Filed under: Logo Design | Tags: branding, custom, design, ferraro, font, gray, green, grey, initials, leigh, lettering, logo, mark, monogram, seamstress, stitch, typography
Leigh-Ann Ferraro - Freelance Seamstress
I recently completed a logo for a good friend of mine who needed an identity for her freelancing. I played on the concept of stitching as I created a monogram and custom font. This was featured over at logogala.com recently as well.
Filed under: branding | Tags: application, bar code, brand, brand positioning, brand power, google, holiday, logo, logo application, logotype, occasion, patent, wordmark
The Google holiday logos are pretty well documented, but the above really caught my eye. In lieu of gussying up the wordmark today, the above supplants it to celebrate the anniversary of the patenting of the bar code. (Read more about that here.)
As I stated above, today’s bar code image in place of the typical Google lettering is really eye catching. It also showcases Google’s ability to leverage their brand power. Can you name any other company that is quite frankly ballsy enough to totally remove their logo from their homepage? Even the past holiday iterations of the logo have at least been drawn up around the existing logo type. I really applaud Google for going “full-tilt” with this particular occasion logo.
Having said that, I also think Google has a bit of an unfair advantage when it comes to boldly abandoning their logo because of their ubiquitous brand position. Regardless of which logo, if any even, would be displayed on it, the Google homepage is near universally recognizable. So long as the image fits the general proportions where the logo would typically be, I surmise you could put anything in that area and the whole page would still read as Google. In this instance I really like that they chose to fore go any of the recognizable characters from their mark, as they could have potentially intertwined the wordmark and bar code imagery in a countless number of ways, retaining the more typical Google holiday sensibilities, but they didn’t. Despite the unfair advantage, I think this is really well conceived and well executed.
See more holiday iterations @ http://www.google.com/intl/en/holidaylogos.html
Filed under: branding | Tags: bible, branding, chosen instrument, gospel, hip hop, identity, logo, music, note, positive, productions, R & B, rap, uplifting, wing, youth
I recently completed the identity for Chosen Instrument Productions. The following is from the logo proposal I provided the client:
Chosen Instrument Productions is a youth-focused, not-for-profit music organization that is passionate about using music to convey a positive message. Through the creative and recording processes of Spoken Word, Hip-Hop, Rock and Gospel music, Chosen Instrument aims to foster a positive atmosphere that allows artists to express themselves in ways that serve to better themselves, their community, their region and beyond.
It was with this spirit and message in mind that the Chosen Instrument Productions logo was crafted. The logo is comprised of the Chosen Instrument Productions text and the “Winged Note” logo mark. The main text and mark were crafted in a graffiti-style that captures the energy and vibrancy of youth while maintaining professional sensibilities such as legibility. The overall appearance of the logo is edgy and yet accessible and is very much geared towards the youth demographic that Chosen Instrument is driven by.
The “Winged Note” icon was crafted to represent the idea of creating music that is upliftng. The “Winged Note” represents the power of music to “fly above” the typical negative stereotypes associated with hip-hop and rock music and reinforce the idea that Chosen Instrument creates music that is thematically and philosophically positive.
The Chosen Instrument Productions logo speaks to and reflects the ideals of the organization; it represents music as a powerful force through which creative and inspired youth may cultivate, create and record a unique, positive message.
Filed under: Logo Design | Tags: 2016, branding, chicago, concept, design, event branding, logo, Logo Design, madrid, olympics, summer
Today’s post on the Graphic Design Blog highlights the logos in contention for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The article reflects on the four logo concepts that are in the running for the shortlisted cities as well as taking a look at some of the cities that have already been eliminated from the running.
Event branding is something I personally am really interested in, having written about it here and here. The unique opportunity to wholly brand an event, especially an event like the Olympics wherein so much collateral material will be derived from the main brand, represents a both challenging and ultimately really rewarding experience for designers.
My personal take on the above logos is that they all work on really great concepts and are very nicely executed. Visually, and this is ignoring my national prejudice, I think the Chicago logo is the most striking. Conceptually, I love the Madrid logo and the subtle “m” formed by the hand print. Read the whole article here and draw your own conclusions.
Filed under: branding | Tags: architect, blue, branding, connections, construction, corporate, design, engineer, feature, grey, hypocylcoid, logo, logo gala, pcc, pittsburgh
Once again, Deron Sizemore over at logo gala has featured some of my work. The PCC logo I crafted a few months back was a “featured logo” over at the site. Read the article here for my design process.
Filed under: Logo Design | Tags: design, dot, expedition, forward, ligature, logo, logogala, motion, rationale, superscript dot
After a bit of vacationing and prior to some more to come, I’d like to write a bit about a recent logo I completed. (A side bar: this was also featured on Deron Sizemore’s LogoGala.)
The charge of this logo design actually stemmed from first developing the name. At present, the company is involved in a long-term strategic planning campaign with the ultimate goal of winning a Baldrige award. Rather than referring to everything related to this planning as “Baldrige,” the campaign needed a name, and further, it’s own identity.
