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Here’s what we read in Michael C. Place’s ( BUILD ) blog :

“A while ago we received an email from Gary Hustwit the director of ‘Helvetica – A Documentary Film’ asking our advice on what type I would use for a new documentary he was producing on product design. We replied saying it might be nice to make the letterforms from actual products, he liked the idea, and would we be up for doing it?
We said of course, what’s the title?, “Objectified” he says.”

and here’s the result :

Definitely a brave approach. And it pays back. As you can read here and there in the NET – the logo is as famous, as the film itself.  May be the success of the logo is based on the fact that it’s build by designers for designers.. and this type of audience can appreciate the good idea, the fun of this logotype.  The approach is not something revolutionary, the text is a little unreadable, but one have to admit that the final piece is great :)

So this is how the logo deserved its central role in the limited movie poster :

How was this logo designed ? Well… as every other logo – revision by revision, experimenting with stuff, things… and objects :)

OK, I guess a little design speculation is allowed :

As you can see the iPod round controller is the base from where everything started and it’s the constant that remained unchanged during the hole process. After all it’s the latest consumers’ icon. A few candidates for specific letters appeared later. The first variations of the logotype are a bit too crowded and claustrophobic. Many tiny and tall object with a lot of curves in the center of the word. There is a lack of a proper rythm for the eye.  Later this is fixed. Two knifes have found their place in some of the revisions, but as we all know – as friendly they could be drawn – they are still a negative symbol, so later the swiss knife and the chopper disappear. All the objects are picked this way, so they are parts of various activities in our lives and cary variety of visual and emotional messages.  If you half-close your eyes a little bit – you gonna see the balance, the way shapes weigh in the space. A solid start and a solid end of the composition, so that the overall shape could stand in a proper way.

me just… playing with the air… :

And… here comes the big surprise – actually they didn’t use this fine logotype for the official poster. They’ve bet on more illustrative vision with a lot of objects and a plain,  super-readable typo. May be it’s because the poster should only be the gate to the work of the crew, not the center of the attention… may be because people are always greedy for more illustrations and a simple logo is not enough… may be because a helvetica typo for the logotype will be the sign that says – “these are the guys that made the helvetica movie”… who knows..

Anyway – both posters are nice :)

Read more about :

Objectified movie
Helvetica movie
Build design studio / Michael C. Place
Original post in Build’s blog
Buy an “objectified” t-shirt / limited poster

Any comments ?

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18.06.2009 – BRUSSELS – Greenpeace supporters handed out mock copies of the International Herald Tribune in several countries Thursday to press world leaders to agree on ambitious efforts to tackle climate change.The fake newspaper ( 50 000 free copies ) was handed out in Brussels’ European quarter shortly before EU leaders were to begin a two-day summit at which the environment is on the agenda.
What we are interested in is one of the pages inside that simulates a BP advertisement  laughs at the BP logo redesign:

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I think Greenpeace have their point and it’s true that very ofthen design is used to throw dust in consumers’ eyes. This is easily achieved by rebranding and changing the logo of the company. The logo is the flag and usually represents many corporate values. In this case BP obviously tried to use one of the most powerful symbols – the sunflower – on their behalf . Sunflower is known as a positive and friendly symbol, a sign of the light and the good weather.  You can check this sunflower logo set in logoblink if you are interested in more logo designs, based on the flower.

The internet version of the newspaper is visible at iht.greenpeace.org. Just refresh a few times, cause the ads in the right sidebar are showing random and you may not see the BP logo joke.

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If you want to read more of this green guerilla marketing story, click here.

A-style is a clothing brand. The brand exists since 2003 ( or at least the domain a-style.it is registered during that year ). 2006 could be considered as a real breakthrough. Later a friend of mine sent me from Italy an A-style key holder . If I have to be honest – at first sight I didn’t get the idea… but later there was the “LOL” effect :) Cool idea, designed in a nice way. Everything is on purpose in the design of this sign. The shape of the logo in its original version is like a street sign. The yellow background is a reference to the pictograms and all the caution signs. The proportions of the “head” and the “body” fit the style of the most used pictos, too… so there’s every prerequisite for finding the true meaning of the “A” letter and the two dots.

