“In 1960 I graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York with a degree in Industrial Design. At that time graphic design was a European influence that was just being introduced in American universities at the graduate level. When I met a student who studied logo design with Paul Rand at Yale, I knew I wanted to design logos.”
— LANCE WYMAN

Quoted from a case study in webesteem magazine.

“The logo for the Industrial Design School of the University of Mexico (UNAM) combines the letters ‘D’ and ‘I’ to suggest a stone age axehead, one of humankind’s first product designs.”

“The logo for the Sandra Berier Gallery of Photography suggests image framing and the letters ‘S’ and ‘B’.”

Lance Wyman. One of the great graphic designers of our time.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• An interview with Tom Geismar
• Ask Tom Geismar
• The work of Stefan Kanchev
• An interview with Paul Rand
• “This is what you need — a magic dot.”

Having created iconic logos for Mobil Oil, New York University, Chase Bank, National Geographic, and many more, Tom Geismar is one of the most highly-acclaimed designers in the profession. He graciously agreed to answer your questions here on Logo Design Love.

Tom Geismar

Q. Has your approach to design changed over the years, and if so, how, and why?

A. I know it’s something of a cliché to say this, but we really do view graphic design, and especially logo design, as a problem solving process, a process not dissimilar to that used in other related disciplines such as architecture and engineering. The initial task is to understand and define what the issues are, and what the goals should be. With that background in mind, we strive to come up with the best possible design “solution” to the problem, using imagination and artistic invention to create something memorable and meaningful. In that sense, our approach has not changed at all. The way we went about designing logos for Armani Exchange and the Library of Congress in 2008 is essentially the same as the way we went about designing logos for Chase and Mobil in the 1960’s.

Q. Do you think design has been overcomplicated with marketing analysis? Do we think “too much”? Have we essentially lost sight of simplicity?

A. The issue isn’t whether “we think too much”, it’s whether we accept marketing analysis as the last word, or simply as one piece of the larger puzzle, and recognize that it only reflects what has been, not what could be. From a logo design viewpoint, an entity with a clear definition of its goals and aspirations makes the job a lot easier.

Q. How large a role does sketching on paper play in your design process?

A. For me, sketching on paper still plays a key role in my design, mainly because I find at the beginning of the design phase it is a much faster way to try out ideas, and variations on ideas. Sketching also allows me to indicate certain forms, especially curves, that I find difficult and cumbersome with the computer. And sketching allows me to suggest an idea or concept, while drawing with the computer leads very quickly to a sharply defined object. Of course, once an idea is more fully developed, the computer is a great way to study variations in color, form, etc.

National Geographic logo, 2002

Q. When creating a logo, what influences your decision to use a wordmark vs letterform vs emblem vs pictorial vs abstract symbol?

A. The decision on how to approach a logo design is very much determined by how we define the issues involved, including the name, the type of organization, how the name will be used, etc. For example, if you have a client with a short, distinctive name, perhaps a wordmark would be the best approach. In 2005 we took this approach with Hearst Corporation, which had a number of operating divisions that all used the Hearst name followed by a descriptive word, such as Hearst Magazines. So we developed a distinctive bold wordmark for Hearst, and a contrasting type style for the generic descriptors that followed.

Hearst Corporation logo, 2005

Q. Can you share some advice or great stories on selling ideas to clients?

A. Logos are funny things. At first they are just designs on paper. Eventually they come to embody all the qualities of the organization they represent, and most people cannot separate the “design” from their full range of opinions about the organization. The hard task the designer faces is trying to help the client see how the logo might eventually be perceived, how it will work for them, not just whether they “like it”. We learned this lesson early on when we first presented the Chase symbol to the chief executives of the bank. The man who was then Chairman said he would go along the decision of the others, but personally he hated it and did not want to see it on his letterhead his business card, or anywhere in his office. Six months later we ran into him at the bank. He was wearing a pin with the symbol in his lapel, and a tie-tack with the symbol holding a tie that was itself a pattern of the symbol. To him, the mark was no longer just an abstract design, it had become the representation of his organization.

Chase Bank logo, 1961

Q. You have completed work for Mobil and PBS, two companies on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Is it a designer’s responsibility to consider the companies for which he works and their effect on society? How do you reconcile working with a company that you disagree with philosophically or ethically?

A. You have to work for people whom you respect. Over the years we have refused to work on various projects because we would feel uncomfortable doing so. But the issue is a complex one. For example, on the surface, perhaps Mobil and PBS might seem to be on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but during the many years we worked for Mobil (before the takeover by EXXON), it was the most progressive of the major oil companies, explicitly stating their positions, championing good design, doing impressive public-interest advertising and being, in fact, one of the major benefactors of PBS, along with numerous cultural and art institutions. In short, we respected Mobil and its people, even if we didn’t always agree with their positions.

Mobil Oil Corporation logo, 1964

PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) logo, 1984

Q. Do you work for non-profit as well as profit-making organizations, and, if so, how do they differ?

A. Yes, in fact many of our recent clients are non-profit or governmental organizations. It’s easy to agree with their positions, but working with them is not very different from working with a profit-making organization.

