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<title>Design Awareness LG #113</title>
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<h1>Design Awareness</h1>
<p id="by"><b>By <A HREF="../authors/seymour.html">Mark Seymour</A></b></p>
<p>
<h3>Another bout of logorrhea</h3>
<p>Snow is no longer falling outside my window and it's officially
Spring, so a man's thoughts naturally turn to a new pair of blue
jeans. (For the purposes of this column, anyway.) To celebrate,
we'll create one or two logos for a new blue jeans manufacturer
called <em>Pants On Fire</em>.</p>
<p>But first let's examine a common household product whose logo
has recently undergone a redesign, and analyze the change.</p>
<p>Cooking for oneself, you sometimes end up reaching for a can of
something. Here's a list of <a href=
"http://www.hormel.com/home.asp">Hormel</a> products, with their
industry classifications, some of which might be in your
cupboard:</p>
<p><b>Deli</b><br>
DI LUSSO™ Deli Products<br>
HORMEL™ Snack Size Deli Meats & Cheese<br>
HORMEL® Deli Beef<br>
HORMEL® Deli Dry Sausage<br>
HORMEL® Deli Ham<br>
HORMEL® Deli Turkey<br>
HORMEL® Party Trays<br>
<br>
<b>Ethnic</b><br>
BUFALO® Authentic Mexican Products<br>
CARAPELLI® Olive Oils<br>
CHI-CHI'S® Mexican Products<br>
DONA MARIA® Authentic Mexican Products<br>
HERDEZ® Authentic Mexican Products<br>
HOUSE OF TSANG® Asian Sauces and Oils<br>
MARRAKESH EXPRESS® Mediterranean Products<br>
PATAK'S® Indian Products<br>
PELOPONNESE® Mediterranean Products<br>
<br>
<b>Pantry</b><br>
DINTY MOORE® Products<br>
HERB-OX® Bouillon<br>
HORMEL® Bacon Toppings<br>
HORMEL® Chili<br>
HORMEL® Chunk Meats<br>
HORMEL® KID'S KITCHEN® Microwave Meals<br>
HORMEL® Microwave Meals and Soups<br>
MARY KITCHEN® Hash<br>
SPAM® Family of Products<br>
STAGG® Chili<br>
<br>
<b>Refrigerated</b><br>
CURE 81® Ham<br>
HORMEL® ALWAYS TENDER® Flavored Pork, Beef, Chicken &
Turkey<br>
HORMEL® Bacon<br>
HORMEL® Fully Cooked Entrees<br>
HORMEL® OLD SMOKEHOUSE™ Summer Sausage<br>
HORMEL® Pepperoni<br>
HORMEL® WRANGLERS® Franks<br>
JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE®<br>
LIGHT & LEAN® Premium Luncheon Meat<br>
LITTLE SIZZLERS® Pork Sausage</p>
<p>Besides showing how acquiring companies over the years may stick
you with brand names that outlive their time (though I'm sure there
are food manufacturers who would kill to own SPAM), this list also
illustrates the dilemma frequently confronted by designers and
their clients: so many logos, so little money...</p>
<p>The list of 'ethnic' foods also shows how you may have to deal
with cultural sensibilities when designing a suite of logos. For
instance, DONA MARIA loses something in the translation when it
doesn't carry the enya, that little squiggle over the 'n' in <em>Doña</em>,
which changes it from 'Donna' to 'Donya', which means something
entirely different. While Bufalo with one F means the same in
Spanish as the word does in English with two Fs, it will look odd
if the can isn't in the ethnic food aisle. And "Marrakesh Express"
obviously didn't mean the same thing to the Hormel people when they
bought or developed the brand as it did to those of us who lived
through a time when you took that train (there was even a <a href=
"http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/crosby_stills_nash/marrakesh_express.html">
song</a> about it) in order to purchase large quantities of a
processed agricultural product that Hormel can't legally
sell...</p>
<p>But we're going to look at just one Hormel product line:
<i>Dinty Moore</i>. Just within this one brand, there are many
varieties, including:</p>
<p><b>Canned Products<br></b>Beef Stew<br>
Chicken & Dumplings<br>
Chicken Stew<br>
Meatball Stew<br>
Turkey Stew<br>
<br>
<b>Microwavable Products</b><br>
Beef Stew (7.5 oz cup)<br>
Beef Stew (10 oz tray)<br>
Chicken & Dumplings (7.5 oz cup)<br>
Noodles & Chicken (7.5 oz cup)<br>
Rice with Chicken (7.5 oz cup)<br>
Scalloped Potatoes & Ham (7.5 oz cup)</p>
<p>Our focus will be on the beef stew, which carries the same
