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Standard Logo Types

There are standard logo types which are also like the approach is that you take one designing logo um the first being a word mark is simply ah stand alone type treatment khun b word or words usually uh company is the company name um well look look through these and more details so uh let's get through the list first word mark letter for mark um pictorial which would include icons and symbols abstract which is easily assemble but it's not really you know it's either abstracted where you don't immediately recognize what it is or it's intentionally abstract and probably most common is a comic combination marks uh and then I'll show you some examples of each of these um they're all ones that I've designed um and then we'll also look att we'll look at some other approaches to, um different types of love design so first to stand alone local type it's typically used so talk about which sort of when the best case scenarios are for using these um it's usually when the name of the company organi...

zation that name has a lot of equity in it in other words, you know to change that name you're going to lose touch with people that are familiar with it with the brand um or when a company is you know as cos his company's grow they march might start out doing or selling one thing but then once they reach a certain um it's like mcdonald's um they actually got to a point where they were so saturated in the market not only in the u s but in other countries where they couldn't maintain a you know, a good rate of growth they were just you know, there was there's you know as many mcdonald's and probably more than there needs to be so what they started to do was to go around and look at other successful retail restaurant then use believed to police started out as much as the mcconnells owned restaurant eso you know, once they get away from what they originally did or they get in tow you know even completely different things and what they started out at uh it becomes impossible to are very difficult to come up with something that represents so many different things or if it's something like it's like highly you know it's like so high tech that you have to help phd toe understand what they even dio um then it's probably best if used um just to look at some examples uh and just so we're starting out with something that's just a non altered typeface and we'll talk about this little bit later on but you almost always want to make modifications and customization to even tow word marks merely for the fact that if somebody else has a name that has the same letters and they have the same typeface uh it's going to look very similar and I actually this actually happen to me a couple weeks ago I'm going smalls strip center and it was like a just a local furniture business or something and I looked at their logan I did a double take it has looked it looked just like one that I had designed years ago for like, a major brand retailer and and it wasn't it wasn't even in the same face but it was you know, they were both sansa sans serif fonts and it had all but like one or two the same letters and I mean it just and I said, you know, I missed I missed I did a double take this is and actually I think this is the same typeface as as the previous loop but it's been slightly it's been slightly altered to help take on a different meaning we'll get through this with sort of an evolution of uh no alteration to more alteration this is for um hasbro's classic game connect four and actually did start out as a typeface but it's it's pretty uh significantly altered another one that was actually started I was a typeface but it was not a script so part of the thing in order in addition to making it look three d giving it a little bit of modeling um letter forms were manipulated to look like a script this is another one this is pretty much custom type on one of things in the video the show and I think we'll do this afternoon rather than like manipulating a type font which you can actually do the same things and I'm going to demonstrate this afternoon with an existing thought but there's another creative life course by a friend of mine, brandon reich who does a lot of that so there's but what I'm going to do is actually show you how they're all letter forms from strokes and then and then do modifications sometimes it's actually as easier easier than than trying tow to manipulate existing paths um this is a custom script that I did so this just started out as a sketch um and again it was totally built from single strokes uh that was some of the detailing to create some dimension by negative space between connecting strokes. Um this was completely custom um I love like old saanich like hand painted like faceted letters. Um so you know, I also like type that looks like it's been carved out of wood but I have not come across that project yet where I can see working where I can do that but this one uh was for for a conference called seeds so it's custom lettering you see that the ends of the letters I sort of have a ribbon effect it's actually like a treatment that we're going to look at in that video and that other video it's completely custom built from scratch ok, they are standard um uh what type marks other than just straightforward standalone type mark letter for marks which would include, um, monograms um single letters these are best for when ah took pleas for abbreviations and their best for when the you know, the firm and business name is like just a series of names and sometimes, you know, especially like if it's more than two names of its three names or if, like one of the persons name's it's, hard to pronounce are hard to spell or when you you know when you say them together, it just doesn't this doesn't