logo-quickies - Tumblr blog

[logo-quickies]

Charity

I’m rarely satisfied at the end of this exercise, but this time I actually feel good about my makeover. Not breathtaking of particularly innovative but in (less) than a half hour it’s not bad at all. 

[logo-quickies]

Research Institute

I was building a website for a research project that involved among other institution, this research institute in Athens. I couldn’t believe this was their actual logo when I first saw I but I had to cope with the fact it was.

[logo-quickies]

Industrial Services

This public-owned company is the biggest (and I think only) provider of electricity and water in Lausanne. They also provide TV, internet and phone servies so they’re out there competing with serious private companies. I never got how their logo could be so ugly.

The one thing I hate the most about this logo, is how the framing system is resolved. That L makes no sense and... Helvetica Rounded? No way. 

A monospaced typeface for the wordmark seemed an appropriate choice, contrasting nicely with the thin type inside the frame. Not groundbreaking or particularly original, but at least decent.

[logo-quickies]

Travel company

This one was mostly a typography 101 exercise I wanted to assign to myself. This travel company has a horrible rendition of Hobo, manually skewed and hanging over a couple of oversized swooshes, I wanted to see if it could get better just polishing everything up.

The natural move has been to try out a better version of the typeface: Oh-No’s type Hobeaux. It’s inarguably better, but it still looks a lot like Hobo, which itself is not the most fine-looking piece of type.

I tried sereval arrangements and shapes for the wordmark over my half hour, but I decided to keep it to its bare bones, complemented with Monotype’s Neue Plak wide (man, I do love me a piece of this superfamily!)

[logo-quickies]

Liquor

Bisbino is a local organic gym made by some good folks in the village where I was born, in Southern Switzerland. It’s a great gin (and I’m not a gyn person) but strangely enough, their script logo kind of suck.

I understand they wanted to go for a handmade and crafty approach but the lettering is really out of whack. I’m not a good letterer myself so I decided to go with a straight out of the box typeface, and a really great one: Melany Lane. 

Its ragged edges and great flourishes brought the exact look I was looking for. I just lifted up a bit the second tittle and that was it. 

[logo-quickies]

Hotel chain

Really not happy with the result this time. I was tempted not to publish this one but this would be a cheap move; I don’t want to risk that slippery slope. If I fail, I fail, what the hell!

I wanted to work on the “star” component of the logo which is rendered in a very unstatisfying (and “un-starry”) way in the current design. Needless to say I didn’t find a nice twist on it  during the first 20 minutes, so I had to go for a “plan B” kind of design. 

[logo-quickies]

Restaurant

Lately I have been stuck in the corporate/administrative world, maybe because it’s easier to be spotted on the streets. Or maybe it was fate. 

Anyway, I wanted something different and the logo for this restaurant tickled my imagination.

The building itself has a very uncommon shape that they apparently tried replicating on the logo, but the result is unpleasant.

I dropped the reference to the building and went for a direct representation of the name: a chalet by the lake.

It was already too late when I realized I wasn’t keeping any of the ideas of the original logo, which is one of my rule. Let say that the blue accent and the compact structure will make the trick.

[logo-quickies]

Delivery service

I’ve never been a great fan of DPD logo. In an area where logos are particularly nice and super visible, I found theirs to be amateurish, dull and actually uninteresting. There, I said it. 

The playfulness of mine probably would never work in the corporate world but at least it tries bringing an original visual twist. I don’t think it needs to be explained or rationalized, which for sure is a good thing. If I have to say a word anout it is that I love how the little delivery P holds the box in a very natural way.

[logo-quickies]

Insulation company II

I often spot this logo on the streets and given the size of the company is almost harmful how bad their logo is. So I gave it a shot.

I tried to replicate the overlapping Bs but it got very ugly. So I tried finding a pleasant type for the wordmark and using the G as a holding shape to mimic the insulation aspect of the company. There surely is a better way to resolve the opening of the G, but time was up.

I admit, the rainy pattern required some overtime. Blame on me.

[logo-quickies]

Small Town

St-Sulpice is a lovely small town on the Leman lakeside, considered the bourgeois suburb of Lausanne. 

Is also where my office is located, and I have seen the town seal (which doubles as town logo) a lot of times. Until yesterday I never realized how badly depicted the town church is (if you zoom in you’re going to see that it’s an actual hand drawing). At small size it became almost impossible to read and it’s bad because that church here is kind of a big deal: it dates from the XII century and is a relatively famous landmark.

That’s why a wanted to try and streamline the hell out of it – keeping it main features but making for a more appropriate logo (and seal).

[logo-quickies]

2nd hand guy

I have no idea how else define this kind of business is not “second hand guy”. He comes in, takes/buys your useless stuff away, tries to resell it.

The guy didn’t have a proper logo but as I saw his van, I thought there was something nice to be done with that W: it says on the side of the van that he mainly trades carpets (silly me, I forgot to take that picture). That’s where the idea of having the W as some sort of a wave came. 

As it usually happens with this frustrating project, things were a little more complicated that expected. I have to admit I cheated a bit and spent 5 minutes more than allowed in order to finalize this properly. And it clearly wasn’t enough.

[logo-quickies]

Electrician

Local bulletin boards are a gold mine for good, old, home made logo.

The funny, I-want-to-tear-my-skin-off part of the "30-minutes" challenge is that usually you can let ideas flow, try and sketch several options, and select the good ones. With half an hour, you can't. You have to focus on the one idea you decide to go for and try blocking the noise out.

I know the negative kerning of my Cooper Black wordmark will get me in trouble and the VAG Rounded tagline won't help getting me out of it, but to me, they actually work fine and give this electrician a vintage yet reliable look. It kinda looks like a refrigerator badge, and I love that.

[logo-quickies]

Transportation Company

This was a though one, as I've been seeing and hating this logo for a long time.

It's not a bad logo per se, but it's so dull (for a relatively big company) that actually angers me. And the colour combination of cream and plain green doesn't help cheering up things

MBC stands for Morges, Bières and Cossonay. Three places that sort of define a geographic triangle in which this small regional company operates a train line and several bus lines. I started from there, making three initials out of triangles and using the full names to close up that C. I also tried to spice up a bit the colour palette, still keeping the green accent, which seems to be the most important colour (their buses are mostly green).

[logo-quickies]

Mechanic

Second attempt. I thought it was an easy one. Oh, how naïve.

I see plenty of garage logos that revolve around this concept: a streamlined car silhouette. I never liked this kind of approach even when it's carefully designed. In 30 minutes I can't waste time in searching for the best concept so either fate struck me with a nice and innovative idea, either I'm stuck with whatever pops into my mind first. In this case the truck silhouette. 

I wish I had another couple of hours... Or a better idea.

[logo-quickies]

Insulation company

Auto-satisfaction rate: 6/10, considering it’s the first attempt.