logotype as all the other Dinty Moore products. The brand logo is
simple and, even in its 'new' incarnation, fairly traditional:</p>
<p><img src="misc/seymour/newDMlogo.jpg" alt="" height="147" width=
"200" border="0">
</p>
<p>The logo, while tidied up recently, is still not very exciting
nor evocative. But the use of blue as a 'food' color doesn't do
anything for my appetite; I'm not sure how they got stuck with it
originally, and not sure why they didn't modify it when the logo
was redesigned. The blue got a little lighter, and the font 'domed'
with shading, but the change was more evolutionary than
revolutionary.</p>
<p>Left unstated, even on its own webpage, is all the 'back story':
who the hell is Dinty Moore, and why should we care? The official
Hormel history page merely mentions its beginning as a brand name
in 1935. Apparently Dinty <i>was</i> a real person, even though the
<a href=
"http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/B/Br/Bringing_Up_Father.htm">
story</a> is a little complicated.</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center">
<tr>
<td><img src="misc/seymour/DMtop1.jpg" border="0">
</td>
<td><img src="misc/seymour/DMtop2.jpg" border="0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="misc/seymour/DMside1.jpg" border="0">
</td>
<td><img src="misc/seymour/DMside2.jpg" border="0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="189" align="center">Original packaging</td>
<td width="235" align="center">Revised packaging</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>But its Dinty Moore's finger that we're talking about here. It
was there the last time I bought a can, a big red fingerprint right
on the lid, but it's gone from the new one. The story behind that
print might have been interesting, but it too is not in evidence
anywhere.
<p class="editorial">[ So <strong>that's</strong> where that finger came
from! The people at <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/24/chili.finger.reut/">Wendy's</a> have
been wondering... -- Ben ]
<p> As the photo shows, it was labeled as the "Dinty Moore
Mark of Product Quality" but what, if anything, that had to do with
Dinty's approval of the contents, I'm not sure. What a three-inch
fingerprint had to do with <i>anything</i>, I'm also not sure, but
the second series of photos shows that the designers couldn't
figure that out, either, and took it off. The entire color way of
the can has shifted as well, especially on the top, from red toward
blue; someone at Hormel likes blue, I guess. Maybe it tests
well...</p>
<p>For the writers among us, there were a few interesting wording
changes as well: the old can read "still made with Fresh potatoes
& carrots", while the new label has the contents just "Made
with fresh potatoes & carrots". An all-red "no preservatives"
slugline fell off the back of the old label and now appears inside
three oddly shaped trapezoids (one yellow with black letters, one
blue with white letters, and one in black with no text for no
apparent reason) on the front of the new label; some lawyer's idea,
no doubt. The shift to all caps for "BEEF STEW" and "FREE" would
get a zing from my old professor, Arnold Bank, so I'm giving one to
them in his absence; it may fit the box better, but it doesn't make
it easier to read.</p>
<p>A last little design note, one dear to my heart: where to put
the "registered trademark" symbol.</p>
<p>On the original logo, the ® was above the top curve of the
'e' at the end. On the redesigned logo, it hangs off the spur of
the 'e' on the baseline. Neither is better than the other, but it's
one of the niceties of logo design that always needs to be
addressed.</p>
<p>(<b>Meaningless but important note:</b> In the 'good things on
the Internet' category, my new favorite URL name has to be <a href=
"http://www.thesegoto11.com/">http://www.thesegoto11.com/</a> The
phrase <i>These go to eleven</i> refers to a scene in Rob Reiner's
movie <a href="http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/">Spinal Tap</a>;
if you haven't seen this classic rock & roll spoof, you should.
