tooled to hold ears of barley, a miniature copper still, cask samples, miniature barrels and tasting bottles.””
Photography of Dorothea Lange, An American Archive. Found at the Selvedge Yard. This is great shot: “Oregon, August 1939. “Unemployed lumber worker goes with his wife to the bean harvest. Note Social Security number tattooed on arm.” Shorpy determined through a public records search that 535-07-5248 belonged to one Thomas Cave, born July 1912, died in 1980 in Portland, OR. Which would make him 27 years old when this picture was taken.”
WK does it again! Blindfolded soccer stars try keepie uppie. Rad.