sound good it's just not very appealing on a any level, um, or once again from ones that are difficult to pronounce or spell um, this is a custom letter built from scratch this was for, like, a meat like, um sort of like, uh ticketmaster type thing uh, it was a music. It was a like a music event purchase. Um, website this was for a railroad themed restaurant. I thought this was like, the greatest thing I've ever done that's, that that was so clever, but I was I was alone in my thinking um, something you have to live with the designer is like, you know, some of the best stuff I've ever done will never see the light of day unless I can figure out a wayto make it into a t shirt design anybody recognize that? De um they have a big sports complex there the atlanta braves actually do their spring training there I think some other athletes and teams and so forth they training there so, um they asked me to come up with some concepts of how to brand that I didn't they did they didn't say I couldn't mess with the d a so, um this is a combination it's custom built from a single stroke. The company's name was b five and they, uh, service basically service the us military, so therefore the red, white blue thing, you know, a lot of times the best solutions are the absolute simplest and like, the stuff you go through to get there, you know, somebody looks at and is like, look at that, you know, it's two strokes but who's got like, you know, eight weeks, eight weeks were the work to get this thing that looks like, you know, it took fifteen minutes um this is another custom market was actually based on, uh, typeface I'm not sure whether some of these that are going to get into like icons and few these type marks I show them an application just so you can see when they were type you know, when you d'oh um monograms and then next thing we talk about his pictorial ones it's like they rarely stand alone especially in the beginning like you know starbucks now just uses their icon and everyone loves the night you know, I was so in love with a nike logo for so long, but those didn't start out a standalone marks they were always, you know, supported with the name s o this was for a like an intellectual game store called mind works so it's taking that's exactly only one character that's just flipped and manipulated I've got another one of my tv next slide where it's actually reads these three characters but it's actually only built from a single from a single character a single stroke I'm sort of a traditional like interlocking overlapping monogram so that's where those were just built from strokes um this was actually for, um a company called diamond audio visual so the a v come together and then the the recess of the of the letters on the inside actually starts toe sort actually kind of looks like it's a you know, a three dimensional diamond so sometimes you can actually his letter forms too um further convey the concept or actually take on the look of a nikon with inform this is when I was just mentioning um so you should be able to read in s a g canopy but it's on ly that it's only that one character whether it's the top or the bottom that's been taken tape taken it flipped and rotated and you get a sense of those letters by combining with the negative space um and we'll see some other examples but um using and paying attention and negative space in lagos is really important I can really help create something unique. Um the other thing is it kind of takes on the connotation of dollar son because this company and the family has whatever other company is this one of the richest in the world so they like that actually, um another custom one um where basically they're returns in the letter form other letters. This was for mad one hospital physicians and as I looked at this is always going through my stuff and trying to find examples of all these different approaches I realized I looked at this it's like I could have made a backwards pee out of that uh back about stroke of right on the age and got all four letters and they're victoria marx consists of icons, symbols uh some type of visual metaphor um and they're very popular it is an approach that you know that can definitely help you make a unique logo um they can also help to convey what it coming you know more about what a company is and what a company does with a visual than just you know, just a word um I can't think of very many projects where I haven't been asked to, you know, at least pursue this so this is always going to be a part of your conceptual process is trying teo and actually I can first thing this afternoon we're goingto go through process using uh some stuff that comes out of this morning session to generate concepts for, um for logos but it also specifically for, um for icons um they could be very straightforward representations, but even so there has to be, uh, pretty stylized and simplified just science for that flexibility being ableto reproduce in one color and in a very small sizes and I'll show this on an application in a minute um I think that's a good example of communicating with a minimum amount of detail another example where if you look at the nest, the negative space between those sticks or branches actually helps define that that nest every bit as much as the strokes themselves that's what's for uh first in ohio residential treatment center for women who have been rescued out of the sex trade minister um, this was for an importer of fair trade coffee again rallying, using the positive lines for the globe. Um, using those to knock out a color shape to define, I thought, sure, when I did this, it's like, surely this has already been done, but I but I looked like and I looked for and why I didn't recognize anything I put out there on social media and getting angry email of