#logodotes

[Over the 30+ years I've worked professionally as a designer, interesting side stories have come up about my identity designs. This is one of an ongoing series of "Logodotes" - anecdotes about my logo designs.]

In the summer of 2009, I was very sad to learn of the passing of one of my favorite, and most fun, clients. Cecilia Murphy was one-of-a-kind and a Portland institution. It made me smile when, in doing one of the newspaper's "Life Story" features, The Oregonian began the article with "Cecilia Murphy lived by the unofficial motto "'more is more.' Less was not for her."

In that same newspaper article was the minor mention: "She had a short-lived coffee shop." That's how I met the vibrant force known as Cecilia Murphy.

In late 2003, Murphy contacted me to assist in helping brand her latest venture - a coffee house and cafe in the St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland. She conveyed a desire to have the business project an image of the television show Northern Exposure meeting North Portland. Some Victorian elements were to be mixed with comfortable over-stuffed furniture and a few rustic Northwest touches - including vintage mounted heads of hunted wildlife.

Her eyes twinkled as she suggested that the cafe identity might included the image of a winking moose, with long eye-lashes and a "big rack." I knew that Murphy meant antlers in this case, but her smile told me she knew exactly what she had said. Throughout our conversation the moose was referred to as "she."

After thinking about the input for a moment, I told my client that I didn't think a female moose would have antlers. Murphy quickly replied, "Well, I guess we'll have a cross-dressing moose."

I appreciated the opportunity to be totally playful with the North Bank Cafe logo project. The moose image quickly developed as a fairly cartoon-ish creature. I researched moose hoof prints, to be used as bullets in the design, and had fun playing with type possibilities, prior to settling on Horndon as my favorite primary font for my initial design concept. Still, second-guessing myself, I was a bit unsure about having possibly taken the beast too far. I included one more conservative concept in the rough designs I presented (above left).

As is the case in 85-90% of my identity design projects, the client was immediately drawn to my very first concept. With a little fine-tuning it became the final logo for the North Bank Cafe (above right).

The North Bank Cafe was short-lived. Unfortunately, Cecilia Murphy is also no longer with us. I am happy that the cross-dressing moose of the logo does live on. It appears in the books Logo Design for Small Business 2, 1000 Restaurant Bar & Cafe Graphics (and its recently-released paperback mini edition) and 100's Visual Logos and Letterheads.

[Over the 30+ years I've worked professionally as a designer, interesting side stories have come up about my identity designs. This is one of an ongoing series of "Logodotes" - anecdotes about my logo designs.]

To be honest, a designer doesn't often find themselves in the position to create a logo with the subject matter of "2 Boys in a Bed on a Cold Winters' Night." I've always been lucky enough to have the opportunity to balance my corporate work with design efforts that are a bit more off-the-wall. "2 Boys in Bed..." was a play being presented by local avant garde theatre company triangle productions!

During almost two decades of designing work for the theatre client, producer Don Horn has always provided the scripts to the shows for which I was creating graphics. In this case the title of the play described the show fairly well. In a 1987 New York winter setting, at the height of the AIDS crisis, two gay men met in a bar, go back to the threadbare apartment of one and, after having sex, end up having a lengthy discussion.

With the design, I immediately wanted to create an eye-catching and simple graphic that would subtly convey the activities of the characters and the passage of time during the night. Within the windows of three graphic panels (above) the moon and star elements seemed to move, hinting at the time passing. My warped sense of humor had a great deal of fun positioning the feet in the bed to reflect a variety of possible sex acts taking place as the night progressed.

The graphic image, without accompanying type spelling out the name of the play, was printed on the front of a white T-shirt promoting, and sold at, the show. The logo, with type (below) was reproduced on the back of the shirt. Ticket and T-shirt shirt sales were very successful.

I have shelves of T-shirts. I'll often grab one and put it on without even paying attention to the printed graphics. Such was the case on the day I wore my "2 Boys in a Bed" tee to a local grocery store. I was still oblivious when I became aware of a woman walking directly my way.

As she got closer she said, "I love your T-shirt design - where can I get..."

It was then I saw a look of horror come over her face as she zeroed in on the positions of the feet in the beds of the graphic. With her face now bright red, she added, "Never mind," and walked away as fast as possible.

If the hope of a graphic designer is for their work to produce action, or a reaction, the "2 Boys in a Bed..." logo was certainly a success.

The identity has been featured in the books New Logo & Trademark Design (Japan), The New Big Book of Logos, Letterhead and Logo Design 7, Graphically Speaking, LogoLounge - Volume 1, and New Logo: One (Singapore). On my Logopond showcase the comments and critiques of the design even drifted to the question of whether two men could have sex in one of the positions shown. It also has the distinction of being included in the recent Graphic Design Blog post "40 Weird and Playful logos – A Double treat!"