The recent scandals that are racking Penn State right now have brought up an interesting dilemma of which Buna High High School no longer has to worry about being associated with (other than this blog post and all the past hoopla over copyright infringement and cease and desists that will remain searchable on the innerwebs). Right now, I would imagine any school or athletic association involving young boys that may have been “inspired” to use the Penn State Nittany Lion logo are now (or should be) scrambling to divest themselves of any connection to this brand. Because the Penn State Nittany Lion as a brand, now represents a tarnished, dare I say, trashed brand that will invoke emotions of outrage and scandal for many years to come.

If ever there was a case study involving the value of a brand through the loss of its value through an overnight scandal (albeit one that took over 12 years to come to full light) this is one of the best, or worst as the case may be. For Buna High School’s sake, I’m very glad that they were able to divest themselves of at least the visual attachment to a now tainted (to put it mildly) image and have been able to establish their own, unique identity in their region of high school athletics.

Not that anyone could have had the foresight to have even guessed that something like this might happen to any brand, but it definitely heightens the reality and liability that comes from associating one organizational entity with any other brand that is not within your control. It is exactly the inverse of why most schools that are tempted to “borrow” or be “inspired” by the current good brand image of any other sports-related mascot or brand, in order to benefit from the good design and good image that has been established. The flip-side of that coin, which is now in full-display in regards to Penn State, is that if anything ever does happen to tarnish a brand to that degree, it will also have its residual impact on whatever organization had thought to infringe upon the previous good will that had been created with that brand.

All that is to say, that if any organization chooses to infringe upon another organization’s brand image in order to take advantage of whatever perceived positives there may be, that it has to take the good with the bad. And in this case, the bad is really, really bad. Thankfully, Buna High School does not have to share that bad image with Penn State any longer. Go Cougars!

As a designer who finds much satisfaction in seeing a design I created implemented in a broad-reaching way, we (at least I do) tend to think of a successful identity design as a grasp at immortality–if even on a small scale. But the truth is, that even vaunted design systems by the masters of the craft are remapped and redrawn as time marches on and our grip on the immortal (which was an illusion to begin with) begins to slip. As eternal verities go, there is only one logo that will stand forever, and that is the Logos Himself. It is good to have a right perspective of our place in the eternal scheme of things. The best that we might hope for design-wise, is that like Saul, we might sever the silver cord before our work is re-imagined by a bunch of snot-faced little brats that are still in diapers.

This post is actually based on a comment I was going to post on a good article (if incomplete on the eulogies) called Love Thy Logo by Bill Gardner at RockPaperInk. In the article Bill offers his thoughts about the post-mortem redesigns of the iconic works of the immortal Saul Bass. Since I don’t much like using Facebook-powered comment fields very much, I opted to just post in my own blog instead (which doesn’t use FB comments) thank you very much.

Since I don’t expect everyone who visits my blog to know who Saul Bass was, if the collection of logos above doesn’t give you an idea, or if you’d like to learn more, then some good jumping-point pages to learn more about Saul and his design influence are here, here and here.

We’ve been applying the finishing touches on a branding overhaul that Whitestone Design Werks created for JEB Commerce which we announced last September. In that post, our intent (both JEB Commerce and WDW) was to highlight the whole process step by step for the benefit of other businesses considering what it would take to re-invent their identity and infuse their brand with a new fresh, life. Well, the best-laid plans of mice and men…

As a consolation, we are now providing highlights of the new identity system and how it has been applied across the board to all of the collateral pieces needed for conducting a successful business. After showing what was originally being used by JEB Commerce after the jump, we’ll show the new identity living and breathing in all of it’s new environments.

Here is the original JEB Commerce logo as it appeared on their old website…

…and the new JEB Commerce logo.

And here is the new identity applied to the new website along with new supporting graphics. WDW also provided design and production for the new JEB Commerce Website and Blog.

JEB Commerce stationary system.

Here’s an example of the identity applied to the Twitter background for JEB Commerce on Twitter.

And Whitestone Design Werks also supplied portrait photography for the JEB website and applied the identity to their profile picture for their main Facebook page.

There were many other items that we haven’t included here and a few things that are still in the pipeline, but this should give you an idea of a basic minimum of elements for logo application for any business’ identity system. As you can see, an identity system is more than just a logo.