how I ripped off someone's marks, maybe maybe that, um, this was actually believe it or not, for tech company, um called tech advocates, and I can't remember I know that they were like in phoenix, and they wanted I came in with the rationale is but they wanted, like, an aztec reference. Um, so here's another example. Um, if you look, you can actually see the t in the area and there is not to back off. Um, this was another concept. The first monogram I showed with the custom and there's, another concept of the company was called mark ut um, so gonna hear it and actually using a letter form to make up the body? There's another thing where, you know, I haven't seen this in a while and that's funny how, like you know, you look at stuff either for days or weeks whatever and then you step away from it and you come back the first thing I looked at this it's like why didn't I around the corners on the letter that's just you know, how could I it's a moronic not to do that because everything else is you know, everything else has a curvature to some um this is actually one of examples of fusing um one of the principles of rhetoric visual rhetoric and we're gonna look at that I only talk about developing isms police alone I need to show you this one upside down because you may not have seen in the first side um but it's a question mark the highlight was a question mark uh I believe this was first secret company called secret lines is their secret winds or hidden lines and remember so something that's nice to actually you know, to not be so literal toe have a sense of discovery um you know, because once you know once you get it then they you know, got it um this one incorporates sort of iconic figure, but you should also be ableto read the s is the background shape there's a suggested letter form there um and some of the best uh some of the best logos I think actually are able to take two concepts and combine them into one and that's, why the exercise that we're gonna look at this afternoon? Um, this was for a writer's workshop, and I'll show you the full version in bar harbor, maine. So if you've ever been to like to east coast to maine, like on every, like shed there's, the's, lobster, um floats everywhere. So this was the idea of taking a lobster float, combining with and then, uh, abstract marks? Um, I don't have very many examples of these because they're more often than not again, they're very specific when it's a lot of time that's when a company wants to be ambiguous either because, again, it's kind of like the first example with word mark, if they're so diverse that you can't there's no way, you can use anything pictorial to define, you know, suggest what they did because they do too many things are the things that they say you are too complex um, but also you big corporations used these mentally for that reason, but to be very oh, noble and very unique so that they, you know, they don't have to worry about somebody coming along and saying, you know, suing them for infront trademark or copyright infringement. Is my least favorite type of low goto work is just like I don't know if it's just you don't know if this got out it I don't know what it means, you know it's like I'm sure this you know, I don't know if this is this is even creative original um I do have a couple examples um, this one was for wolverine the they make like industrial boots and work where so one of the one of the concepts that they had me pursue and it was more literal that, like a stylized, like paula klaw, the wolverines wolverines are the most of it. They're the most ferocious animal on earth, like pound for pound, seriously, they're they're they're they're just like, unbelievable, like a tasmanian devil or something, they're just, you know, like bears do not mess with wolverines, so this was the idea of actually kind of abstracting that claw and actually having to take on the form of w and this one had to be simple because the primary use of this was actually a stamp on the boot about this big that's, the most important that's the most significant, you know, application of you know of that particular grand on these next two were actually for pharmaceuticals um and it's funny because, um I did, uh, future rosa local agency that has a big chunk of one of the pharmacy it'll company accounts and they're real close and so when I first started doing consulting on my own I did a few jobs for them and so I did a bunch of concepts and then um then do work for them for a long time and uh one day and watching tv and I see uh, commercial for prescription drug and lo and behold there's one of these concepts I did it was at least ten years ago and it wasn't for you know, it wasn't for the one that was being advertised um so it had a second life I guess and then combination which is probably, um the most common because most time your you know most of the time you're going to you're going you're gonna work with the name uh whether it's stand alone or not but most of the time you're gonna work with trying to, uh work of some soap it some sort of iconic symbol um so this is often given uh letter form a picture of an abstract approaches use these in combination with type um again because it stand alone icon or symbol takes years to stand alone on its own um those first ones are arm or type oriented um and the kind of teacher on being able to be considered word marks um but uh, like protected with this one and one of the other ones I want to show is like, shapes some shapes like take on meaning and content all you know, on their own without any explanation. So, um, I know that there's any football fans in here, but this is for johnny manziel, whose nickname is johnny football. This was a heisman trophy winners, not with browns. Um and then, uh, this one the shape of this this was