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Jan
21
On Football and Logo Design
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
We may be Washingtonians here at Magnolia Design, but we’re New Yorkers at heart. So we were very happy to watch Eli Manning and the New York Giants make their way from Wild Card to Super Bowl.
The title game against the Green Bay Packers was a terrific show and evenly matched having to go into overtime. (Only the second time a title game has gone into OT in NFC history!)
But to be fair, the Packers might have won with plays like Drivers’ 90 yard touchdown, had they only played a cleaner game. Time after time, GB were penalized giving NY the advantage arguably less on merit than on egalitarianism. However Manning, to his credit, hasn’t turned over the football in the entire post-season which is particularly amazing since turnovers seemed like a their strategy in the regular season!
And even though the Patriots are 18-0, the Giants have won the last 10 games straight all on the road and came very close to toppling the Patriots’ perfect record in week 17 where better teams prior had failed. So good luck to them.
At any rate, with Super Bowl 42 in two weeks, matching experience vs. determination, it is a good time to mention that in the spring this year, the National Football League will be unveiling their new logo. (Talk about a segue.)
The new NFL logo, more of an update than a redesign, features small but important changes that aren’t likely to upset its fans but will help make a stronger brand.
In short, the logo remains basically the same shape, albeit slightly thinner and taller, the colors darker and richer. The type reflects a more modern taste and resembles the slab-serif font used in the Conference logos, uniting the brands closer together.
The most noticeable change is the reduction of the number of stars on the shield. Merchandisers have surely found it difficult to reproduce all those stars in small formats and the first rule of logo design is scalability. Apparently, according to USA Today, some vendors, without permission, have used fewer stars where applicable on t-shirts and hats.
The stars have been reduced from 25 to 8, representing the eight AFC and NFC divisions. The funny thing is that, after researching, the reason why there were 25 stars in the original logo remains a mystery. Designers could find no reason for 25 stars, says Jaime Weston, director of brand and creative operations. The shield logo was first used around 1940, two decades after the NFL’s founding in 1920.* I think the stars, even the 8 remaining ones are a bit awkward, but its an improvement.
Finally, the placement of the football on the shield is set an an angle and said to more closely mimic that of the Vince Lombardi Trophy which is a positive and logical brand decision.
For a bit of fun, you can see ESPN’s “rejected” logo collection.
* Source: USA Today
Dec
8
Ho, Ho, Homigosh!
Filed Under Internet, Tech | Leave a Comment
I cannot believe it is already December. It is crazy how quickly this year has gone by. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get more blogging done, but thems the breaks. I hope all of you–clients, friends and readers–have a happy and safe holiday.
As any designer knows, sometimes you work with some pretty big files. Moving those files back and forth between clients, designers and printers can be a real chore. At Magnolia Design, we have our own FTP site for clients and vendors so they can upload and download large files. But… sometimes, people aren’t comfortable with FTP or it doesn’t work as easily as we’d all like. That’s why I love DropSend.
DropSend allows you to not only upload large files, but then lets you send the recipient an e-mail with the details on how to retrieve that file, even if they don’t have a DropSend account. What’s even more awesome is that you (the sender) can even see if your file has been picked up. You can upload files through their UI or grab their upload client, available for Windows and Macs.
DropSend is the product of Carsonified, formerly Carson Systems, and it’s not the first product to serve this purpose, but it’s one of the better ones in my view. They have a bunch of price plans (hey, they’re running a business ya know), but they also have a free plan. So if you don’t expect to use it much or if you just use it in emergencies where FTP is too complicated, then DropSend is a gawd-send!
Oct
31
Happy Halloween!
Filed Under Fun | Leave a Comment
At Magnolia Design, we encourage obsolete computer recycling. But even better than recycling is repurposing. And what better way to repurpose an old Mac Classic than to make a Mac-O-Lantern!
Visit the Bad Banana Blog to find out how to make your very own Mac-O-Lantern!
Happy Halloween everyone. Stay safe!
via Apple Geeks
Oct
23
Typography in Two Minutes
Filed Under Type, Videos | Leave a Comment
People who aren’t in the design “biz” (and even some people who are) often think that typography is just pretty fonts on the page. While this is a common misconception that designers are often faced with, it’s not technically wrong. It’s just… complicated.
According to Oxford American Dictionary, the definition of typography is “the art or process of setting and arranging type and printing from them.” Any designer, printer or art director will tell you that there’s a lot more to it. And most times, it concerns not with knowing what to add, but knowing what to leave out. The responsibility is on the designer to be able to communicate the importance of type in graphic design.
If you’ve been hard-pressed to explain what typography is, then you’re in luck! Here is a video that explains, in brief and under 2-minutes, what typography is. It was directed and animated by Vancouver Film School students Boca (aka Marcos Ceravolo) and Ryan Uhrich through the VFS Digital Design program and features excerpts from Ellen Lupton and Jeffrey Keedy.