Week 8

In one of my classes for design, I was assigned the task of creating a logo for a fake company, Amalgamated Industries. A fake history was given, including previous logos for the company. The original logo was basically the outline of a cross with arms of equal length and rounded ends. The company was a manufacturer that had lost its place as a leader in the industry. The task was to create a logo to carry the company into the 21st century and the future.

Well, the first thing to do is to start sketching. I started sketching out ideas based on the original logo. Copying the logo was not my goal. What I needed to do was find something from that original logo to use as a core idea. As you can see in the first set of sketches, I contemplated cruciform shapes and gothic arches. I also tried to create something that looked a little more mechanical.

As I sketched, the idea started to form in my mind that what the logo needed to do was to communicate strength, knowledge and dependability. The gothic arch was a step in the right direction, but obviously recalled church imagery, which I did not want. The more mechanical looking sketches I made seemed like little more than a collection of unconnected parts. So I needed to find something else.

I looked over the history of the company again and found mention of Bauhaus. That took me in a somewhat different direction.

I looked up images of the Bauhaus logo, the Bauhaus building, Bauhaus furniture, et cetera. To the right is one of several pages of sketches based on that research. Obviously I borrowed from the Bauhaus logo for one idea, though that was quickly discarded.

I tried to take the notion of simple geometric shapes and apply it to the problem of creating a logo for the fictional Amalgamated Industries. The logo should be bold but simple, something that could be recognized instantly if seen from a distance. Ultimately, the majority of these shapes proved ineffective. The Bauhaus inspired shapes were bold enough, but they did not communicate the right ideas.

One sketch, the on the bottom right of second set of sketches, was inspired by a Mies van der Rohe designed chair. It would prove useful in the development of the final logo.

One final thing I saw in my Bauhaus research was a sort of folded shelf design by Walter Gropius. That led me to start playing with squared, flat shapes. Which in turn, as you can see in the image to the right, led to playing with the idea of trying to bring the initials of Amalgamated Industries together as part of the shape of the logo.

I was still trying to find something that communicated strength, knowledge and dependability. The thick bars implying columns helped but the whole thing was not coming together yet. Obviously, merging the capital A and capital I too closely made something that looked like a medieval helmet, and that clearly was not the right shape.

I had the right components scattered through my sketches. I just didn't know it yet. Eventually, the components began to coalesce into something useful. But I still wasn't done. More on that next time.