Univision logo, 1989

Q. Have you designed a particular logo that didn’t make the final cut or that you thought was stronger than what the client ultimately chose?

A. This has happened to us on various occasions. We do our best to convince our clients to go with the mark we feel is the strongest, but for a variety of reasons that’s not always how the project ends up. On the other hand, while we study a great many alternatives, we try never to present to our clients any designs that we cannot stand behind.

National Aquarium in Baltimore logo, 1980

New York University logo, 1965

Q. After a lifetime of working in the field, would you choose to be a designer in the present landscape of communication design?

A. I feel fortunate to have spent my entire working life as a graphic designer, and being part of a small organization where I could interact with talented partners. As an independent designer, whether on your own or part of a firm, one is exposed to many different people involved in a wide range of activities. If curious, you can learn a great deal. Today the field is much broader than it was when we started, and it’s more competitive. Yet the opportunities are great for someone who is curious about the world, interested in defining and solving problems, and passionate about design.

The partners of Chermayeff & Geismar, New York—from left to right: Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geismar, and Sagi Haviv

Visit the Chermayeff & Geismar website for an iconic design portfolio.

To Tom, to Chermayeff & Geismar‘s communications director Chris, and to you, thanks very much. You posed many more excellent questions, but alas, Tom’s a busy man, and we could only have so much of his time. Apologies if your question wasn’t answered.

If you liked this interview, here’s another with one of Tom’s partners Sagi Haviv.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• Lance Wyman
• Turner Duckworth and Coca-Cola
• Ask Tom Geismar
• The work of Stefan Kanchev
• An interview with Paul Rand

Tom Geismar is a founding partner of Chermayeff & Geismar and widely considered a pioneer of American graphic design. During the past four decades he has designed more than 100 corporate identity programs.

Mobil Oil Corporation logo, 1964

His designs for Xerox, Chase Manhattan Bank, PBS, National Geographic, Gemini Consulting, Univision, Rockefeller Center and, most notably, Mobil Oil have received worldwide acclaim.

Chase Bank logo, 1961

He has received all the major awards in the field, including one of the first Presidential Design Awards for helping to establish a national system of standardized transportation symbols.

National Geographic logo, 2002

Tom has kindly agreed to be interviewed for Logo Design Love readers. He has a wealth of experience within the design profession, and I know we can all learn something from him.

What would you ask Tom Geismar?

Leave your question(s) as a comment (or let me know via email) and I’ll pose them to Tom. It could be about pricing design, dealing with clients, a specific project, his design process, etc. The interview will be published here on Logo Design Love.

More about Tom Geismar

• The Chermayeff & Geismar studio website
• All about Chermayeff & Geismar
• Iconic logo designers
• AIGA Medalists: Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar

Published on Logo Design Love

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• Lance Wyman
• An interview with Tom Geismar
• The work of Stefan Kanchev
• An interview with Paul Rand
• “This is what you need — a magic dot.”

A.G. Low Construction logo
By Rebecca Low

Martin Newcombe Property Maintenance logo
By buddy

Nexcite logo
By Amore
Via Blair Thomson

American Institute of Architects Center logo
By Pentagram

Ogden Plumbing logo
By Astuteo

WWF
By Sir Peter Scott, modified by Landor

FreemanWhite logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers

The Brand Union logo
By The Brand Union

Egg n Spoon logo (same day couriers)
By Thoughtful

Human logo
By Social UK

Dolphin House logo
By Ico Design

Eaton logo
By Lippincott (thanks, Brendan)

Elefont logo
By Logo Motive Designs

USA Network logo
By Peloton Design

CultureBus logo
By Pentagram

Carrefour logo
Original design examined by Miles Newlyn (thanks Rianna)

Henri Ehrhart monogram (shameless)
View the design process on David Airey dot com

Sinkit logo
By smashLAB

Guild of Food Writers logo
By 300million

ED logo
By Gianni Bortolotti

Blade logo
By Subversive Design

Premier Catering logo
By Madhouse
Via Logolog

The Waterways Trust logo
By Pentagram

FedEx logo
By Lindon Leader while at Landor

Knoll logo
By NB: Studio
Via Logolog

Ryan Biggs Associates logo
By id29

Hartford Whalers logo
By Cummings & Good (thanks, Jeff)

Conception logo
By The Chase

Yoga Australia logo
By Roy Smith Design

Hands On Network logo
By Duffy & Partners

MyFonts logo
By Underware

Vanderbilt University logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers

Recycle Taiwan logo
By do you know?

NBC logo
By Steff Geissbuhler while at Chermayeff & Geismar

New Bedford Whaling Museum logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers

Mouse logo
By Johnson Banks

—

Update: 06 September 2010
Here’s another nice idea just featured, for a company called Landfit.

Update: 05 March 2011
And another — Snooty Peacock.

—

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• watching words move
• Unilever icons explained
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• Matías Nadal’s piano keys monogram
• Literally

Worth your time.