The bottom-line is that JEB Commerce and Jamie Birch in particular, went from exploring a low-priced, crowd-sourced solution that seemed very affordable, but would have only resulted in an EPS file that they would have then had to have supplied to vendors, web developers and whatever other service providers would have been necessary to produce all the necessary elements.

Like many small businesses just starting out armed with a cheap or free logo file, with the many different vendors responsible for different applications of the logo, along with the varied interpretations of design, would have guaranteed a mish-mash of inconsistent logo application across the board—not to mention the overall poor quality of logo designs that were to be chosen from in the first place. It may have been cheap, but they would have paid dearly in the lost opportunity to shine and gain the respect and trust of both their current and potential clients with a well-crafted identity system—wasting their hard work in building the JEB brand over the past few years.

As a business just starting out, you may not have realized what all was involved and how important your identity was, but now that you are on the cusp of expanding into new territories or getting ready to take your business into the next level of competitiveness and effectiveness, now is the time to seriously consider taking advantage of this time to invest in and re-invent your identity to reflect the new maturity and savvy of your brand. You’re playing with the big-boys now and its time to start looking like it.

For next week, we’ll post some of the other designs explored for the new JEB Commerce identity and hopefully shed a little light on the creation process itself.

I’m very excited to see the launch of The Napa Valley Marriott’s redesigned lobby and restaurant that they have name VINeleven next week. Whitestone Design Werks is proud to have been chosen to design the new identity that will be used throughout the hotel and restaurant. Their official “Release Party” is an invite affair to be held on Friday, May 6.

Looking forward to getting down there and will posts pics of the logo in the live environment along with a little bit of the story behind the design.

If you get a chance to visit Napa Valley soon, be sure to drop in and enjoy a taste of the fruits of Napa Valley.

Just came across this article by Steven Heller on AIGA’s site: Rights, Wrongs and the Law: An Interview with Frank Martinez, Esq. for those coming to this site searching for more information of copyright law. While this doesn’t pertain per se to the issue of smaller schools “borrowing” larger school’s better designed and more familiar mascot artwork, it does help to understand the whole concept of what is appropriate to appropriate when the material in question is copyrighted.

The article addresses the increasing challenges that design scholars and historians are having trying to put together books on the history of design when they have to obtain usage rights but are facing increased fees for those rights. If the budget is not there, how will design history be sufficiently documented when they can’t even show what they are writing about.

In a nutshell:

The doctrine of fair use is alive and well. Generally speaking, a use of a copyrighted work will be deemed a fair use when the benefit to the public outweighs the private right of the author or copyright owner. However, it is important to remember that fair use is an exception or defense to the protections embodied in copyright law; fair use is not a right or an absolute shield that creates a general immunization against copyright suitupon invocation by a scholar. The fair use guidelines are arbitrary, they have gained what definition they possess by reason of litigation and they are not embodied in the copyright statute

I encourage you to check out the whole article.

Just thought I’d post a quick link to a New York Times article that ran today that outlines the plight of high schools across the country that are facing the legal issues of trademark infringement with the colleges and universities that they have “borrowed” for their own mascot logos. Buna High School and Penn State are mentioned very briefly in passing, but it’s resulted in an increase of searches reaching the original Buna Trademark Infringement article I posted back in June.

Colleges Tell High Schools Logos Are Off Limits

I think the bottom-line is that it’s easy to think of the big schools as the “bullies” picking on these poor little ol’ high schools who just want to have a decent mascot to showcase their school pride, but it highlights the issue of how valuable an identity can be to an organization that has invested resources, both financial and the physical effort of building a winning sports program that elevates the status of that mascot identity and how important it is to protect that investment from being trivialized by overuse by other organizations that haven’t made that same investment.

Just like any corporation, these colleges and universities have earned the right to reap the benefits that a popular mascot brings to a school through the merchandising of all the possible items that a mascot logo can be applied to. It’s not too different than if someone tried to list Stanford or Harvard on their résumé or C.V. when they only went to a local junior college, or state college but they would like to reap the benefits of what a more “prestigious” school would bring without having to make the same financial and academic commitments that it takes.

