Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

Southern Comfort logo

Although on the sweet, syrupy side and popular in cocktails, Southern Comfort packs an alcohol punch that can be deceiving. Earlier this year, Southern Comfort introduced a new Caramel version to complement its other mixes like Lime and Black Cherry and introduced a new logo and packaging designed by Austin, TX-based Helms Workshop.

Both the original and the redesigned Southern Comfort logos are geometric in their shapes because of the letters and the outer edges of the logo, as well as being representational because of the clear message of alcohol in the product. The new designers and the old designers of the logos most likely made these choices because they wanted to send a clear message to their consumers that they were purchasing alcohol using a simple red logo that hasn’t changed much over many years. The original Southern Comfort logo is mediated because it came out in 1874 and hasn’t changed until recently.

Link: http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_packaging_for_southern_comfort_by_helms_workshop.php#.Vgy7cLQ-DVo

Invented in the early 1980s by Lonnie Johnson — a mechanical and nuclear engineer who happened to have helped develop the stealth bomber program and worked for NASA . Now owned by Hasbro, under the Nerf brand.

When the Super Soaker came out it was produced from another brand other than Nerf. The logo was simple and I would say organic. The logo was basically the words “Super Soaker” on a basic font. There was nothing to exciting about the logo before that would draw consumer’s attention. The logo is basic to the point where the logo is not displaying what the product is and to be honest, the name doesn’t make it obvious what the product is or does. Super Soaker can be a hose or something for your garden. The logo is symmetrical where the words are on top of each other aligned in the same space.

The new logo was changed nine years later; the new logo has a more geometric design to it. Nerf bought the brand and included their brand logo onto the super soaker design. It was smart that they did that because Nerf was/is very popular and so stamping their logo just reintroduced the Super Soaker to their audience. The new logo includes a geometric shape, don’t know exactly what is but it ties the whole design together to make a cohesive logo. The shape adds a direction to the text so it could be read from left to right in such as curvilinear style. Also the color that they use makes it come together with the orange font color that ties it in with Nerf. Most Nerf products have orange in the product or the accessories. Overall it is a better and improved from their old one.

Avoiding the usual airport logo clichés of lines, LLA has adopted a strikingly simple and abstract monogram made out of 9 squares, assembled in 3 triangles, arranged in an unconventional format. It’s pretty fantastic. And the “A” looks like a plane so it’s definitely airport-y.

I chose this logo because right of the back because there is a huge change that is quite noticeable this logo quickly experienced a very big transition, it went from actual organic text to a geometric shape mainly using a square. This logo can be considered geometric because there is nothing but squares stacked on top of each other having a huge change from its original logo that was created. The Transition was pretty big almost making the logo stand out as a whole new different logo for a different company. Having the transition from words to shapes makes the logo have an abstracted feel to it because theses shapes do not represent anything from the company which almost makes me question why this logo was created and how does is it representational to the company. Since this logo was altered from its original standing my understanding is that this logo contains a high mediated because on the first logo we actually have the name of the company as for the second logo it’s just three squares laid out differently.

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_victoria_by_designworks_australia.php Made for the Victoria State in Australia

Both of Vitoria’s current and old logos are geometric designs. The updated one takes on a much more modern and geometric look however, the use of the giant triangle that holds in the ‘Vic’ of Victoria grabs the viewer’s eye quickly and allows for the eye to glide from the triangle to the rest of the word. The blank space used within the triangle shows the letters ‘Vic’ and acts as negative space within the plane, drawing the eye to it, from there the eye moves to the rest of the word Victoria. The V in Victoria fits perfectly within the triangle surrounding it, however, the i and c don’t. This logo could have been done better if the font of the words had been made slightly bigger. By doing this the i would have been centered within the triangle, and the c and v would been evenly fitted to either side.  The asymmetry of the three letters draws the eye to it and makes it look unprofessional, the triangle should have been made smaller or the font bigger to allow for a more symmetrical look. Both of these logos are abstract with large v or triangle shaped elements to emphasize the v in Victoria. The first one using stars within the v to add more natural looking elements even though they are geometric shapes, that appear in nature. The elimination of the words ‘State Government’ adds to the modernization of the logo. Current trends in graphic design utilize minimalism art in designs, using few elements and very basic fonts to get the message across with little other elements. This logo does that, though not as effectively as it could.

Logo redesign and rebrand for Sapo, a search engine/news portal. The logo was most likely designed in-house, according to the side underconsideration.com under Brand New. It was meant to embody the company’s values: modern, technological, innovative, and disruptive. .http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_for_sapo.php#.VgyHPrQy-kY

This logo underwent a huge transition from organic to geometric, while still being representational of a frog. It is obviously key to keep the logo a representation of a frog, as it is considered the mascot or symbol of the company. “Sapo” can be translated into “toad” in Portuguese.

The logo can be considered geometric because it is largely made up of triangles and other angular shapes. As the reading says, “a shape can be considered geometric in nature if its contour is regularized – if its external measurements are mathematically similar in multiple directions… angular or hard-edged.”

The design can be considered representational because it actually looks like a frog. The outline mimics that of a frog sitting, and the circles inside of the outline represent an eye. The color scheme is even green, as frogs often are, making it look even more like a frog. This image is highly mediated, representing not only a frog in itself, but also the company which it belongs to.

I would assume that the designer made their choices when creating this logo to bring the logo into modern style, as well upholding the values of the company it represents: modernness, technologic , innovation, and disruption. The new logo indeed upholds these principles, in that it looks more modern and technologically new, as well as showing extreme innovation in changing the whole style of the logo.

I chose this logo design because I think the “after” transformation was incredibly successful comparably to the original logo design. The original logo design was concentrated on a typeface rather than a unique business that is focused on catering and the clientele. The new logo feels more cohesive and less like 3 different parts, the top, middle, and bottom. The new logo is more organic than the first, our eye doesn’t initially maybe make out that the top design is a “w” and a “p” without the knowledge of the company name. The lines are more curved and more abstracted creating more of a visual than a letter. The new typography for the company name is more geometric, which contrasts nicely with the logo above it, keeping the sharp and curved lines consistent between the two. The WP logo is now a nice balance between iconic and abstract but comes off as very professional yet fresh and innovative, something we may consider being important in the food we want catered. The new logo isn’t really more abstract or representational because really the lines and typography just became more organic and linear and aren’t really meant to be as representational at the previous logo’s artwork which kind of looks like a domino with a “w” and a “p” on it. I think that the new logo looks more professional and less like a take-out service than the original logo. It is mediating an image of professionalism, quality, elegance, and freshness that is something we look for when we are catering food to a wedding, graduation, large event, etc. In researching Wolfgang Puck, they are a large scale “fine dining group” that is centralized out of LA that is renowned in the world of cooking, operates over 25 restaurants, and creates cookbooks, products, and more. The new logo proposed I believe mediates this ora of how the chef wants his work to be portrayed. I would be more likely to see elegance and value to a company with the second logo vs. the first. The first looks more like a worldwide take-out company, which isn’t the case here.

This logo for Wolfgang Puck Catering was transformed by Pearlfisher and on display for review on consideration.com