Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

The Gee’s Bend quilts are very unique and are great examples of formstorming. Formstorming is defined as “an act of visual thinking.” We definitely can see how the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers apply formstorming when they craft their quilts, the amount of thinking and sense of direction is displayed in their quilts show how much effort and thought is placed into them. Even when working with limited fabric or scraps of textiles, they used only pieces that would best fit whatever design they had on their mind. Loretta Pettway talked about how she HAD to make quilts in order to keep her children warm because no one would give her any. Even when caring for her kids, she didn’t randomly piece together a bunch of different fabrics to quickly create something for warmth. She took her time and effort to carefully piece out a sense of rhythm and balance, just like all the other Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers.

“Hexagon Mosaic With Multiple Borders On Three Sides, Tied With Yarn” by Mensie Lee Pettway of the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers. Created in 1975.

The quilt I’ve chosen to examine was created by Mensie Lee Pettway, titled “Hexagon Mosaic With Multiple Borders On Three Sides, Tied With Yarn.” I really liked this quilt because of how well Mensie did with the color choices and the overall flow of the design. In terms of Rhythm; the visual balance is amazingly even throughout the quilt – despite the fact that it consists of 817 hexagon pieces. The eyes don’t instantaneously gravitate towards one part of the quilt over the other, the hexagons all share the same dimension; which gives it that nice overall balance. I also like how there’s a form of symmetry in which Mensie had laid down her hexagonal pieces, but the way she decided to randomly place the colors evenly throughout the entire quilt gives it that allusion that the quilt itself seems as if its asymmetrical. But as we closely examine the rows and columns of the hexagons, they’re placed in a sense of similar symmetry. Mensie’s use of analogous and contrasting colors fights against the hexagonal rhythm. Hexagons are nice evenly-sided shapes that allow for people to easily combine them together and create a constant pattern without kinks. But the color scheme that Mensie had chosen, displaces that sense of balance and is what creates that sense of asymmetry that I had mentioned earlier.

This logo redesign for Sabra, a hummus company, is still very similar to the before image, but with some major and minor improvements. The old logo is much more organic than geometric, the stokes are less uniform and the line underneath is seemingly arbitrary. The orange circle is clearly representing a sun. In the new logo, the font is much more geometric and uniform. The strokes are all even throughout the image.

“A custom Sabra wordmark keeps the playful “musicality” of the previous version while adding a bolder impression,” designed by New York, NY-based Beardwood&Co for Sabra®

The sun in the new logo however, is very different from the old logo. It is much more abstract in the new logo. There are parts of this shape that are reminiscent of a plant, or a lightbulb, and these variations lead to different interpretations for different audiences. The color in this shape is also much richer than the old sun icon.

I think the designer made these choices to give the design an overall sleeker feeling. Also, this design incorporates uniformity among all the different shapes and strokes.

The company is a hummus company, but they also market flavored hummus, and pretzel cups. The redesign of their logo is intentional. The colors make it seem earthy, but the design makes it more modern, which is appealing to younger audiences.

While observing the redesigned logos on the Brand New site, there exists a clear trend: simplicity. The ultimate goal for these modern redesigns is to simplify the old designs and sharpen the overall style. The most prominent way they accomplish this is by creating a more geometric look for many of these logos. The older styles of rounded, bubbly, elementary shapes, gave a sense of juvenileness, and potential immaturity. The addition of the more angular, symmetrical typefaces and shapes, gives things a more refined look.

It’s clear that the organic look is not appreciated in today’s branding world, at least, not in large doses. There are small areas where more “scripty” fonts and characters are used, but even they are surrounded by geometry that screams modern simplicity.

For many logos, the change gives the design a more representational meaning. In the Skype logo, for example, the switch to a cleaner corporate typeface became representative of the Microsoft brand, and tied the video chat program to other interfaces, like Word and Excel.

Many of these companies are trying to stand for a sense of trustworthiness. They want you to be loyal to them. Thus, these new designs emote a sense of professionalism that the previous designs often lacked. In essence, many of these logos are growing up. The days of free flowing, hand drawn logos, that look like your grade schooler drew them in art class, are gone. This site shows that we are ushering in the era of sharp, clean, often geometric design.

The purpose of this logo redesign is to apply it to a new wide range of mediums. The new logo was designed for free from a London based brand agency called The Partners. Tusk is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving the African wild life.

