The leaves and bud (or is it an acorn?) – I’m no expert on trees – in two tones of green are arranged to slightly suggest of a letter Y, but not too obviously so. Combined with the thin and even sans serif the overall feel is perhaps a little generic medical. The letter ‘r’s have some pretty distinctive shoulders (I think that’s what they are called) and no dots over the ‘i’s is unusual.
A logo that seems to hark back to the late seventies, with a bold, even garish colour scheme, a grid like representation of a globe, overlaid with panels rather incongruously throwing in more traditional elements of book and bugles.
The globe and panes combine with the font to create a nostalgic feel, free of the softer swirls, swooshes and treatments of modern logos. I guess not intentional, but the bugles seem to suggest some kind of global postal service.
Overall, it seems unabashed by it’s awkwardness and the choice of Avant Garde Gothic, enhances the retro feel. A bold choice, that certainly makes it stand out. Even if I can’t help thinking it could have a bit part in this video, whilst being accompanied by this tune
Reminds me of an American college with it’s confident and bold lettering, and the choice to eschew the traditional shields and crests in favour of strong graphic device. An intriguing contrast between the very direct ‘B’ and the more involved and maze-like pattern. A pattern that made the Moscow Olympic logo spring to mind up as an association.
The decision to keep it simply a typographic solution then lends itself (maybe even requires) a variety of ideas and approaches. Some examples are given by the agency that worked on the brand – Radley Yeldar
Suprising to find out that Befordshire University is a recently created organisation and not born out the creation of many Polytechnics in the sixties. The logo looks like it has a very clear lineage to that era with it clean abstraction of the letter U and B. It also put me in mind of tulips, though I’m not sure that Bedfordshire has any particular association with them.
Whilst being a strong graphic device, the tulips are not well complimented by the light sans serif font that sits passively next to it.The tulips overpower the text and in the proportions used I can’t help thinking that placing the text beneath the image would have integrated things better. It’s maybe even a little too cool for a University, no matter how go-ahead and exciting; I could easily imagine it as a software developers logo, or on a club night flyer. Interesting basic shapes to build edesigns on though.
Judging by the tops of the lower case n, m and g looks to be using FF Dax with the modification of the lower case e straightened. A fresh face without too much modulation in the strokes – interest instead coming from the way the aforementioned m’s, n’s and g have arcs that finish abruptly at the junction of a vertical stroke.
The castle is simply drawn with some nice details to show light coming from the right. At the bottom is I presume, a representation of the River Trent. The combination of the two window slits in the tower and the river suggest (to me at least), a slightly whimsical face.
A simple vertical line delineates the text and graphic portions of the logo, with either side anchored around it. A neat little separator for a logo that is a confident use of ‘heritage’ imagery with a contemporary typeface.
The Northampton logo has an interesting approach, explained with this diagram from the corporate guidelines.
As you can see an attempt has been made to incorporate a few elements and meanings into the logo, it only really works if the letters function as letters first and foremost. Good idea to incorporate a graphic based obliquely on something important and relevant to the town, but trying to mangle the letters ‘n’ and ‘u’ into a pre-existing shape seems a step too far.
It could be that I’m staying up too late but I see a stylised rabbit somewhere in there. The badge shape is however, a nice variation on the traditional shield, and hints at what could be done with this logo. The ‘u’ shape makes the logo feel unresolved.
On the plus side, I Like the choice of optima as a clean and softer modern font. Tightly spaced but still managing to be fresh and open without trying too hard to be dynamic and aspirational. The decision to set it all in uppercase makes alignment easy negating any awkward whitespace within the word.
A typographic only logo from Abertay University, that uses a slab serif face, Serifa to state the basic information simply, with the kind of modern voice that paradoxically, a 1960s can provide. The modern serif is direct, strong and clear. A clear break with the name and crest based logo the university had previously.
There was a quirky characteristic that I noticed – that on some documents the dots over the i’s are absent yet on the website they are present. Which is the definitive logo is unclear. It seems rather an odd thing to do.
Challenging amount of location information for Strathclyde to include with a specific location followed by a more general one. Aligned to the left, and set in Meta Bold the wordmark has a clearly defined hierarchy and the condesed nature of the typeface helps to keep things tight. The typeface is a very legible and usable display face that has the suggestions of modernity but with a calming relaxed feel.
Quite a lively coat of arms in an unusual and distinctive inverted pentagon shape. There’ lots going on. There are two books, a crown, 3 Cinquefoils ,a Saltire and what appears to an ECG readout. Whilst good fun to find at larger sizes these can lose definition when smaller and the saltire becomes the dominant shape.
The pentagon shape is aligned right and the overall favoured positioning of the logo is to the bottom right of publications where it balances well in that corner.
Overall, a logo that balances the familiar need to allude to heritage with a need to be more dynamic, especially with some original choices about shapes and placement.
Set in a classical uppercase serif, the letters UEA are broken up in an almost stencil like way. The glint/spark completes the cross of the A creating an overall feel of a rather austere and technocratic feel. It reminded me of the NATO identity, and a quick search suggested others. The glint or spark from the logo is permitted to be used as a separate design element described thus
It captures an iconic representation of the creative ‘spark’ or ‘glint’ which epitomises much of our work, whilst also communicating as a mark of excellence.
A method of integrating Faculty and Department names with the logo is also suggested:
Logos with descriptors are made by adding either one, two or three lines of copy to the UEA logo. In order to establish a hierarchy for the descriptor Gotham Medium is always used for the first line, Gotham Book for the second and Gotham Book Italic for the third line.
The choice of Gotham is a good one; it’s a very open and airy font with a confident modernity. When present perhaps the idea is to balance the sharpness of the main logo in this way.
An interesting typographic exercise with negative space the sharp logo is a big contrast with the previous UEA logo, shown below, which evokes a late 60s futuristic vision and was distinctive in it’s simplicity and boldness. Perhaps indicative of the university seeking a repositioning away from it’s 60s roots, the new one strikes me as a touch on the delicate side in comparison.
Similar to the previously reviewed Aston University logo, this modern university firmly breaks with tradition and uses an abstract, dynamic shape to create a signature identity. Also, an echo of Aston, the Napier shape isn’t just randomly picked out, but was originally abstracted from the N of the Napier. An arcane fact and certainly one wouldn’t be aware of without the brand guidelines to reveal it.
Recently rebranded to Edinburgh Napier University from plain Napier University, the triangle is anchored by a gradient on it’s bottom point, and is considered an integral part of the logo. This simple shadow brings some interesting tension to the logo.
The guidelines tell us that Interstate is the chosen font. A modern choice with the angular slices from some ascenders and descenders perhaps a nice echo of the triangle. the large x-height and narrow characters of Interstate help minimise the space required by the logo with the recent addition of Edinburgh to the name.