Are these “poor little ‘ol high schools” helpless if they want to have a dynamic-looking mascot that captures the spirit and pride that they are trying to instill into their student bodies? No, there is a plethora of design resources available to any high school or school district, but the sad reality is that for the most part, these schools and districts have no idea how to valuate their need for a good mascot identity and rarely (if ever) budget accordingly the necessary funds to enlist the services of a talented designer or agency and are then shocked when they do have to scramble to seek out pricing for a new logo in the face of a cease and desist letter.

The first instinct is to do a hasty Google search of their particular mascot only to realize that all the good versions already belong to another college or university or if it is free clip art, it is so hokey that they would be ashamed to have on any uniform or helmet (that’s your first hint of the value of a good design). Usually the second option is to quickly organize a “logo design contest” for the students in the art or graphic design departments. While there is a chance that a particular school may have a budding talent in their midst that may be able to hit a home run with a winning design that everyone falls in love with (I’m still trying to get my old high school to consider a design I came up with back when I went), but that would be the rare exception rather than the rule. The reality is usually the best submitted designs are not much better than the cheesy free clip art that everyone would be embarrassed to wear.

So, what to do? While I wouldn’t mind taking in a lot of mascot design work (contact me at (208) 640-0022 or go to my Contact page) if you wanted to keep it local, search for a good design firm or designer in your area. I would use the keywords “identity design” rather than just “logo design” as with just “logo design” you will be absolutely overwhelmed with the amount of options to wade through and try to figure out who’s legitimate, who’s affordable and what do you actually get when you purchase a design.

A big thing to consider is most so-called logo design sites will only get you a logo in maybe two file formats. You’re on your own if you want to know how to use the files and apply it to all the items that need to be branded. That is why you want to search for identity design. Identity takes into consideration the whole package, not just the actual logo or mark design. An identity designer will help you apply the design to all your needs as well as probably come up with ideas you may never have thought of. The identity designer will also have a more comprehensive understanding of the whole branding process and how to think through those issues in applying a well-thought out mascot design. For instance, there are many different applications of a typical logo that most people don’t realize. There is at a minimum at least of a positive version and reversed version to go on different backgrounds in addition to 4-color, 2-color and 1-color applications. Many times there are horizontal as well as vertical versions to be placed in different layout situations. Then there are the different sizes of each versions—usually at least three sizes (small, medium and large) and those sizes have to apply to the positive and reversed, horizontal and vertical versions of the design. Then you also have print versions and on screen versions. It is not uncommon to have between 30 and 50 and sometimes into the hundreds of different possible iterations of the logo for all possible applications.

Usually, just like a corporate identity, a college or university will also have a graphic or style usage guide produced that shows how the logos are to be applied and which logos to use in different situations. All of this takes time and resources and can quickly add up. While a typical high school dealing with constantly shrinking budgets may just find that scale of investment impossible, it should at least factor in a realistic budget for an identity solution on the lowest end of between $1,500 to $2,500. More comprehensive solutions will be $5,000 and up. But a good designer or design firm should be able to discuss what your absolute minimal needs are and be able to work within your budget. While there are many places that offer $500 logos (and even less), beware of what they actually promise to deliver, because you will most likely be left with just a JPEG and an EPS version of one logo design and you will be at the mercy of whatever interpretation of how to use the files that your vendors will invariably come up with if not directed correctly.

Once any school goes through this process, they will begin to realize why the big schools place such a premium on the value of their trademarked identities and after any school has put that much effort into their new school mascot and then they see another school “borrow” their mascot design without going through the same financial commitment to the process, they’ll appreciate why the big schools aggressively protect the use of their trademarked designs. At the NCAA university level, an identity design budget will typically fall in the range of between $10,000 and $20,000 and can easily exceed $50,000 for larger schools with many different program, print and signage applications. They’ll also appreciate why “borrowing” is actually “stealing” when they realize that someone else is using something that cost them nothing (further eroding the perception of the value of good design) and benefitting from the substantial investment of someone else. That goes even beyond lying about where you went to school on your résumé to claiming to be someone else entirely and being hired for their accomplishments and not yours.

And finally, the pride of ownership of your school’s own, unique identity is priceless. Buna High School can now be so much more proud of their own cougar than the “lifted” Nittany Lion they were using for years knowing that they are the only school in the country with that logo. Not even Penn State can say that.