Thanks to Josh Kasten for the tip.

The video corrects a mistake I made when attributing this quote to Rand:

“Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.”

Rand was actually quoting the late architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Right at the end of the clip you see Rand outside where the students parked their car. He’s gesturing directions as they prepare to drive away from the studio. It reminded me of how my granddad does the same when I’m reversing out of the drive-way at his home. Kind of endearing.

For a more indepth discussion, here’s a three-part interview.

Published on Logo Design Love

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• Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.
• Logo > Queen
• Trademark symbols, what’s the point?
• Brand New Conference
• Experts critique business logos

“‘Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.’ That sounds sort of naive but it’s true.”
— PAUL RAND QUOTING LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

Via BrandLogic on Twitter: @BrandLogicNY.

For more from the late design master, an interview with Paul Rand.

Published on Logo Design Love

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• A conversation with Paul Rand
• “This is what you need — a magic dot.”
• Kodak logo evolution
• Logo > Queen
• Trademark symbols, what’s the point?

Identity design is about producing more than just a logo. Stand-alone static marks are essential, don’t get me wrong, but by containing them within an identity package, top designers and agencies create a visual language that improves the consistency of the brand message.

“Paula Scher and her team designed the identity for Howcast, the popular how-to video site that was profiled in Sunday’s New York Times. Howcast hosts a library of over 100,000 short instructional videos—everything from how to type faster on your iPhone to how to survive a bear attack—and its videos received over 20 million plays in June alone.”

Quoted from the Pentragram website

At first I found the H a little jarring, but the more I look, the more I see it leads the eye nicely through the word mark.

The Howcast H monogram.

The H shape becomes a chevron used in the site graphics.

You can read more about the Howcast identity on the Pentagram blog.

Here’s a small selection of Howcast videos where you can see the identity in use (along with the accompanying icon designs, also by Pentagram):

• How to take a man’s portrait
• How to paper train your dog
• How to negotiate an apartment lease
• How to detect a lie
• How to create a public Google calendar and add to your website (Uploaded by a Howcast user, so not as professional, but covers something I’ve thought about doing.)

Read more about Paula Scher.

Published on Logo Design Love

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• Michael Bierut on Big Ten
• Big Ten Conference
• 15 years of The Public Theater in 45 seconds
• Pentagram Marks
• The Oak Bar logo

Trade marks and symbols by Stefan Kanchev — a wonderful design collection from the late Bulgarian graphic artist. Stefan is the author of more than 1000 trade marks and symbols, and in the first world exhibition of trade marks in New York he presented 23 works out of the 250 logos by authors from all over the world.

Here are just a few.

Publishing House of the Communist Party

Operetta State Theater

Center for Industrial Design

Electroimpex

Magazine “Architecture”

General Exhibition of Applied Graphics

Stefan died in 2001 at the age of 86 after being recognised alongside other greats such as Saul Bass and Paul Rand.

Many more trade marks on the Stefan Kanchev website.

With thanks to Andrian Dimitrov, Yana Simeonova, Vladimir Georgiev, and Julia Zidarova for their great work documenting the designs.

Published on Logo Design Love

Related posts on Logo Design Love

• Lance Wyman
• An interview with Tom Geismar
• Ask Tom Geismar
• An interview with Paul Rand
• “This is what you need — a magic dot.”

Paul Rand interview: part one

Paul Rand interview: part two

Paul Rand interview: part three

The interviewer is graphic designer Miggs Burroughs, and it’s great to see that almost 20 years later he still sports the same hairstyle.

For more info on the late, world-renowned graphic designer, here’s a blog post from the Logo Design Love archives: All about Paul Rand.

Published on Logo Design Love

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• NeXT logo by Paul Rand
• All about Paul Rand
• NeXT logo presentation
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• Lance Wyman

Pentagram partner Kit Hinrichs talks about his experiences in a recent interview for the One Club.

Chronicle photo by Eric Luse

“People often assume the brand is the logo or symbol—and there’s no doubt that if that’s done well, it can give you a flavor for who the company is, whether they’re contemporary or traditional, and so forth. But I really see the brand as more than that logo or mark—it’s the totality of the way in which the company talks to its public.”

For the unaware, Kit helped design logos such as Luckyfish, CultureBus and California Academy of Sciences.

About companies looking for digital design as opposed to print:

“Obviously a change has taken place and is continuing to take place. Now, as we get involved with brands for companies, we’re showing them how it works in print and digitally—and really, in all media, not even just limited to print or the web. Is the idea something you can make 3-dimensional, can you animate it?”

More Kit Hinrichs

• Kit Hinrichs, on the Pentagram website
• Pentagram’s Kit Hinrichs talks about good design, on CreativePro.com (from 2004)
• Photo slideshow, on SF Gate

Published on Logo Design Love

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• Brand alphabets, Chicken Now, the Apple logo designer, and a fuss over nothing
• An interview with Paul Rand
• Interview with Obama’s logo designer
• All about Paul Rand
• Moving Brands does HP