"Comic Book lettering that I love"

I release that comic book font is a no-no but I have to admit that this was my first and most memorable exposure to typography, especially decorative type.  One decorative style type used to create one of the most enduring (according to me) comic book character's logo can be found at the following: http://www.aquamanshrine.com/2009/06/aquaman-logos.html and seen below: 

Yes, I realize that it is for Aquaman and he has been lampooned in the media as being the joke of the superhero community because he "talks to fish".  to a kid who could not swim and wanted to he was the greatest!  Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow all had talents/abilities a young middle class boy could not readily aquire (the ability to fly, access to millions of dollars, a green power ring and little blue friends and a bow and arrow (parents frowned on weapons).

So, yes I am an Aquaman fan and I love his logo.....

"Some of the most controversial magazne covers of all time..."

While I was researching editorial covers for project three, I came across the link http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/09/the-most-controversial-magazine-covers-of-all-time/ and was amazed at what they thought was controversial...

The LeBron and Gisele cover is supposed to be controversial because of the underlying racial connotations related the violent black man and King Kong deal (don't quite see that but could see the whole mandingo fantasy working here though).

Clinton's cover, because its a crotch shot, taa daa!!!!!

These two I'm struggling with.  Demi's cover is very beautiful in its depiction of motherhood (I choose to say this instead of womanhood because bearing children does not denote a woman's worth she is a woman regardless of having children or not...I am now off my soapbox).  As for the KD Lang and Cindy Crawford cover, I wanted to be in KD's place (envy plan and simple).


These final two are, yeah, controversial... The Economist cover is wrong, funny as hell, but tragically wrong.  The Rolling Stone cover is controversial because it has Yoko in it.

"Editorial Cover Designs"

Project 3 deals with designing a cover (using primarily type) for a special edition of a weekly insert for a newspaper and we were charged with finding good examples of magazine covers illustrating this.  So here goes:

1)How Magazine 25th Anniversary Issue

2) Mixtapes Magazine Mixtape Awards issue

3) Grapik Magazine



4) Web Designer and Black Enterprise Magazines



5)



6) Ebony and Spin Magazine - (sorry for the use of a hyphen when an em dash was called for) These are not really good examples of type driven editorial covers but these two used Marvin Gaye and Prince. You can't really go wrong with having MR "Let's Get it on" and MR "Erotic City" on your cover...

 7)Communication Arts and New York Magazines- These are covers that did not appeal to me but I felt the need to include them.

"AN AMAZING SIGNATURE OF AN AMAZING DESIGNER"

Frederick G. Cooper (1883 - 1962), aka F.G. Cooper, was one of America's foremost illustrators in the first quarter of the twentieth century.  Designing pictorials and covers for Life magazine and numerous other periodicals of that era as well as WWI posters. He is one of the most recent illustrators to have influenced other designers to creat a typeface based on his writing style. Specifically, Oswald "Oz" Cooper's (1879-1947) Copper Black.

A Sample of FG Cooper's lettering style producted some time between 1914-1918.

A sample of Oz Cooper's Cooper black designed in 1922.  Its hard not say that one FG did not influence Oz.

Sadly, there is very little printed material about the life of FG Cooper.  A Google search of him will only produce, The Lettering and Graphic Design of F.G. Cooper  by Leslie Cabarga.

A great book filled with numerous sample of his work.

A few more pieces of FG Cooper's work.  His signature is a great example of wordmark logo.

"RECOGNIZING LOGOS V. READING LOGOS"

I just recently purchased "The Mark of Excellence -the History of Taxonomy of Trademarks" and the author, Per Mollerup stated, people recognize trademarks, but do not read them.  This shocked me until he explained some very well known trademarks and what they mean.

The first was Coca Cola:

This tradmark was designed to tell the customer of the two main ingredients in it, Coca leaves and Cola nuts.

The second was Porsche:

This trademark is made up of the coat of arms of Stuttgart, Germany where the car is made and the name Porsche superimposed over it.

The third is IKEA:

This trademark stands for the intials of it's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, and his place of birth, Elmtaryd Aguunnaryd 

Amazing what can be learned when "read" a trademark as opposed to just recognizing it.

"More Wordmark Research"

After our class review of wordmark research examples submitted by members of the class and the resulting coversation that ensued about what a true wordmark is I lucked upon this web article entitled "The 10 Best Wordmark Logos of All Time". 

The following logos made the list, but in seeing some of them are they truly wordmarks?  Here at the 10 wordmark logos:

10. VISA

9. CRAFTSMAN

 8. DISNEY

7. FERRARI

6. XEROX

 5. MET LIFE

 4. CANON

 3. CITI

 2. FED EX

1. COCA COLA

The link for this article is : http://breezycreativedesign.com/2010/02/26/10-best-wordmark-logos-of-all-time/

"Wordmark Research"

Here are three corporate logos that have been significant in my life in some form or another;