I’ll leave the issue of whether a high school should go through the effort of trademarking their own mascot like the big schools for a future post.

After experiencing tremendous growth and unparalleled success as a dynamic start-up in the affiliate marketing management industry, JEB Commerce – Affiliate Program Manangement realized their logo, while professional looking, was more fitting for a business in its infancy than the maturing powerhouse it was becoming and the respected leader in their industry they were aiming to attain. Even as a relatively new player, they had already amassed an impressive client list that included brands like: Elance, Ligonier Ministries, philosphy, OfficeFrog to name just a few as well as successful experience working with brands such as Dean & Deluca and Zappos.com.

After trying an online crowd-sourcing logo design solution and being less-than-impressed with the submissions, JEB Commerce decided to approach Whitestone Design Werks to come up with a design for a new logo in order to refresh and reposition their brand. What Jamie Birch, owner of JEB Commerce thought was a simple request to design a logo, turned into an education about the difference between “just a logo” and what a well-thought out and designed identity system was and how it was crucial for developing JEB Commerce’s position as not just a well-respected brand but an authoritative, leading brand in their space.

After lamenting to Jamie (more like whining—until Jamie told me to man up) about how common a misunderstanding it is among small to medium-sized business owners about the fact that while a simple logo does become an identity by default, it is much different to have a logo deliberately designed to be applied into an identity system than to just have a logo that has been designed in a white box that you then take to a printer, web developer or sign fabricator and allow them to interpret how it is applied based upon their whims (and questionable design abilities).

After arriving at an epiphany we hit upon the idea that documenting this process would be a helpful exercise to help other small business owners understand some of the issues involved with facing the maturing of their business and its growth, but recognizing that its now time to put some “big boy (or girl) pants (pant suit)” on, as it were, and take the opportunity to invest in their identity to help elevate their brand position in order to attain their business’ ultimate goals.

In the coming weeks, Jamie and I will be highlighting the process of going through a complete identity design overhaul for JEB Commerce. I will be posting the progress and will for the first time, grant access to what is normally only a client accessible area to the general public in order to view the comps online and even provide feedback in the process. However, we will reserve the right to ignore said feedback if we disagree.

Jamie, for his part in the process, will also be posting to the JEB Commerce blog with his thoughts and updates of the process along the way in order to help educate the multitudes of Affiliates that work with and follow JEB Commerce.

So, stay tuned for what I hope will be an educational process that just might open your eyes to the value of investing in a true identity system that has been thought-through and designed to communicate the essence of your brand and then can be applied to all your points of contact with your customers thereby elevating your brand to the level of respect and authority you have earned over the years, but are being held back by an immature identity.

Buna H.S. infringing on Penn State Nittany Lions logo on their helmets

Like many high schools with little budget and no clue as to what institutes true trademark infringement, Buna High School in Buna, Texas had been “assured” by a local sportswear vendor that using this cool cougar image would be perfect and different enough than Penn State’s Nittany Lion logo that they would be safe in using it. Not sure what alternate universe this sportswear vendor was in when they were viewing the Nittany Lions’ logo because it was a rip-off all the way to the same color, but I’m sure they felt some sense of protection in the relative obscurity of being a small high school in the middle of Texas (actually they’re closer to the coast, northeast of Houston) that no one would notice that they were using someone else’s registered trademark for their school mascot. But…someone did, and that someone notified The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) in Atlanta, GA, who just happens to manage the licensing of trademarked merchandise for many high-profile NCAA schools and is also charged with enforcing the protection of the trademarked Nittany Lions logo of Penn State in particular. A curt Cease and Desist letter was promptly sent to the small high school with the requirement that they immediately remove the logo from all their uniforms, paint over walls with the logo and stop using the logo for any other printed material or clothing.

