This is definitely not Julie Peters’ going away ARVO
FROM THE VAULT: April 17, 2015
Looks like the armchair design critics of the Internet are at it again. Nary an unemployed blogger or art school undergrad hasn’t weighed in on Hillary Clinton’s just unveiled presidential campaign logo. Economic, foreign policy and social policy platform ideas be damned. WHY is the arrow in her logo RED and WHY OH WHY is it pointing RIGHT!?
But this got us thinking. If logo design is so important, and so powerful, to identifying the chief executive of the free world, shouldn’t branding executives have their own, too? We asked ours—Jim, Sven, Holmfridur, Kari, Enshalla, Mark and Doug—to design their identities…and provide supporting rationale.
MARK
Mark’s traveling today, but he was kind enough to text us his design rationale:
“Hi here’s my logo ok later.”
HOLMFRIDUR & SVEN
“Inspired by the inspiring white on white on white on white starkness of our office, we crafted a simple white box. With its white color and sharp, angular corners, it’s both warm and welcoming. It also symbolizes the vast wasteland emptiness of American culture and cuisine…and the exact serving size of a typical Icelandic breakfast.”
“I love it. It’s gorgeous. And super expressive.”
KARI & ENSHALLA
“OK, moving on to slide #187. Now that we’ve reviewed our logo's pillars, you have a better understanding of why we drew a Venn diagram. We all know that clients don’t care about design. They pay us for strategy. Without it, design’s just just a bunch of squiggles and doodles. Enshalla, now that I’ve talked for five hours straight, do you have anything you’d like to add?”
“I graduated from Harvard business school. I don’t draw stupid shit for a living. That’s not my value add.”
JIM
“Umm, I was trying to draw a picture of my favorite things. Bicycle tires! Bicycle tires! But then my pen ran out of ink before I could draw the spokes. Yeah, that’s what happened. Malozzi, can you spruce this up?”
“Spruce it up? I’ll take that down.”
DOUG
“Yeah hi, sorry, this is Beth. Doug’s not allowed to design his own logo.”
“Design my own logo? No way! That sounds awesome. I will make something super rad and totally badass.”
“No, you’re not making something super rad and totally badass. We have a lot of Cadillac work to do. And stop drumming on your desk!”
“It can totally look like a mash-up of the Kiss logo and drum sticks whacking away on the snare and a bloodied hockey player.”
“Do I need to close your office door like I do every day and yell at you for eight hours? Besides, you’d want 900 hours of Ju and Henri’s time. And your logo would end up being a big “D” in Helvetica anyway.”
“Fuck yeah, a big Helvetica D. That sounds badass.”
OK, well that’s a wrap on ARVO for this week. Nothing else to share or talk about. Especially not the fact that today is Julie Peters’ last day. Or that next Monday we won’t be greeted by her 100 watt smile and that super smelly boot she’s been wearing, but by an empty desk scattered with a few random tumbleweeds of American, Gogo, Country, Pitney Bowes and IFF PowerPoint decks. We’re not going to miss her. Her professionalism. Her friendship. Her GSDing. Her holiday party dancing. Her let’s just get one glass of wine after working. Her overall, unreplaceable awesomeness. And we’re certainly not going to raise her retired jersey to the FutureBrand rafters tonight at Hudson Malone (218 E. 53rd Street) at 5:30pm sharp.
We will definitely do none of these things. Because we’re definitely in denial. And because we definitely don’t want to say goodbye. But hey, the drinks are free. So we’ll probably show up. Especially Kris Pelletier. That guy's to free drinks what Tom Li is to swag t-shirts.