The logo's pretty darn good, too.)</p>
<p>Now for a few logos and logotypes for our imaginary blue jeans
company, Pants On Fire, Inc. (a friend of mine became its president
when he said one thing and did another once too often...) It's a
classic childhood phrase, and I'm surprised it hasn't been snatched
up already. (If there's some little boutique jeans store in
Hollywood using the name, my apologies; you didn't show up in a
Google search.)</p>
<p>The imagery for the logo/logotypes is obvious: pants and/or
fire. We can use them by themselves (a logo), to create emphasis
for text (a logotype), or as a combination of images and text.</p>
<p>Here are several Pants On Fire logos, a narrow one and a squarer
variant:</p>
<table align="center" border="0">
<tr>
<td valign="bottom" width="189" height="82"><img src=
"misc/seymour/PoF-FlatLogo.jpg" alt="" height="144" width="76"
align="top" border="0">
</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="235" height="82"><img src=
"misc/seymour/PoF-FlatLogo2.jpg" alt="" height="145" width="157"
align="top" border="0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" width="428">
<div align="left">(see a larger image <a href=
"misc/seymour/PoFlarge.html">here</a>)</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<div align="left">
<p>Here are a pair of logotypes (neither of which I'm really happy
with, but this column is due):</p>
</div>
<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<tr>
<td width="245">
<div align="center"><img src="misc/seymour/PoFlogotype3.jpg" alt=""
height="44" width="228" border="0">
</div>
</td>
<td width="236"><img src="misc/seymour/PoFlogotype4.jpg" alt=""
height="65" width="108" border="0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" width="485">
<div align="center">(see larger images <a href=
"misc/seymour/PoFlogotypeslarge.html">here</a>)</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div align="left">
<div align="left">
<p>Here are several combination logos:</p>
</div>
</div>
<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<tr>
<td width="179">
<div align="center"><img src="misc/seymour/PoF-logotype1.jpg" alt=
"" height="82" width="248" border="0">
</div>
</td>
<td valign="bottom" width="230"><img src=
"misc/seymour/PoF-logotype2.jpg" alt="" height="39" width="236"
align="bottom" border="0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" width="413">
<div align="center"><img src="misc/seymour/PoFlogo3.jpg" alt=""
height="160" width="239" border="0">
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" width="179">
<div align="center"><img src="misc/seymour/PoF-logo1.jpg" alt=""
height="274" width="140" border="0">
</div>
</td>
<td align="center" width="230"><img src=
"misc/seymour/PoF-logo2.jpg" alt="" height="282" width="140"
border="0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="left" width="488">
<div align="center">(see larger images <a href=
"misc/seymour/PoFlogoslarge.html">here</a>)</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div align="left">
<p>And here's even a rudimentary logo in 3D (courtesy of my old
friend <a href="mailto:kelley02790@charter.net">Kelley</a>, the
modeling whiz):</p>
</div>
<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<tr height="82">
<td valign="bottom" width="189" height="82"><img src=
"misc/seymour/PoF3D.jpg" alt="" height="211" width="227" border=
"0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="189">
<div align="left">(see a larger image <a href=
"misc/seymour/PoF3d.html">here</a>)</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div align="left">
<p>These, of course, do not begin to cover the spectrum of possible
combinations using the company name and imagery relating to the
concept and the wording and the products. Just the choice of
font(s), let alone the many variations of weight and style, would
be a long and difficult process. (I wimped out here and, in the
interest of getting done on schedule, just went with Helvetica Bold.)
Trying to design for all the possible usages of the logo (pants labels,
tags, corporate identity print, signage, trucks, on-line, television,
posters, the list is endless) would limit some of the wilder choices, but
drive others: should the logo be able to stand alone as well as with text,
how small will it be legible, how many or how few colors can it be
represented with, etc.</p>
<p>There might well be sub-brands, such as UnderPants On Fire, that
I will leave to your imagination. (If you come up with a good logo
for it, of course, send it along.)</p>
<p>Then there's the Spanish language market (<i>Pantalones en el
fuego</i>), along with the rest of the world (Dutch: <i>Broek op
Brand</i>, French: <i>Pantalon sur le feu</i>, German: <i>Hosen auf
Feuer</i>, Italian: <i>Pantaloni su fuoco</i>, and so on). Care
would have to be taken, of course, to work with native language
speakers to see if the phrase meant anything remotely similar.
Note, too, that some languages capitalize many words and some do
not; that can seriously alter if and how you translate a logo. Many
companies do not translate their brand names, and rely on the
globalization of the marketplace to compensate.</p>
</div>
<p>I hope this column has given you some more logo issues to chew
on. As ever, if there are specifics you'd like covered, let me
know.</p>
</p>
<!-- *** BEGIN author bio *** -->
<P>
<P>
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<hr>
<p>
<img align="left" alt="[BIO]" src="../gx/authors/seymour.jpg" width="200" height="200" class="bio">
<em>
<p> I started doing graphic design in junior high school, when it was still
the Dark Ages of technology. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were both eleven
years old, and the state of the art was typing copy on Gestetner masters.
I've worked on every new technology since, but I still own an X-acto knife
and know how to use it.
<p> I've been a freelancer, and worked in advertising agencies, printing
companies, publishing houses, and marketing organizations in major
corporations. I also did a dozen years [1985-1997] at Apple Computer; my
first Macintosh was a Lisa with an astounding 1MB of memory, and my current
one is a Cube with a flat screen.
<p> I've had a website up since 1997, and created my latest one in 2004. I'm
still, painfully, learning how web design is different from, but not
necessarily better than, print.
</em>
<br clear="all">
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** END author bio *** -->
<div id="articlefooter">
<p>
Copyright © 2005, Mark Seymour. Released under the <a
href="http://linuxgazette.net/copying.html">Open Publication license</a>
unless otherwise noted in the body of the article. Linux Gazette is not
produced, sponsored, or endorsed by its prior host, SSC, Inc.
</p>
<p>
Published in Issue 113 of Linux Gazette, April 2005
</p>
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