The first logo is natural and representational. A silhouetted Africa stands behind the name and purpose of the non-profit organization. It’s made very clear for the audience what the purpose of this logo is. It’s considered a natural design because the organization copied the shape of an existing continent (there was no creative component = no geometry). This logo seems practical for their website or plain t-shirt.

The new logo is geometric and abstract. The straight lines and perfect circles are all that make up this logo creating its own new pattern. This new pattern is both geometric and traditional because a lot of the influence for this came from traditional African patterns (the colors also compliment the text accordingly to these traditions). There is not one curvy line in this composition, even the “s” is only made of straight lines.

I love the new logo because it’s not just a sticker for a company but also a palette for all sorts of different patterns and backgrounds for the company. Just take a look trough this. This logo is considered abstract because the letters are subtle and hidden and this is even further emphasized in the pattern.

As explained through the first logo, TUSK is a non-profit organization made for the conservation of African wildlife. So in a literal sense, the first logo makes a whole lot of sense but if you contemplate the numerous ways that a non-profit advertises a company then the second logo seems more practical because of its compatibility with cars, backgrounds and clothing. The second logo has transcended from its initial use as a logo and has become the entire identity for the organization.

The old “Nordwind Airlines” logo

I chose this logo for the company “Nordwind Airlines” because of the striking design differences between the Before and After images of the company logo. This is an airliner based in Russia with a fleet of over 20 planes flying to destinations within Russia and Europe. Their old logo wasn’t striking enough and definitive enough for the company, saying that it “…wasn’t very exciting or confidence-inducing.” Their decision for a new logo came from wanting a logo that more clearly identified them.

The new and improved “Nordwind Airlines” logo, designed by UMA

The new logo, designed by a company called UMA, drops the airplane tail graphic and instead uses an “N” monogram as the centerpiece behind the design. It contains “a bold combination of round corners and sharp angles and the extra wide structure is very airline-ish, as is the italic bent”, meaning that the new “N” seems like a representational of airlines themselves. The company seemed to use the same general sans serif through both iterations of the logo, but it seems more thin and streamlined in the after photo. Though both before and after logos were very geometric in style, the sharp lines and regularity of the shapes and font of the second logo lend themselves to a more definite geometric appeal. I think that while the regularity and the sharpness with which this representational logo is constructed seem somewhat sterile in nature, it definitely lends itself to a professional appeal.

The effect of the new logo is striking and definitely is more appealing than the first version. People who glance at this logo are left with a feeling of quiet professionalism and efficiency, both valued attributes in an airliner. In fact, looking at some of the mock-up designs for airplanes themselves definitely seemed like an improvement over the old design, with bolder lines and colors giving the new designs visual appeal. I definitely agree with the designs for the new logo and believe that the reasoning behind the changes is sound. The new logo is an embodiment of the values that Nordwind was trying to promote.

The mock-up design of the old and new logos on airplanes

The old logo for the U.S Ski and Snowboard team, found on Brand New 

For this blog post, I have chosen to look at the old and new logo for the U.S Ski and Snowboard group and team. For the old logo, it was very plain and didn’t convey what the logo was about. Without knowing about the U.S Ski and Snowboard team, I would have assumed the old logo was for a more professional type company or government agency. The yellow gold color seemed a bit outdated as well. In terms of organic and geometric, I would say the old logo was leaning more toward organic as the text was italicized and the red/gold/blue design underneath was more “fish shaped” and doesn’t have any straight lines. For abstract or representational, the before photo would go under abstract. It has nothing to do with any real world images, and instead just serves to create more depth to the words and ingrain “American colors” into the design. When the before design was made, I assume the designer was attempting to create something minimalist by using only the acronym, while also incorporating the traditional red and blue colors, as well as a gold to possibly signify winning (like an Olympic gold medal).

The new logo for the U.S Ski and Snowboard team created by the Nike Senior Strategic Advisor, found on Snowboard Unveils New Brand 

For the new logo, it has a much more modern and cleaner feel. The purpose of the logo (to represent the ski and snowboard team for the Olympics) is clear and whomever is looking at the logo will be able to understand what it stands for. The logo is more geometric, due to the square triangle. The mountain inside also represents the winter teams, and the darker blue color works better than the lighter blue on the old logo. The red color doesn’t seem to have changed. This logo would lean toward representational, as the mountain part of the logo is an easy recognizable part of nature/object, as well as the stars over the mountain, meant to represent patriotism. I think the designer made the choice to change the logo in part for the upcoming winter Olympic game, and also to give it a more contemporary design.