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Logos for the Design Challenged, Part XIV

Opposites Attract

Those of you familiar with Eastern philosophy and design will be aware of Yin and Yang. Although there are numerous versions of the Yin and Yang symbol, the basic meaning is the same, opposites attract and complement one another (as in complete and not, my that's a lovely dress you're wearing!). The principals of Yin and Yang can be applied to logo design in terms of big versus small, black versus white, old versus new, and so forth. So please, put your minds at rest and I will try to shed light (and dark) on the Yin and Yang of logo design for us design-challenged persons.

Big vs. Small

Figure 1 shows four variations of big vs. small featuring the fonts Gill Sans Ultra Bold (also known as Humanist 521) and Serifa, a thin square serif font. In the first example I merely placed the G inside the counter (a typographic term for the open part of a character). Placing the small G inside the counter causes the counter to take on the appearance of a capital D. In the second version (top right) the G was made the same height as the counter, the fill changed to white, and the G was positioned so the character overlaps the counter becoming at one with the letterform. In the example shown lower left, the P was converted to curves, (Ctrl-Q), broken apart, (Ctrl-K) the counter moved to an undisclosed location and enrolled in a witness protection program, and the G positioned where the counter used to be. Never one to throw things away, I retrieved the counter, flopped a duplicate (shown in the lower right example) and applied a red fill. I applied a white fill to the original counter. The G was reduced, a white fill applied and centered inside of the red counter.

Heavy vs. Thin

I used the Gill Sans Ultra Bold capital P again in Figure 2 but this time using two very different and contrasting capital Gs. In the top example the P was duplicated, flopped and aligned with the original so the stems of the Ps aligned centrally. The G is Huxley Vertical BT (BT stands for Bitstream) which is very fine and delicate and makes a good counterpoint for the bold blackness of the twin Ps. Do you see a face or an elephant here? Maybe it's just my mind going. I changed the font for the G in the lower example to Flemish Script, one of the loveliest and most elegant script fonts. I set the fill to none and the outline to 1 point creating an elegant outline version. Depending upon the size, I would probably make the outline finer still, about 1/2 point. To achieve the transparent effect I converted both characters to curves and created an Intersection where the two characters overlapped by pressing the Intersect button on the Property Bar. I set the fill to 70% black and the outline to none. Bringing the G to the top (Shift - Page Up) completed the effect.

Refined vs. Crude

Every font can be contrasted in terms of refinement versus lack of refinement or crudity, if you will. Often one quality can be played effectively against the other as evidenced in Figure 3. The example top left plays a G (formatted in Papyrus, a font with a hand drawn appearance and a Styles > Patches 2 Colors texture fill applied) with a simple Bernhard Fashion BT capital P. The example on the top right also uses a Bernhard Fashion G and a P in the Pablo LET (Letraset) font, a font which looks as if it were crudely drawn with a brush. Continuing on the lower left is a massive and chunky Rockwell Extra Bold G and a sleek and svelte Felix Titling P. The fill colors contrast as well from very unsaturated (light) and highly saturated (dark). I set the G in the lower right in a font called Chilada ICG Dos (Image Club graphics). I selected the font. converted it to curves and broke it apart and applied a different colored fill to each section. For contrast I added a P in ITC Bodoni Seven Swash.

Fontifically Opposite

Spell check questions fontifically, as well it should, but I think you get the idea for the set of contrasts shown in Figure 4. A pale Rockwell Extra Bold G is contrasted with an Edwardian Script ITC script P. The next example shown top right contrasts the same font in radically different sizes. Both characters are formatted in Felix Titling which draws its name from the fact it is frequently used for titles, though titles of what is a hotly debated issue. The example shown on the lower left uses a Poster Bodoni G and a Frutiger Light (also know Humanist 777) P. The last example in this set contrasts a G in OCR-A, a computer font, with a wide P in Engravers MT (Monotype). The fill color for the P is a darker version of the fill color for the G.

NOTE: The same fonts often go by a variety of names as witnessed here with Gill Sans and Frutiger, the more common names for two fonts that Corel places in the Humanist family. These are the same fonts. Corel's Swiss is the same as Helvetica.

Large vs. Not Large

Contrasts don't just apply to the logo design as shown in Figure 5. The two business card designs shown employ contrasting sizes, or large vs. not large. In addition, the top example uses two weights of Rockwell for the G and P, Rockwell Extra Bold and Rockwell. The two characters are overlapped to create a contrasting design of solid light gray and white. Both characters were filled 5% black and PowerClipped (Effects > PowerClip) inside the card shape. The text is Arial (another name for Swiss/Helvetica) set very small with 65% additional space between the letters. The example shown on the bottom uses a Rockwell Condensed G and P which have been overlapped to create a unique shape. The letters are reversed white out of black. The text is small and filled 40% black. The name of the company is the only text with color, calling first attention to the company name.

Small vs. Big

Our final examples shown in Figure 6 continues the exploration of small and big. The G and P (from Figure 3) have been placed on a horizontal business card and scaled to take up about 80% of the card. By contrast, the text is just big enough to be readable. (Though not with my tired old eyeballs!). It's too bad you can't have zoom glasses. The example on the bottom reverses the two making the logo tiny and the text large.

Yang and Yin

These examples should be enough to get the point across. When designing a logo, an ad, a web site, brochure or anything else, see if you can insert contrasting elements. This creates interest, drama, and often can lead to a surprisingly good and effective design. After all, life is not a contest to see how mundane we can be. Is it?

Meet Me in Orlando!

It's not the same as a Logos for the Design Challenged Boot Camp, but it's the next best thing. I will be presenting two Logos for the Design Challenged sessions at Rick Altman's CorelWORLD Conference in early October in Orlando, Florida. I won't be alone of course. Many of your favorite DRAW persons will be there as well including Foster and Pete, and Debbie Cook, and of course, Rick Altman, to name-drop a few. So, if you get a chance, join us there. You can get more information at http://www.altman.com

That wraps up this edition of Logos for the Design Challenged. If any (or all of this) makes no sense at all, contact me in the Graphics Unleashed Forums and I'll attempt to do right by you, and left by you and�

Tutorials by Gary Priester

Read more articles by Gary Priester along with a short bio.

_{Last Updated November 21, 1999.}

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