beatsnothing.com » Graphic Design

Lost Logos

Jaap Proost — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:57:00 +0000

LOGOS and trademarks come and go. Sometimes a forgotten logo deserves to be in the public eye again. These four I picked up from the attic to share with you.

#1 Nice logo from the hands of Bob Coonts. He made it in 1978 for the Lincoln Community Centre, the place to be for visual and performing arts. The fat flowing L works good with the little C.

#2 P&S is/was a leisure institution located in Tokyo. Art director Shunji Niimoni and designer Yoko Sumi were the P and S in making this logo.

#3 Designer Jan de Goede created in 1980 this logotype based on the initials of the company National Specilty MFG.

4# This logo is born and raised in Belgrade. Made by a graphic designer with teh name AleksandarPajvancis Alex.

#5 Simple and subtle. S and G combined in a logotype for the bank Societe Generale. Design: Allan Peckolick.

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Act Up Paste Up

Jaap Proost — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:01:42 +0000

SINCE the introduction of medicine that postpones AIDS for a very long time, the Western world has lost some of its fear for the disease. That was different in the late eighties and early nineties. In those days, due to little information, the public was afraid for anyone with HIV or AIDS. People who had the disease were treated like lepers. Luckily organizations like Act Up from New York fought for their rights. With stenciled posters like the ones on this page Act Up tried to influence politicians and the general public. I like them for their simple designs. Despite of their serious nature, they have the charm of a missing cat poster. See more here.

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Flood Flag

Jaap Proost — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:34:41 +0000

EXACTLY five years ago hurricane Katrina raged over New Orleans. It caused major flooding and brought, as I can recall it, since a very long time a Western city to its knees. Floods are a familiar sight in countries like Bangladesh and, like now, Pakistan. But to see the apocalyptic scenes around the Super Dome was something new. Spike Lee made and excellent documentary about the disaster. Today the second part of the movie is released: When God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise. It is about the aftermath of Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans. I tell you all this because I like the flag they made for this movie. It is inspired by the New Orleans Saints. Check out the T-shirt Mr. Lee is wearing.

Lubalin Logos

Jaap Proost — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:07:56 +0000

A baker doesn’t buy bread and a plumber fixes his own sink. Graphic designer Herb Lubalin made in is his long career six logo’s for him and the various partnerships with other designers he led. A summarized resume of Herb Lubalin would look something like this:

1918 – Born in New York City

1939 – Graduated from Cooper Union School of Art

1945 – Creative director of Sudler & Hennesey, later Sudler Hennesey & Lubalin (logo #1).

1964 – Establishes his own design firm, Herb Lubalin Inc (#2).

1967 – Forms a partnership with Ernie Smith and Tom Carnase (#3).

1975 – Alan Peckolick joins the ranks, creating LSC&P (#4).

1978 – Creates Herb Lubalin Associates (#5).

1980 – Together with Peckolick forms Lubalin Peckolick Associates (#6).

1981 – Dies in New York University Hospital.

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More Lubalin here, here and here.

Debate Eighty-Eight

Jaap Proost — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:29:26 +0000

IN 1987 Mike Quon designed these two logos for the League Of Women Voters for the upcoming presidential debates in the election year 1988. Three elections in a row the LWV had organized the debates. But in October 1988 the political organization (since 1973 men can also become a member) pulled out from debate sponsorship, in protest of the major party candidates attempting to dictate nearly every aspect of how the debates were conducted. So I guess these logos lived a short life.

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SM Ring Binder

Jaap Proost — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:11:17 +0000

WIM Crouwel, member of the design studio Total Design, worked many years for the Stedelijk Museum. From 1964 he designed, among other things, the catalogs and posters for the museum in Amsterdam. Total Design came up with the acronym SM. The two letters played a prominent role in the house style of the museum, as you can see on this ring binder from the early eighties. See more work Crouwel did for the museum here.

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Fast Faster Fastest

Jaap Proost — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:34:54 +0000

SEEING these three logos is like watching a racecar slow down. The ABS logo (very New Balance) is the fastest. Three visual elements of speed are processed in the logo. First there are horizontal lines, always good to indicate movement. Kids place them behind cars when they are drawing. They also know that when you draw the car a bit crooked it looks like it’s going faster. Enter the use of italic letters. Also the lines going from thin till fat helps to give the logo speed. With the RPM logo the foot is of the pedal and VMA is within speeding limits. The ABS logo was designed for the company Bosch, VMA stands for Valve Manufactures of America and RPM is the name of the New York Telephone company.

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Mask Stamps

Jaap Proost — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:21:22 +0000

AMERICAN graphic designer Bradbury Thompson had a thing with masks. For the company Westvaco he created his own mask with the use of letters. In 1980 the US Postal Service asked Thompson to design a sheet of stamps celebrating the art of the North American Indian. The designer found four masks of different tribes and placed them in a prominent way on the stamps. I think postage stamps are a good platform for masks.

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Empty Your Bag

Jaap Proost — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:16:37 +0000

FORGET about collecting stamps. Instead fill your album with used heroin bags. It is the newest craze. As we speak, collectors search the back alleys for empty glassine packets. Lucky ones find dope bags with a logo they don’t have. The images and slogans are printed on the bags by dealers in the hope the marketing will create a loyal group of consumers. One of the pioneers of collecting the heroin bags is Clayton Patterson. I wrote about his passion before. (My personal favorite is, off course, the LIFE bag.)

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Romanesque

Jaap Proost — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:00:18 +0000

ROMAN statues look cool. And that is not only because they are made of white marble. In the French book Mémoires d’Hadrien the ancient faces illustrate the story. The statues are printed on transparent paper so you see a grid on the other page. The book is designed in 1953 by Jacques Darche and is a publication for an organization with the name the ‘Club of Best Books’. They only published 5000 numbered copies. See more Roman statues X graphic design here and here.

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