actually for a company that work directly to ride services directly for, um military services on the national guard in particular. Um but if you look at it so I used the dog tag shape, but also the thing that's unique about this I don't have any I don't know if any of you saw it right away, but if I remove the too, you'll see that those are actually two g's and the name was guard to guard, so it was ableto actually, um, use the letter forms to help form the other numeral um the other thing that is good about shapes, shapes of very important and logo design your eye. You know what your eye recognizes like the common simple shapes like that, you know, so circles triangles, squares but it's actually it's actually more attracted to shapes that have irregularities that have you know I have more detail than our regular shaped your eye will gravitate you know, recognize the normal shape first but gravitates or something that has a little more detail to it um but the other thing that shapes are good for is not only for framing uh type treatments but also organizing and creating negative space and being able to tie information together um this this is for literally for a guy who basically repairs and installs um tub surrounds so and you think this is a good example and there's one other it's not in here of projects where you know this client describe describes who they are and what they do and it's like oh, this is gonna be wonderful just to you know but actually I was able to come up with a number of good ideas for this um so it's you know, uh projects are a lot of times what you kind of what you make of them but this, um you know and it's important to know what the primary applications of this is going to be and so were this guy didn't want to a lot of advertising or anything um he kind of relied on angie's list for most part but his most important application of this was tohave his logo on his truck door and so he wanted, you know he wanted his contact information um he wanted a number of years and had experience he wanted that all in one place so shapes are good for being able to kind of organize um and frame those things and make them work is you know um this was uh manipulation of letter forms and you know just a few elements like you see they're just those few lines to give this look of a mark here an old sign and the reason it is this way is this was like a separate company or a company within a company that was started by ah very old sign company in chicago in fact they still do like hand letter sign it and so forth so the idea was to have a vintage marquis look to the sign um this one uses a shape and kind of few line elements on conjunction with the type to make the profile the ceiling fan exactly for a company that makes ceiling fans and I think they I think if I remember correctly the kind of specialize in like historic vintage styles so I kind of have you no slight art deco type feel to it this's so I want to show you just a few of the ones that I showed earlier but we're only show the standalone version of the um letter for marks the monograms or the icons so you can see how um the monogram is is is built simply from the typeface and the letter there is a combination mark for the spg icon this one was actually for I should have asked you guys if you hadn't includes what what that business was literally all that it was like punch you know punch metal out of a di folded make it into like like like switch boxes so lock up for the mature you're cute mark and then this was for again it was for ah um sort of a side company project for an entrepreneur called hester not projects then they great patch like honestly there's the mark for the bar harbor writer's workshop again shapes a good when you have to incorporate a lot of you have a lot of typed integrate with mark now we're getting some sort of common in combination of letter forms and icons so in this one one of letter forms actually performs the role of a palm tree with a coconut uh this was for actually for a gas station that was oasis thing I've been there it's not annoy sis but um it's better than a lot of gas stations um this here is an example where uh the icon of the metal actually replaces the use of the word or the numeral four and this is for a a group of christian designers and illustrators um but I'm or I was a part of but here again the significance significance of the shape that has connotation and meeting so um shields and um crests have ah long tradition of being associated with clans you know and tight knit communities um listen example actually incorporating the name actually into the icons the icon is actually very large name a self contained um I think the next one um we're the type actually feels like a physical part of graphic or the icon um as I mentioned um I think the thing that's unique about this not only incorporates type uh and icon but by combining these two shapes you getting irregular shape um it's very nice very unique just like um I don't think you guys saw the block post which was sort of a profile of this project to town bakery. So showed sketches and some of the early concept this was one of the concepts this is probably one of favourite one my favorite logos that I've ever done. Um and another thing I wanna point about this is that you know, a nice contrast of type solutions is often really good way to go you know, whether it's with or without an icon sometimes that's going to really nice solutions and then well, this one it's a combination doesn't really incorporate a shape and it doesn't matter you know, whether you actually use you know, the outline of a shape or physical shape, but even when you just put type on a page, you're forming a shape so doesn't have to be a literal shape. But by combining elements, you actually forming a shape.