Background:

I was contacted to become part of a task force to re-design a Chamber of Commerce logo for Greater Salem, New Hampshire which consists of towns named Atkinson, Hampstead, Pelham, Salem and Windham and over 250 members. They felt the current logo was outdated and the subsidiary town names were lost when the logo was reproduced on small things like cards, pens and mugs. Generally, the circle of town names only showed up on big banners and signs. I actually had no idea I would be doing the logo design as there were four designers already involved, and I thought I was there for input only. We convened and realized the logo needed a more progressive, modern look while still staying conservative. They still wanted the five towns represented, but the names of the towns didn't necessarily need to be in the design.

Before:

Solution:

All five designers and the Executive Director handed in design ideas. Seven designs were selected as the best possible solutions, of which three were my own designs. Ultimately, one of my designs was chosen. YIPPEE!!! They liked the five pillars as an abstract representation of the towns, and the names didn't have to be included, however, we did a few versions with the names in the logo as well. They were psyched. I had explained that we could put together a "Graphic Standards" manual for acceptable ways to use the logos in color, without, with towns, without, etc. They never had one for the old logo and were happy to see that it could be put on paper so whenever they were sending the artwork out for someone to use, the end user would know exactly how the new logo should and should not be used.

Design Rationale (background research of market, audience, competition, etc.): The audience is fairly conservative and business oriented. I didn't want to go with anything like a retro font, or too scripty. It needed to portray a professional clean look and should be easy to reproduce. The competition had some local town elements in their logos and some state elements. Because this chamber had encompassed five towns there wasn't one industry from one town we could use. The logo needed to be somewhat abstract.

Concept development: My computer system was down for four days which left me alone with a sketch pad. I took the five towns and listed them at the top and thought, "How can I represent them and not actually put their names or use an industry from one town, excluding the others?" One of the ideas they liked was a weathervane with North / South / East / West represented as SPWHA (Salem, Pelham, Windham, Hampstead, and Atkinson), but they truly felt the pillars represented strength, progression, networking and many other business positives.

Challenges: There were two sign designers in the group that came in with all sorts of logos that were shaded with gradients and strokes around the text, plus overlapping graphic elements. It was difficult to make everyone see that simplicity was better. They wanted to do a lot of bitmapped imagery for the logo and although some of it really popped off the page, it would have been a horror show to reproduce for anything other than a sign. The logo had to be reproduced easily for letterhead, screenprinting, embroidery, promotional items, business cards and signage.

Results: The executive board approved the logo unanimously, and we are now approving the final acceptable designs for the Graphic Standards manual.

After:

Alina's Feedback:

I can certainly see how the old logo was problematic, particularly at small sizes. While I do like the circle look to the old design because it represents unity, and would work well as a stamp, Maryann's design incorporates the sense of a circle and is much stronger and easier to read. The pillars catch your eye and provide a nice representation of strength and unity within the heirarchy of information. Congratulations on the selection of your design, Maryann!