I’ll skip the chitchat and leave it all to what meets the eye…
Update:
Type was the base for my design for the new Spreadshirt corporate look. In a world crowded with logos, I feel corporate identities are better built on strong names rather than graphics. The lady is pretty, but Spreadshirt is known for its name, it’s recognizable and sticks to you from the go.
I browsed through a few hundred fonts and ended up with four contenders: Suredog regular, Cyne semibold, Trade Gothic medium and Bliss regular. I knew what i was looking for, but couldn’t really explain it to myself. It couldn’t be anything too contemporary, too heavy. I was looking for “air”. So in the end there was only one possibility – Cyne. But it wasn’t perfect. The Cyne font has inconsistancies and in this case the problem was in the “s”. So I pimped it, giving it a rounder shape. I also fixed the “r” a bit. It still needs some work, I’ll do that if – hopefully – I’m asked to =). I kept Suredog along for other uses…
Then the logo. To me creating a logo is pretty much about intuition. No, it doesn’t always work, but forcing myself to go some pre-planned path works even less so. So I read the briefing. I read it again. And again. What the **** (no, not the F-word) makes a logo international? Is keeping it non-national enough? Recognizable? Sure, but no T-shirts I think. What time is it? Hmm, I’ve got about six hours to come up with this, the variations, the claim – no, I think I have the claim – the colors, the presentation. Man, this needs to flow. Flow… Spreadshirt is about flowing, isn’t it? Ideas flow to become stuff. OK, good enough. What does flowing look like? A lot like an S. My lucky day. I bet they like their S. I also bet they don’t like SS, though there are two in the name. But there has to be two, me and them, the idea and the outcome… Crop, crop like mad.
Right. Now I needed to fit it with the type. One combo that expresses the flow: logo in front of type. One low profile combination: logo after type as “superscript”. And one that supports the logo: logo above type.
Negative was a little tricky as the logo needed an outline which couldn’t be just thrown around the logo, it had to be scaled down. But in the end I liked the negative almost more than the positive. It’s got more punch…
Color wasn’t easy either. I tried a few combinations red, green (lime), blue (earth tone) and yellow. I went for red. It’s always in fashion. But this could be changed, though it really works well against dark backgrounds. Two shades for a little contrast and to express the added value of the flow. I also needed supporting colors, light and dark. Cream and a deep blue-greenish grey that really brings out the reds. Hmm… the reds don’t work that well with cream, though.
Oh crap, the clame! No, wait, I had it figured out, didn’t I? Yeah, “you design, we deliver”! And baby it flows! Font when combined with the logo? Template Gothic with lowered top line. And “>” in place of the “,”.
Ok, I’m hungry, got to get some toast…
I’ll just comment it myself now , was a bit low on fuel – and time – when entering it.
Yesterday, the last day for the olp, I was looking at a long day of life-threateningly boring scientific layout work. So I decided, I’d give this a go after all (I had decided not to, many times). If I’d come up with a logo and type in an hour, I’d enter. I did. But it took another 5 to get all the variations – negative was tricky but ended up with more impact than the positive – and to finalize the look of the entry. And the claim – you design > we deliver.
I think the type is it’s streangth. The font is Cyne, but I “pimped” the s’ and r’s. The logo – well, it’s a bit lame, especially compared to many great and dynamic entries here. But, though I can’t know for sure, I think it’ll stand it’s ground at the end of the [looooong] day, for being so simple and “non-related” to anything particular. Though I’m getting some lower end ratings from you dear friends =). I did and still do think the pregnant woman was good for some positive vibes… I’ve got 2 little daughters delivered by my lovely wife, kudos to her.
Oh, well, good luck everyone!
i agree, the type is the strenght of of ur design. I never did choose a font for texts in my designs…I think I would have went with “Cyne” if i had it. Who knows, it’s possible that they use it.
anyway, nice presentation and colors. good luck.
Thanks. The Cyne font is cheap and technically crappy, and has some major design flaws with some letters. But fixing those it would have a good chance for glory.
Now that I look at my designs again after a bad night’s sleep (the grils wake up every hour or so) I have plenty ideas to make the logo work better with text and supporting graphics. But I can only blame myself for jumping in on the last day. And I now have mixed feelings about the logo. I like its simplicity and the hint to a “leaf” form, but also dislike it for not being very recognizable as was demanded. It would take some time to make it work on its own.
And the website presentation is crappy, all I had time for was to change the hues on a screenshot capture, which had an affect on some elements it shouldn’t have.
A lot of entrants have explained what their logo is supposed to express. I don’t understand that – shouldn’t it do that all by itself?
>
sure, it should, but since the human race isn’t very patient they just make sure you get the subtle meanings fast…
there are many logos with subtle features to them, you might not see on first glance - did you ever see the arrow in the FedExlogo?
http://www.fashionunited.it/gfx/news2004/fedex_logo.jpg
or the many features of the old Northwest Airline logo?
http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/wiki/images/thumb/1/11/250px-Northwest_Airlines_logo.png
(a N, a W, and a arrow pointing northwest… great stuff, but not immediately recognizable by everyone)
once you get it, you’ll never forget…
“did you ever see the arrow in the FedExlogo?” Ha! No! Not that it is often seen over here, but no, never saw it.
Ok, so here’s my explanations: 1. The flow of how spreadshop works.The top element is your input, the lower is spreads output. Flows like butter on a hot bu… 2. The Midas touch. The top element touches the lower and turns it into a deeper, richer red. Like your ideas turn into profit. Yeah, right… 3. The hint of a leaf in the shape, stands for environmental values, continuity, life, the universe and everything. 4. When at the end of the logotext it rexembles the number two as superscript. Points out that this is the new spreadshirt mkII. Also indicates that your possibilities are raised to the second power. zooomweeee!
Ok, back to the life-threateningly boring scientific layout work… [sigh]
elwood are you talking about my hangers here again “once you get it you’ll never forget it” (only kidding!) you’re examples are spot on the FedEx logo is one of my favourite for that very reason - intelligent design Landor the original design co. could have choosen to make this a contrasting colour and make it stand out but together with the client they resisted the temptation - maybe only a hand full of us get it most likely only designers but when you do see it for the first time (its over 10yrs old) you will never forget its there & its the perfect reforcement mark of the brand - always going forward. KneeDopper (& I hope you never come down on me) what you did in the time scale is great usually you’d have more time to flush a design out and live with it a awhile before submitting it and especially don’t worry about executions on the website etc. remember this is a logo comp. not web, packaging or merchandise - who knows the final winner might simply be a B&W submission. That said I hope its not as theres alot of great work in here! Maybe SS should look and posting a PDF publication as a free download for all those who took part as a keep sake and so we can all keep tabs on each other and our future design ventures!
Guys I wish you all well - its certainly been different not sure if I’d do it again but I would hope that whatever SS select will be good enough to stand the tests of time and like the FedEx logo be around for along time to come!
CONGRATS and good luck man. I knew I saw something right about your design.
Thanks, thanks a lot. Maybe it was a good thing I didn’t have time to work on it, one can screw up a design by “fixing” it too much. Now it’s “as is”. And, well, I tried to make it less rad and more acceptable from the start. The design no-one dislikes can slip in to the finals easier than one that some like, some hate, I guess… Anyway, I’m thrilled to bits… thanks again to all!
Uh, sorry for the loooong update. And the bad spelling =) English= 3rd language. Anyway, I hope the update gives some more insight into why my entry looks like it does… if you don’t mind reading it all. I’m hungry again, more toast!