Welcome for 2011, and the first assignment

Welcome to the Blog for the Intermediate Digital darkroom class: Art & Advertising.

For the next class (Thurs), I want you to have ready, at the beginning of class, two things:

1. Create a blog post, on this blog, about a logo design you think is particularly good. Include an image of the logo. Be prepared to answer the question: why do you think this logo is a good design? Be sure to touch on at least these three areas:

a) color
b) font
c) imagery (if imagery is used)

Explain the emotional or psychological qualities that are conveyed by the formal choices in these areas. For example, if the font uses a bright, vibrant color, is it being used to convey a sense of excitement? Energy? What are the company's qualities that are being cued by the formal choices?

2. After having read the three articles posted below, type out and print a page of answers to the following questions:

In response to the Obama 'O' logo article: Why were the designers so concerned about having standards and consistency around the reproductions of the logo? What would the dangers have been if the logo seemed too "branded" or "slick"? Make a list of the specific qualities or emotions you think the logo evokes (or intends to evoke), and pair each quality with a design element (for example, one emotion it intends to evoke is "patriotism," and it does this by incorporating the colors red, white, and blue).

In response to the Pepsi articles: Do you agree with the designer that the new logo "brings humanity back" to the Pepsi? What do you think he means by that? What design choices were made to make the logo seem more "adventurous" and "youthful"? Do you think the design succeeds in those categories? What are the emotional qualities of the new font choice? Why is changing a logo so costly?

Here are the articles:

The 'O' in Obama

What went into the Updated Pepsi Logo

Thoughts about Pepsi

That last post is on a site, logodesignlove, that has some terrific resources, for example:

Links to free vector files for logos

A list of logo design resources

And here's a link to "Merchants of Cool," if you ever want to revisit it, or dig info some further research/supporting materials on it:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/

Lastly, you can download the syllabus here:
http://www.box.net/shared/h4dyqkuea6