Great job on the logo. I realize you posted this a while back and perhaps I overlooked a comment on this question: Why the dot before the CH?

Thanks!
Josh

Or are all the best teachers kept away from young minds, to stay fresh and alert…?!

To answer your question, I think memorability is more important than personal interpretation. Will a quick glance remind the viewer of the product or service represented? There can be exceptions, because of previous associations with the symbol — the swastika for instance.

Good question.

I have recently been reading your book which is very insightful and useful, thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. I often read books and interviews by the design masters of the 20th Century (Paul Rand, Milton Glaser etc.) and it’s interesting to see the differences in each designer’s approach when it comes to dealing with clients. Rand would only ever show one logo to his client for example… Very brave.

Anyway I like the GoTea.ch logo, very well done. The proportions of the ladder are well balanced and the varying line weight is a nice touch. The concept is not an obvious one to go for, which I agree gives it more strength and uniqueness. I’m not sure if anyone else has made the observation but I find it also resembles a (fairly handsome) bookcase, which obviously has connotations with knowledge and study.

I like it when a logo can have multiple meanings (intentional or not). But do you find a logo that can be easily interpreted in different ways hinders the desired message / concept of the logo? When designing I often sway towards leaving my logo open to different (but relevant) interpretations, however since reading your book I’m questioning whether this is actually a bit of a trap that dilutes the main concept.

Thanks again for your contributions to design.

I just happened to open their site gotea.ch and saw they have used a colored version of the logo on a dark colored background….which I thought was just not right. Logo is not visible too much – let alone readable!

I don’t know if you think the same way….Cheers!

I’ve yet to design a complete typeface, but I’ve created a range of characters for use in different wordmarks (so a much smaller effort overall). To answer your latter questions, yes, I’ve worked on guidelines, and often discuss messaging, meaning, etc.

Bare with me, I do have just a few questions/comments as I’m excited to discover your website.

My first comment would be that it would be good to see the process once you’ve taken your work in adobe illustrator (or whatever vector program you use.) This process is what usually takes me the longest and I would be very interested to see your process. All the different versions that you go through, how you weed them down to the final 5 etc…

Another comment in creating the logo in a vector program, for example, with the Berthier logo that you’ve done it looks like you’ve started with Gotham and severely streamlined and adapted it to fit your brief, which I think you’ve done a really good job by the way (if this isn’t the case, than excuse me.) In any case, it would have been good to see some of that process working in Illustrator where you probably spent a good deal of time in getting it right.

Another question I had, do you ever draw a typeface completely from scratch? I’d be very curious to see this process as well as I’ve not often done typefaces completely from scratch as that isn’t my strength. I usually search for days sometimes looking for the right one that I had in mind and adapt it to meet my needs or what I already drew in pencil. If you do draw them from scratch it would be really good to see that process as well where this is where a lot of people get stuck

And just one final question, and excuse me if the answer already exists on your site as I haven’t looked through it completely. When asked to do a new logo for a client, do you also work on the other aspects of what makes a brand? i.e. do you give them colour and brand guidelines, imagery/graphics, possible messaging that compliment the logo? Or even what their first campaign (if it applies) could be? Do you also usually talk about the philosophy or meaning behind new brand that you’ve created for the client?

Sorry I know that’s a lot of questions.
Anyway, I enjoyed your site and will continue to follow it.

Kind Regards,
Stephen,
Montpellier, France

And, about this, I thought the narrowing rungs implied movement, as in the optical distortion that occurs with every moving object. In this case, if you move upwards fast enough the bottom rungs would appear thicker.

Movement also has a better connotation than a pyramid in this case *wink*.