Simply Complicated™

Assignment 1: Complete revisions of the shape we selected and post by midnight Thursday 0410.

Assignment 2: Add color and type to each logo and post by midnight Monday 0414. See image above for exploration ideas. We’re only allowed to use red and black. Use Futura for the type (not bold).

The new logo class holding their first creations.

Logo project:

Company: Geographic North

Industry: Independent music label

Company’s vision:

Art is a creative vision. The fact that you might be entertained by it, is merely by chance. Birthed out of the desire to release “avant-garde” music from eccentric artists who take insurmountable time to make their art available to the public, Geographic North emerges in the Spring of 2008 as an ongoing experiment in tangible music distribution. Released in the common/not-so-common format of 7-inch 45 rpm records, Geographic North’s discography will exhibit aberrant explorations in sounds ranging from off-kilter electro-acoutic musings, to swirling washes of hypnotic psychedelica, to free-form improvisational tones and beyond.

Logo needs to meet the following criteria:

Here’s what a logo is and does (to quote Paul Rand):

• A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon.
• A logo doesn’t sell (directly), it identifies.
• A logo is rarely a description of a business.

The effectiveness of a good logo depends on:

1. distinctiveness
2. visibility
3. useability
4. memorability
5. universality
6. durability
7. timelessness

You have no other stylistic restraints. You can choose to stick with the methods used in the class so far, or break away. Either way, I’ll have high expectations that you do work hard and create the best logo you have done, so far.

More information in tonights class.

Great article from Brand New on the evolution, and recent demise of the Xerox logo.

This week it’s you. Your own logo mark. You know the drill: start with a base shape of a circle, triangle &/or square to represent.

One color plus black. Five distinct directions. Upload it on flickr and comment on this blog post with the link before midnight Monday night.

I wanna see a masterpiece or five.

Mike Kelly: spot and delicious are good - rest is messy. really digging scrumptious.

Caroline Howard: Not much to get inspired by here. All the words hang there without much expression. f*%@ is the only one that stands out, and that one isn’t even that dynamic. This needs more work.

Shane Dobes: You had the biggest contrast of large and small of anyone. Very Bauhaus of you. f&%$ is clever.

Meggan Wood: You have cleverly subtle solutions here (bloodgeon, assuretain). That copy-writing trick is almost an exercise of it’s own. Visually, O boy is strong.

Ben Jackson: Some of these feel slapped together (KKKnowww, Oh Boy, etc. Wait… KKK now?) ascerta!n is elegant!

Hadi Seyfi: With the exception of scrumptious, you overcompensate for the lack of direction with noise and forced arrangements (delicious, fuck, etc.) Less is more, my friend.

Andrea Foster: There are a couple of good ones there - digging the Bludgeon direction. I feel like you went overboard on some of them (fresh, know spot). Overall, more zany, less smart. A few of them have an incorrect font.

Worawan Arnunsiribavorn: You’re not using Futura - which requires you to redo this assignment. There are some clever solutions (O!! Boy) but a few of your arrangements feel arbitrary (scrumpti+++?).

Lauren Jung: Your link wasn’t working - too tired to go dig for it.

Jason Raville: Please break your assignment into individual posts.

I got this animated gif from Kevin that got it from somewhere…

Tonight, we’re going to go over the syllabus and have fun with geometric shapes.

Assignment for next week:

5 compositions of the below, using only black triangles, squares and circles, in any combination or number that you want.

• Britney Spears

• Dick Chaney

• Phil Spector

• God

• Hank Richardson

Once done, please post on this blog (reply to this post) as well as bring 8.5/11” printouts of each composition to next class. Be prepared to present to class and do a brief critique.

Welcome to “LOGO”, a Portfolio Center class on exploring what makes a logo a logo.

This blog is intended to be a place for posting assignments as well as facilitate discussion about work, inspirations or any random thoughts.

As a student, I want you to have fun but I also expect you to take a big leap in your approach and understanding of logo design.

Download syllabus (pdf)

Failing to submit assignments on time, tardiness or missing class can be grounds for immediate dismissal.