After recovering from the initial shock and revelation of being evil-doing lawbreakers without even realizing it, Buna H.S. staff was faced with a brief phase-out period and scrambled to find a replacement image for their cougar mascot logo in time to have decals printed for next seasons’ helmets as well as walls and field painted and new t-shirts. Not knowing where to turn or who to trust now, they searched for the term, “cougar logo design” and started calling design firms of the more promising designs that they could find contact links for. One of those calls was to Whitestone Design Werks, and while the Buna ISD staff were initially surprised at the typical cost of producing a custom-designed logo, Russell Heistuman, the owner, (that’s me) took pity on their situation and low budget requirements and with dreams of Friday Night Lights, and agreed to modify an existing design to become the new mascot logo for the Buna High School Cougars.

Well, once I got into the project, I couldn’t help but take it much further than just an adaptation of an existing design (I had my own clientele to protect as well). The final design was enthusiastically received by the Buna staff, but they were still cautious about whether or not they were in compliance with the original cease and desist letter regarding the venerable Penn State logo infringement. Once CLC had reviewed the new design and even submitted it to Penn State for their approval too, they were satisfied that the new design was different enough as to not cause any confusion as to whether they were using any derivative version of the original infringed version (in other words: It was OK!).

So now we’re in the process of applying the design to vehicle graphics, painting on walls and applying to custom designs for shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and other items using the awesome site of Prep Sportswear. And now, Buna Independent School District is the proud owner of a mascot logo that no other school has and they are free to register it as a trademark and have for their very own…and even serve up a Cease and Desist letter of their own someday if some other upstart high school team decides to hijack their Cougar logo.

I got a pleasant surprise when I went to MyFonts.com a couple of days ago and saw the new sneak peak at the beta version redesign. What I once thought was my little secret will now be completely out of the bag. No longer will other designers be put off by the almost amateurish appearance of the old site this is replacing. MyFonts was one of those sites whose functionality more than made up for its lack of design sophistication. But I always felt if there was any site that deserved a better site design, MyFonts was it. And now it has one. And it is several orders of magnitude in both the design as well as the functionality.

One of the features I loved was the ability to save your own albums of font designs with various text samples. The old site was frustrating in that you  had to go through a rather convoluted and hidden series of pages to even view your own albums let alone set a new one up. And then, when you wanted to add a font to an album, it would only let you add it to the “selected” album. You’d have to go back to your album page and change the selection. Now you have the ability to add to any previous album and even better, you can also create them much quicker without having to go through the old maze. You can do it from any font sample now with a very slick AJAX interface.

Another great feature that has been beefed up is the “WhatTheFont” feature. This is a great tool to identify an obscure typeface that you need to match. I have had good success with the old version but am even more impressed with the updated feature. You can either upload a graphic or point it to a URL of an image and it will then process the image and try to break it down into separate characters (which can be tricky for hand-written script style fonts) and then shows you what it thought was the best letter choice for each shape. Then you can enter in the correct character if there is any that are mismatched. It will then go through its database of fonts and show you a list of potential matches. In the new version, your original characters that you uploaded will stay stationary on the right as you scroll down through the list, so you always have a visual to compare the suggested fonts to. Very slick and very effective.

And then finally, is the overall design. I hate to rag on others’ designs in public, but the old design was not even good for 1998. It just never looked like it was designed by someone who truly appreciated fonts. But, it was mostly functional if you were willing to poke through all the navigation that was needed to enjoy its features. The functional reward definitely outweighed the negative of the design. And like I hinted at earlier, I actually looked at it for a long time as a designer’s advantage because I was hoping that others would be put off by the design and not realize what a great site it was and thereby giving me some sort of creative advantage. Shame on me, I know. But the new design more than atones for the old site’s aesthetic transgressions.

With all that said, not everyone is happy with the changes as is evidenced by some of the comments on the Feedback forum but I know from experience that will always be the price of moving forward. I’m trusting that the MyFonts team is listening to the criticisms with a grain of salt. I want to encourage the team to a job well done and wish them success in ironing out any final issues and getting the new design live. Kudos MyFonts! Would love to hear more about the process involved.

I still have several things to finish on it. In addition to rewriting a lot of the copy (I’m always on the look out for good copywriters!), I will be implementing more jquery effects on the frontpage main image area. I am also working on new CSS for the form on the Contact Us page and will be applying the design to a WordPress theme and launching a dedicated blog for WDWerks. Currently, the blog link directs to this site but that will change soon.

Would enjoy getting anybody’s thoughts or feedback on it. And definitely let me know if you see any problems with it.