Jacquie Severs

Recently I've been going through my piles and piles of books deciding what to keep and what should go to the charity shop or garbage bin. Some things are obvious decisions and others not so much. I have a touch of pack-rat flair to me so I have a hard time letting go of sentimental things.

One thing I discovered on the shelf was an old notebook. It was my logo journal. When I was in design school a wise professor suggested we start collecting logos and paste them into a notebook for reference. No real organization required, but try to find ones you like, cut them out and paste them in. I have a whole notebook full of them and it is really interesting to look through. Even though I went to college less than ten years ago, in some cases the logos have dramatically changed.

Here's a great image showing the evolution of the Shell logo:

Logo evolution is important because companies grow and evolve. Their logo should let them appear as if they are staying with the times and have evolved like their customer. In some cases a logo should say "tradition" while in other cases it should say anything but that.

I wanted to call attention to the Smile.co.uk logo, which is designed to be used in some cases with different smiles in the pink box. Marilyn Monroe's smile, Mona Lisa's smile, Little Miss Happy, etc. But here is the basic logo:

Even if it isn't animated, the simplicity of the logo literally makes me smile. I find it one of those logos that is deceptive because it looks so simple and cute, you'd think it's forgettable. But if you saw this logo often enough, if it became branded to that level, I think it could reach a point where you think of this banking website simply be seeing a smile of any kind. The logo was designed by a firm in the UK The Chase.
It is interesting that it is both an image that can been seen as an image or artwork, as well as it can be read. Much like the Nike "swoosh", the "smile" as a logo is a very universal idea. It also breaks away from the concept of what a bank logo should look like in a dramatic way, which is the brand identity that Smile.co.uk is clearly trying to express. They aren't like other banks, and their brand identity makes that clear.

I like it, it makes me smile. That's a good start with any logo or brand program, right?

Speaking of smiling, logos can be wildly unsuccessful and sometimes it has hilarious results. Want to see some funny logo misfires? Click here.

I'm a Batman fan. I'm not a bandwagon jumper, for real. I used to watch the original Batman series every day when I got home from school. No, I'm not that old, I just liked reruns. I also like Welcome Back Kotter. A lot! Anyhow back to Batman. Following many Adam West reruns I got into that animated series for a while. It was great and very dark and definitely was a nice lead in to my high school goth phase. Of course, anyone who knows me well knows about my soft spot for Michael Keaton as Batman.  Only that costume could make MK sexy.  Clooney was just a mess that I'll try to forget, but his casting in that role did make me falter a bit in my love for the hero. I've not seen the Batman's starring Clooney, and I don't think I'm missing anything either. To be honest I don't think you could top my love for MK as Batman by picking anyone other than Christian Bale as the new Batman. I loved Batman Begins so so much. I even own it on DVD and I never buy DVDs because I really have no interest in watching movies over and over again. Though, that seems to be changing with Christopher Nolan movies. The only other exception is Some Like it Hot. I could be forced to watch that movie on repeat forever and never tire of it.

Anyhow this is a long and rambling way of introducing this video which illustrates the evolution of the Batman logo. Pretty neat.

Clever!












by Richard Fonteneau via Eddy.

In the Netherlands May 5th is Liberation Day. Liberation day marks the annual anniversary of the end of Nazi occupation during World War II. The nation was largely liberated by the Canadians, assisted by the British and Americans. As a result, a friendship between nations has been established, and now that friendship is celebrated in a very appropriate manner.

To celebrate the 65th anniversary the Dutch Embassy commissioned a collaborative beer between Vankleek Hill, Ontario craft brewery Beau's Beer and De Koningshoeven  (a Dutch brand.)

The beer is a unique Belgian-style witbier brewed with juniper berries and organic maple syrup, ingredients representing The Netherlands and Canada respectively. My friend Jordan Bamforth is the in-house designer for Beau's and he created a very cool label for the bottles, and a lovely poster as well. I have long admired Jordan's style, but this I love because it captures the message of friendship between the Netherlands, symbolized by the tulip and orange colour, and Canada, symbolized by the red of the heart at the centre of the image, as well as the maple leaf found in the letter "i". It really is clever and attractive as well.


This week, Beau’s announced the name of the beer – Vrienden, Dutch for “friends” – and tagged it as being No. 2 in their Wild Oats series of experimental brews. The beer will be launched tomorrow - Monday, May 10th alongside the arrival of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands. It will be exclusively available at the House of Orange festival of Dutch and Canadian creative culture, taking place in three clubs at 56 Byward in Ottawa from May 10th to 23rd.

(source)




Here's the poster (as always, click to see full size).

New category for the blog: Logo Love.

My first entry, appropriately, was sourced from www.logodesignlove.com (via Eddy).














This logo is almost an ambigram, but not quite! Click here for a good article on ambigrams.