STEP 2: OUTSOURCING LOGO DESIGN

SPECIFICATIONS

MEDUSA WHITE 1'ОІГП.ЛМ» CEMENT

СНЕЭТІѴЕ COPYinG

The retro reference pieces at left were selected randomly to demon¬
strate how almost anything can be used for logo inspiration. I've
used old pieces that are in the public domain because I doubt any of you
designers out there would want me showing how I adapt from your
work. The logo I created for a company called Century Loofah, below,
contains elements from all these sources, yet so obliquely referenced
that no one could accuse me of being a rip-off. This is creative copying.

■'s Better Beverage Co. - Oakland, Califi

CORN

ALAMEDA SWEET

To create the piece above, I copied the green block

and enlarged initial capital letter from the Terrazzo

brochure. I liked the lettering on the Dr. Wells

beverage label—even though it's really badly

designed—as well as its outline and drop-shadow

treatment. But I was torn because I also liked the

open-spaced Oldsmobile lettering, below left. So I

copied the latter but gave it the drop-shadow effect

of the former and made the letterforms slightly

clunky. You'd never know that I

started drawing my new letters by

working off the husks of the font

Mekanik. I also borrowed the ever popular subtitle
lettering-in-the-tail-emerging-from-the-last-letter
treatment of the Dr. Wells logo. From the corn seed
package, I took the color scheme. See my books The
Designer's Guide to Color Combinations and The
Designers Guide to Global Color Combinations for
more on deriving color schemes from reference. I
wasn't sure what a loofah looked like so I typed the
word into a search engine and found tons of pictures
of loofahs to copy. I got the shading treament for
my loofah from the Oldsmobile rocket illustration,
and also borrowed the up-fading background idea.

LOGO, FONT & LETTERING BIBLE

41

шиит a LOGO IS,

uiHamoGO is пот

Before we go any further, let's define some terms. Visual communications
consists mainly of pictures and words—letters often having their origins
in pictures. Today, the world is divided up into picture people and word people,
the latter being usually jealous of the former. Since pictures usually accompa¬
ny words, it is the job of the picture people not merely to illustrate those words
in a literal sense, but to help enhance comprehension and even enjoyment by
adding comment, innuendo, criticism, humor or an intriguing invitation to read
or purchase. If we didn't do this, we would be mere decorators.

I believe that, whether we create an illustration, logo or icon, it is our job to
add concept—that is, some sort of really cool idea—to the piece. Admittedly,
sometimes the designer's concept is not really required, and sometimes it is
resented (remember those sullen word people I mentioned?).

So, what is a logo? On this page we will attempt to explain the distinctions
between an illustration, a picture, a design, plain type, a logo and an icon.

Example A is not a logo, because it's too complex in tech¬
nique and in concept to communicate its message
instantly at a glance. This is an ILLUSTRATION by the
author for a Rolling Stone article about comic-book con¬
ventions. My approach was to satirize the big business of
comic cons and the ardent young fans whom I'd observed
at cons. Example В is not an illustration. It has no con¬
cept. It's just a literal PICTURE of comic books about
which one could say, "So what?' Example С is a DESIGN.
It has a sense of composition, but no concept, though the
enlarged speech balloon kind of makes an intriguing
statement, albeit an ambiguous one. Example D is not a
logo, it's TYPE. The two words aren't unified and there is
nothing unique about them. A border enclosing the

words or enlarged initial caps might have saved the
arrangement. And—while not always necessary in a
logo—there's no concept here, except perhaps the
comic-book-style font. Example E is a LOGO. All the ele¬
ments were designed as a unit and form a distinctive
overall shape. The concept is the dollar sign 5 and splashy
comic-book-style hand-lettering. As shown in the begin¬
ning of this section, logos come in endless stylistic varia¬
tions, and this is only one approach. In example F, a
super familiar emblem made into a dollar sign communi¬
cates the concept of this purely graphic, or perhaps
monogrammatic LOGO. Example G, a simplified version
of the same logo, with bold strokes to "read" when
severely reduced, is one style of ICON.

Comics R Rig Business