This picture is from the official website. When tilted, the logo reveals it’s full potential…

Bonus A-style logo interpretations :

What do you think about the logo ?
What about wearing this brand ?
Do you love signs, which real meaning reveals at second sight ?

Sometimes signs are not what they look like… :)

Google “wave” is a new “collaboration tool”  that you and me gonna use soon. This post is about the logo of this new product. I’ll try to cover the basics – what kind of logo it is, why it’s designed like this, what are the similarities and the differences in compare of other logos. Also you’ll find a small collection of graphic situations and interpretation of this new logo. Or just click on the picture to download the logo in vector format.

It looks nice at first sight.  A cool 3D logo with gradients and a shadow bellow. As the main shape is floating freely in the air.   A feeling of a new technology. Something extraordinaire. Somebody could take it for a new game console logo, but we know what it is.
No logotype. They’re using only a mark. As it is in “Chrome”. The color pattern is also the same – 4 colors – blue, red, yellow and green.

One should admit “wave” is a nice naming. Many associations are available, but what kind of wave is the logo ? I think it’s a “sine wave”. The sine wave or sinusoid is a function that occurs often in mathematics, music, physics, signal processing, audition, electrical engineering, and many other fields. Again, like “google”, we have a mathematical meaning. More in wiki.

May be they’ve designed it on purpose, may be not, but there’s a curious fact about the line of the logo. If you are interested in feng shui signature rules you can read :

“For success and prosperity, it is best to start with an ascending stroke with the letters rising upwards as you sign and also end with an upward stroke. This signifies a good beginning and a good ending to every project undertaken in future.  Signatures ending in downward strokes do not ensure happy endings. Straight-line signatures usually go unnoticed. They are considered neither auspicious nor inauspicious. This can be strengthened by adding a firm line underneath that goes upwards.”

The product is not available for the masses yet, but there are a few different usages of the logo here and there. All the following logo variations of the WAVE are officially used by google at this point. I think the avatar with the tilted logo is a good idea  (after all the main disadvantage of the mark is that it doesn’t look good in small scale, so the problem should be solved in a way ). Google wave is also loosing points when presented in background, different from the black and white. As you can see on the picture with the t-shirt ( a screenshot from the WAVE presentation ) – the usage of all basic colors doesn’t leave many options for the background. Blue is a logical desicion for a backup, because it’s just a small part of the logo.  Although… white is best.

Also I like very much the favicon. Hope they will not change it soon for a reason.

It’s always good to know the other logos in the brand family. I’ve tried to pick enough examples for you to have a decent point for comparison. A simple conclusion is that the new mark is a sign of a new hope. Services like Adsense and Adwords do NOT have their own mark or logotype. They are just a part of the family…, but Google Wave is born to be different.  The usage of just a mark is even a haughty in a way. As we should know that it is “google wave”.  After all it took NIKE a lot of years to remove the logotype from the swoosh.  Look at “bing” – another web star that was born last few weeks – a simple logotype, not pretentious in any way. But Google is big and famous enough to afford it. I guess we can conclude that  Google Wave logo is designed in a nice way and it’s actually one of the best Google logos, that we know.

Yes, “wave” symbol is often met in other logo designs, especially in water sports ( O’neill & Billabong ). Coca Cola also use it. Although it’s not a part of the official logo, Coca Cola always have used the wave in their identity. It’s just working. The wave is a symbol of joy, change, movement ( etc. ) and it looks nice. In my opinion Sony’s VAIO logotype ( or mark ? :) ) is the best example of the modern technical logos. Abstract enough.. and yet readable for the targeted consumers.  I like VAIO for another reason – with it’s monochrome variations it’s a classic logo. No  gradients, no shadows and no trendy fashions.

The idea of this mini wave logo collection is to observe how the “wave” idea is exploited in different shapes, colors and manners. A wave could be a “w”, a simple “s”, a combination of 2 and more letters, a curvy shape,  a simple tilted line, a swirl, a sinusoid and of course – a stylized illustration of a wave.

As a bonus you can see here this “wave” identity in detail:

What do you think about Google Wave logo, do you find the information above useful ? Comments are always appreciated.