Blast from the Past #497: "Copyrite" logo design

I can't remember exactly what this was all about, but I suspect it was something I did for a client of a small local design firm in Northampton, for whom I did some graphics and illustration work back in the late 1970's.

What I do remember about this one is having fun with it. I enjoy trying to develop logos, and this one in particular was fun because I liked using the three-dimensional pencil forms twisted in various ways to make the letters. -- PL

Blast from the Past #357: Triceratops logo image, airbrushed version

I have posted a couple of different versions of this image I'd drawn for self-promotional purposes, but just recently came across what I think was the final version. I am pretty sure this one was never actually used for anything -- it was just an exercise to see if I could work with an airbrush. -- PL

Blast from the Past #355: MSC logo designs

I've always enjoyed trying to come up with interesting logo designs, though I am not terribly good at it. I think my best one may have been for the "Scat" comics magazine I helped to found with some artist friends years ago. I have always been impressed with people who can come up with clever variations on a theme (the theme being, typically, letters and/or numbers in the name of a business or organization). One of my favorite logos of all time is the one that you see on the hoods of Toyotas -- I never knew until a few years ago that that simple symbol, if broken down properly, reveals all the shapes of all the letters in the word "Toyota". And right behind that one is the logo for Acura, Honda's luxury car brand, which is essentially the famous "H" used on all Honda cars, but with the top corners of the "H" pivoted slightly inward to form an "A" for Acura.

(Actually, I am not sure if these symbols are, technically, logos… but that's how I have always thought of them. If anyone knows a better term, please feel free to enlighten me.)

I found the following  page in an old sketchbook, where I was apparently trying to work out a design for some outfit called -- or with the acronym of -- "MSC". Do I know now what "MSC" is/was? No. That memory has vanished. I don't even remember WHEN I did this, though from the looks of it, I'd say some time in the early 1980's.

Looking at this, I am reminded of how much I have admired the work of illustrator and graphic designer David Suter. Don't get me wrong -- I am not at all equating my work with his brilliant stuff. But I see some of his influence here in my attempt to play with three dimensions and the classic "three-quarters view" while working out this design.

I can't recall if I ever even came up with a finished logo design for "MSC", or -- if I did do a final design -- if it was used. But I can see that I was having some fun with it. -- PL

Blast from the Past #213: "Scat" logo designs

Knowledgeable fans of TMNT history know about the significance to that history of the free "comics gazette" called "Scat". If Kevin Eastman had never seen that copy of "Scat" on the floor of the PVTA bus as he traveled from Northampton to Amherst back in 1980, he would never have seen my artwork in it, would not have looked me up through the Graphic Arts Guild in Northampton, we would never have met, and thus -- no Turtles.

I ran across these sketches recently, and they brought back memories. These are from the early days of Scat, when we were still trying to figure out what the logo should look like. I doodled these designs in my sketchbook...









We went back and forth on various logo designs, finally settling on this one, which I drew by hand:



It's been so long that I can't remember exactly, but I think this final design was based on an idea that either Marty Maceda or Brian Turner (two of the "Scat" co-founders) submitted. I also can't remember why I got the job of finishing it -- maybe just because I volunteered! We used this logo on the cover of the magazine.

I also did a slightly fancier, "rendered" version, as seen here:



We used this on various "Scat" business forms, like letterhead and invoices. -- PL