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.

In light of Starbucks choosing to update their logo on their cups for their 40th anniversary by streamlining and isolating the mark and ditching the name to join the ranks of iconic brands Nike and Apple. Rather than get angry, I thought I would give it my (tongue firmly in cheek) take on what I think would be the next logical evolution of the iconic brandmark.

Original image from Starbucks

My take on the change as a designer, I think I would have explored a containing ring around the mark, and maybe even tried experimenting with size and orientation (which I would assume was part of their internal process), but I take my hat off to them for making a gutsy decision to take the next step and elevate the brand above being just about “coffee”. I think that removing the concentric ring, takes it out of the crest-style and negates the need to let it stand in isolation. I think they could have had a little more fun with it. But I also understand their desire to not mess too much more with the equity in the existing imagery. Would love to see the stages of exploration that they went through to arrive at their final design.

My take on adding concentric ring outside logo. Just had to see what it would look like

Fellow designers, don’t be too critical of my execution, this was just meant to be a quick, five-minute diversion that like all jobs that take three times longer than planned, turned out to take 15 minutes. So, there are nuances of curves that I would normally take more pains to smooth, etc. Also, the fact that by focusing on just the face, I realize that several other key elements to establishing the iconography are missing, notably the star-crown, hair and mermaidish apparitions of the siren. In hindsight, and if I had the time to indulge, I would have added at least two other steps in the evolutionary chain showing a more gradual reduction. The goal here was getting it to it’s minimal essence—actually, more like past it.

I think I’ll go put another pot of coffee on. And, get back to werk.

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 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.

Well, I wanted to whet the appetites of anybody who may have visited the site recently and been disappointed with the lacking portfolio that there are better things to come. So, I thought I would throw a little bone and post a screen shot of the new site as it currently stands. Now I know that someone might think that its easy to post a Photoshop comp of a non-functional site, but you’ll just have to trust me that this is the real deal. My target goal is to get this finished by this weekend and have it up and running by Monday, 11/17. It will also involve moving the site from its current hosting service to Media Temple as well as all the email server configuration, and WordPress setup, etc., so that’s a tall order, but doable.

So, without further ado…