Logos

Implicit & Explicit Logos

We started off our session by talking about the difference between implicit and explicit logos. Implicit means that the logo is not immediately recognised as what it is symbolising or communicating. This means the logo could be over complicated, too basic or just communicates a broader range of things. An Explicit logo is one that is immediately recognised as what it is communicating or symbolising. 

The burger king logo is explicit because the shapes and type clearly makes up a burger which suggests it is a food or catering business that sells burgers. Although the typography makes the logo more explicit whereas the examples below have no type.

Gert Arntz 

I have researched into Gert Arntz who was a German modernist artist and huge influence in the art of explicit logo making in the graphic design industry. His drawings were considered as of "great importance to the world of visual communication" (http://www.gerdarntz.org) which i think is very true because of the simplicity and preciseness of his work. In his online archive of his work it says that he designed around 4000 signs which symbolised data from industry, demographics, politics and economy for the visual language isotype. Gert Arntz was tasked with designing pictograms and visual signs for the isotype (International System Of Typographic picture education).

From my research i can appreciate Gerts work for explicit logos. His Simplicizing of objects, actions, people, places etc is hugely influential as a graphic designer because of how he simplifies an image so it can be recognised internationally and mostly are still used today. This is a key skill to learn in visual language and communication specially when creating a company or businesses visual identity because you want to be able to communicate the intended message, theme or emotion in the most simplistic way so it can be recognised easily and effectively.

This is a exercise sheet that we were given at the beginning of one of our sessions that included 6 examples of implicit logos. We were asked to discuss what we thought the implicit logos were representing and what sort of themes they suggested to us.

Here i have recreated one of the above implicit logos so that it is more explicit. In our discussion we thought that the logo above (one down on the right) communicated a bird and leaf which suggests that the logo is for a nature reserve or preservation society. I have traced an image of a bird and illustrated a leaf. I have also added colour which is a huge factor in emphasising mood, meaning and context in a logo. I have chosen the colour green which is colour psychology would communicate themes of nature, health and life. This is why i thought it would be appropriate to chose this colour.

I think even without the colour the logo is more explicit and better communicates the themes in which we got from group discussion. 

This is the playstation logo that has developed over time. You can see that it most if not all the logos try and incorporate both initial letters in the imagery of the logo. The blue, red and yellow are to represent the primary colours which i think communicates the screen that the games will be played on. The typography stays the same through out the process.

Studio Logo Project

In our session we talked about where logos came from and why. We thought back to heraldry hundreds of years ago which is where you can see crests symbolizing families or sides in a war. This is where you can see a visual sign or symbol to communicate a name or message in some of its earliest context. You could even trace logos back to cave drawings where simplistic drawings were used to visually symbolise things like animals and people.

Our project is to create a logo for a given name and description. We had to chose from Horus (watch and clock designers/manufacturers), Midnight Express (a late night food outlet), Amazon Experience (exotic travel organisation) or Adlink (billboard advertising agents). I chose Midnight Express and began to research into the key words in the name and description. I thought the key areas to research were food logos, train logos (from the word express) and night icons or symbols.

These are some of my initial sketches without a lot of research. I found from feedback that these sketches are too illustrative for a logo. I thought that i needed to simplify my designs so that they can be transferable as logos.

These examples are all very illustrative also which wouldn't work very effectively as a logo. Although the bottom left sketch i think i will develop on the computer as i think this could work as a logo. I have used negative space in the letter 'M' and 'E' to place a knife, fork and spoon.

I decided to look at a book called, 'Symbol' by Angus Hyland and Steven Bateman. I first looked at food logos which were all very simplistic and seemed to use negative and positive space a lot. I like the top left example which is for a business called 'My Cuisine Canary Wharf' as the negative space between the knife and fork is a tall building which communicates that the business is in Canary wharf where there are high rise buildings.

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I then looked at train logos and realized a lot of arrows are used which is also something that could communicate the 'Express' part to my logo. The arrows imply that there is a motion or speed which i think could work well with my logo for Midnight Express. By researching more i have been inspired to make my logos less illustrative by using positive and negative space and simplistic imagery, icons, symbols.

I started illustrating some of my initial designs on the computer looking at the initial letter in the word Midnight as a starting point. 

This is the letter M that i have created using a knife, fork and spoon. I have noticed that the utensils have created serifs in the letter which i think works effectively.

By using the fork in the top left corner on a black background it could represent a moon which communicates the word 'Night' and description of the business which is, 'late night food outlet'. I think this is an effective use of negative space and works well as a logo for this business.

I think this example works effectively as a logo for Midnight Express. I created the imagery in the logo from a fork and a spoon over top of each other. I think this imagery could also be interpreted as a burger which communicates the food aspect in the logo. It could also be interpreted as movement as it looks streamline. This communicates the express part of the companies name. I think this example communicates the business name and description effectively although it doesn't immediately suggest that it is a food outlet.

I have also considered colour although most of my designs are in black and white. I thought i would experiment with what colour works best with this design. I thought the black works most effectively as it reinforces the the fork as representing the moon. I also thought the deep blue colour would communicate the midnight part of the business title effectively. I think the red makes the logo look like it is for a daytime food or coffee place and doesn't communicate the name or description. From this comparison i have found that the black is the best to communicate the businesses identity.  From a closer look and feedback i have also realized that the prongs on the fork are too short and need to be a bit longer a long with the type that i think needs to be bolder so can be seen from far away

This is my final logo design for 'Midnight Express'. I decided to use a heavy version of the font Rockwell as it is still legible from a distance. I have extended the