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Logos for the Design Challenged, Part XVIII

Why 2 K?

We're about to wrap up the millennium and launch into the next 1000 years of fun and frolic and so it seems only fitting that we design a logo for the next 1000 years or Y2K as it has been referred to of late. In this month's installment, I'll take you though the design process I used to come up with a logo with staying power for another millennium or two.

Speaking of staying power. This is Number 18 in the series. Can you believe that? One and one half year's worth of Logo articles. My question to you, the reader and design challenged person is, have you had enough Logo articles or would you like to see more for the year to come? Please click here to send me an e-mail answer. A simple yeah, what the heck the price is right, or nix, uncle, enough, pull the plug should do the trick. Either way your feedback is appreciated. Of course positive feedback is more welcome than negative feedback. But either way, fire away.

Where to Begin?

If you've learned anything from these tutorials it's that I like to start out looking at type solutions. And so I begin this assignment by looking for a typeface that says the next 1000 years. I've explored five fonts in this example. Oddly enough, the three that work the best for me are old fonts that have been around for some time and yet still have a contemporary look and feel, Bank Gothic, Copperplate Gothic Light and Empire BT.

I'm not sure if any of the previous five fonts are the answer to the question, whatever the question was. So here are four more. Motter FemD has a distinct and memorable look as does Rennie Macintosh, named after the Scottish Architect famous for his architecture and furniture design in the Arts & Crafts movement earlier in this century. The font and the accompanying symbol font are available from the Image Club Graphics fonts at EyeWire.com.

I looked at a design that might convey the transition from 1999 to 2000. As you can see, the results were less than stellar. When in doubt try a tricky blend! I made a smaller copy of the 2000, applied a white fill and a cyan outline. I selected both and created a 36-step blend with the Clockwise Blend option to add the rainbow effect. I made a copy of the larger text and changed the fill color to purple.

Getting nowhere with the last effort, I moved on to a new approach. I made four individual characters using Futura Light BT. The zeros are capital O's, by the way. They were more round than the numeral 0 and worked better for me. I tried the two overlapping explorations with the multi-colored characters but found them too Olympics looking. I changed the font to Futura Medium BT and added an outline. I thought it might be cool if the circles overlapped like chain links. Let's face it, I was desperate! I made duplicates of the three Os and brought them to the front. Next I used the Freehand Tool to make shapes where the Os overlapped. I PowerClipped the duplicate O into the shape and brought the shape to the front and set the outline to none. The PowerClipped shapes covered the overlap giving the desired over and under, linked impression. The result is shown below. Not too bad. But I think we can do better.

Deciding to go with the flow, I tried a few logos using the popular reference to the year two thousand, Y2K. I used Benguiat Gothic Bold. I liked the way the characters flowed together when they were overlapped. I tried another approach, horizontally flopping the K, converting it to curves (Ctrl Q), and then using the Shape Tool to remove some of the nodes creating a stylized Y shape. I tried two versions but was not sold on either.

My previous attempt lacked the elegance and importance that a new millennium deserves. I liked the contemporary feeling of the Benguiat Gothic font but there was something missing. I tried three variations using the same font but replacing the Y with a script font. The first two examples use Shelly Volante Script, one of the most elegant of the many script fonts. The last example is another of my favorite scripts, Adobe's Poppl-Residenz Light. I added a yellow orange outline for the middle 2K and set the fill to none. A light colored drop shadow added depth. For the last example, I used a pair of capital Is with another pair top and bottom, rotated 90 degrees, to make a Roman Numeral II.

Moving right along, I reasoned perhaps the answer would be found in using words. And then again, maybe not. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. The first attempt uses two contrasting fonts, Gill Sans Ultra Bold (called Humanist 521 by Corel) and Firenze (for the 2). The 2 was made larger and repositioned with the Shape Tool. The next three explorations use these fonts: Bernhard Fashion, Alexei Copperplate, and Huxley Vertical. The second example from the last uses a typeface called Lunatix from Émigré. And the last example is Adobe's Poppl-Residenz Light. Of all of these the first attempt is the only contender.

Returning to the Y2K explorations, I tried a series using the Firenze 2 and a nice, bold, contrasting Gill Sans Ultra Bold. To achieve the effect for the top left execution, I made a duplicate of both the 2 and the K and Welded them into one shape. I pasted the 2 and K on top and added bold outlines and no fill. The next example is the same except the letters have not been welded and each letter has its own fill. The example on the bottom left has been filled with a Color Bitmap Pattern Fill and Extruded. Returning to the Blend once again, the lower right example is a blend of two duplicate groups of 2K. The rotation bulls eye was dragged to the bottom left of the 2. There are 148 blend steps and the Rotate option checked and the amount 360 entered for the degrees. The Clockwise Blend option added the rainbow effect. I'm just starting to get warmed up now.

I really like the boldness of the Gill Sans Ultra Bold K and so I used it in concert with a variety of 2s for this next series. Because the K is so bold, I thought I might try reversing some 2s out of the K in white. The top example uses a BernhardFashion BT 2 which even though it's a font from the early part of this century looks remarkably contemporary. I used the Firenze font for the 2 for the middle example and was rather pleased at the negative shapes created by the two letterforms. The last treatment uses an Industria Solid 2. I converted both letters to curves and used the Trim button on the Property Bar to remove the 2 from the K. Adding a drop shadow added a little touch of class.

OK. We're down to the last attempt. While I have a few designs that I would consider showing, none so far feels like a winner. I used both a Gill Sans Ultra Bold (Humanist 521) 2 and K, making the 2 white. I was really happy with the positive and negative shapes. For the middle design, I PowerClipped the 2 (Lubalin Graph) inside the K. Not too bad. Both letters read well and the design is intriguing. For the final example, I converted the K to curves and removed the top and bottom indented sections. I placed a Firenze 2 over the shape and moved it around and around and around, and then around and around and around, until it reached the place where it is now. I used the Trim button to remove the 2 from the K shape and added a slight drop shadow for the finishing touch. Bingo! The perfect blend (without resorting to a blend) of elegance and boldness. I'm stoked. What do you think?

So there you have it, the real live (almost live) step-by-step logo design process. These designs were created in a period of about 3 hours. (Or as a photographer friend of mine once said when asked how long it took him to light a car for a photo shoot, "3 hours-and 25 years!")

With the completion of this article, I wish each and every one of you a jolly old Christmas (or any other holiday you celebrate) and a happy and glitch-free Y2K. Comments, questions and holiday greetings are always welcome. Contact me in the Graphics Unleashed Forums

A Logos Boot Camp for the Design Challenged? Maybe Not!

Well it was a noble effort. But Foster and Pete can only afford to fly me to Phoenix and put me up at a grand hotel if people sign up for the Logos for the Design Challenged Boot Camp. And it would appear that not many of you did. Sigh. But don't feel guilty. Well OK, feel guilty if you must, but I can live with this. Really. In reality it means you've spared me from having to prepare 6 hours worth of logo material, which would take about three to five days per hour to prepare for. I like to think that the material covered here is sufficient and does not require an in person appearance from myself. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

Note: The Boot Camp will still happen, only the special Logo day was cancelled.

Tutorials by Gary Priester

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

_{Last Updated January 4, 2000.}

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Logos for the Design Challenged, Part XVIII

Why 2 K?

Where to Begin?

A Logos Boot Camp for the Design Challenged? Maybe Not!

Tutorials by Gary Priester

Logos for the Design Challenged Series

Vector Studio Series

Son of Makeover Maven Series