The following rationale was one component of the identity standards I provided:
An expedition is a mission-oriented journey wherein the dedication, hard work and perseverance of the team involved culminates in the achievement of a clearly defined goal. It implies forward movement as well as a serious commitment of time and effort. This commitment ultimately serves to better those involved while simultaneously forging a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
My visual concept for the logo was to very subtly imply the idea of that forward and upward movement conveyed in the name. The text was set in Cicle Italic and from there I proceeded to create the ligature “exp,” adjusted the kerning visually, changed the angle of the italic and created my own dots for the i’s. The mark is an extension of the ligature but rises above the text and points forward. The logo as a whole really visually conveys movement and I think the color scheme reinforced the idea of this noble venture.
The client was really pleased and so was I, as I really accomplished what I initially set out to do with this piece.
Filed under: Logo Design | Tags: design, dog park, lawrenceville, logo, logo gala, pro bono
I’m pleased to announce today that I’ve once again been featured on Deron Sizemore’s LogoGala site. This most recent entry was for the Lawrenceville Dog Park, a pro bono project I’ve been working on to help establish an enclosed, off-leash dog park in my neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Many thanks are in order to Deron Sizemore who is doing an amazing job with the Logo Gala site and also to Elise Gatti, Chris Lugo, and everyone involved with the Dog Park project for allowing me to get involved with this project. As the park progresses I will surely keep you all updated with the work I am doing as well as the forthcoming establishment of the park itself.
Filed under: Logo Design | Tags: arrangement, basketball, concept, event branding, logo, march madness, ncaa, organization, style, tournament, women
After yesterday’s post on the Men’s side of the NCAA tournament logos I thought today I’d feature the womens’. All i can say is wow, the disparity between the two groups is ridiculous. I’m not entirely sure how the NCAA is structured, but the women’s side has significantly better logos across the board.
I’m especially fond of the Tampa Bay logo and the clever incorporation of the basketball – subtle, yet noticeable and very well executed. Additionally, the St. Louis logo really forces the perspective on the arch and acheives something new and dynamic with a recognizable and well-known icon of that city.
The best comparison groups highlighting the disparity between the men’s and women’s logos are the Indianapolis and New Orleans logos. The men’s Indy logo was trite and one might say shabby, but the women’s puts together a lovely package of venue and skyline and stylized basketball. The women’s New Orleans logo works on the same concepts as the men’s but it’s infinitely better organized and simply works much better.
Filed under: Logo Design | Tags: basketball, event branding, logo, march madness, ncaa, symbol, typogrpahy
Imagine this creative brief: We need an event logo. The only stipulation is that you incorporate the year of the event, the name of the city where the event is held, some kind of symbol reflecting that city (or not if you’re somewhere like Indianapolis), the NCAA logo, the words FInal Four (ideally in a relatively even-weighted san-serif, or not) and ideally a basketball.
I really love the March Madness tournament and with this year’s tourney rapidly approaching I was interested to see this year’s logo. Upon checking it out I went through some of the year’s past to have some sort of history to the yearly event branding.
The 2009 logo is disappointing. After seeing it on NCAA.com I looked around with a “is this it” feeling trying to find something more. But this is it.
At this point in history with the auto industry collapsing, how appropriate is it really to use a symbolic tire as the background and as representational of Detroit? Regardless of social standards/faux paus, the suggested tire isn’t really that great, and it only gets worse when you add the flames. They just seem ill-advised, or at least ill-placed. They’re not working with the other logo elements. The “2009″ falls way too close to the word “final” and generally I think the typography choice for “2009″ and “Detroit” is a miss.
That said, I like most the logo constructed for the 2008 tournament in San Antonio. I could do without the blue gradient behind “final four” and “San Antonio” does not seem to be exactly on the same line as the belt, but the hat is really nicely rendered and the whole thing works pretty well together, given the amount of information contained within it.
However, looking back at some logos from year’s past make me REALLY appreciate the San Antonio logo. They all have so much going on in them they stray far away from anything “iconic.” In the case of the New Orleans logo, the clusterbomb mish-mash is maddening (pun intended). I also have a problem with the generic city identifier icons used. 2007 and 2002 were in Atlanta and no one could come up with anything better in 5 years than to stylize the peach? I mean, we all realize Georgia is the Peach State but there’s infinitely more that could be pulled out of Atlanta to represent the host city graphically. I’ll stop now (before I spend several hours discussing what I don’t like about 2006′s logo), and leave it at this: Considering the above creative brief for these logos, I think 2008 works predominantly for the same reasons the others all fall so short: it nicely packages a lot of necessary information into a cohesive and unified event logo.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: brading, collaborate, cultivate, differentiate, identity, innovate, logo, neumeier, the brand gap, validate
For anyone who’s followed this blog for it’s short but fruitful life, it’s apparent that I’m a huge proponent of Marty Neumeier’s book The Brand Gap. “Read this book before your competitors do,” urges Tom Kelley of Ideo on the book’s back cover. I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Kelley. The Brand Gap is an incredibly valuable resource to anyone involved in business at any level to better understand branding. For those who think a brand is simply a wordmark or icon, this book sheds light onto the depth with which we as designers put into identity development. For those who are “in the know” about building brands, the article succintly and clearly lays out the pertinent info that must be taken into consideration before any branding endeavor. My advice: if you haven’t read it, you are legitimately missing out. Plus, you can read it easily in a single sitting and if you take nothing else away from this read, (which I sincerely doubt you could) the layout is absolutely great.
Additionally, suplemental information to the book is available via a numerous stock of pdfs at http://www.newriders.com.
