This is not a logo

2. dec 2009 The logo is not an element, a graphical form, but the character in the way it is exposed in various contexts. Thus, the logo is not a categorism any more, but a organism, a being.

I was pleased at ‘Total Typographic Saturday’ in the end of october, as Tore Rosbo and Clea Simonsen from the design bureau 1508 presented the identity for Århus University.
I had seen it before, the new identity, in real life, and thought: Hey, ther’s something there ... Bauhaus typography, a typographic grachic solution. It worked, but there was something else as well.
And that something revealed itself, there in the middle of saturday afternoon: A logo generator, yes!
I have often discussed this with Henrik Birkvig on our typographic journeys through the years: the logo as a function – apart from form and obvious identity. And we often agree, if anyone is doubt:
The logo is not an element - a graphical form, rather than the character in the way it is exposed in various contexts. Thus, the logo is not any more a categorism, but a organism, a being.
And a logo generator is a way to take the logo in that direction. The logo may in real be created in any context. Which in this case is various text, but might as well be colors, textures, even time and temper ... maybe not only the fantasy should limit the possibilities, but they are many.
6

The logo on wil.dk

It was the same approach I had when I designed my log on this web site. Previously the logo was just a 'W' - animated though, in a simpel gif animation, as it appeared on the web. On papir it was still just the W. But a logo should not be static – nor just visual, but that’s a different issue. So I had already taken action accordingly: redesign the logo!

The pattern in the difference

First of all, the logo were not to me animated - I find the animated gifs a bit altmodisch nowadays. On the other hand needed the logo a touch of randomness. So I redefines the old fixed (on paper) W to a variable W, sometimes not even the W, but just the five connected dots.
In this way the logo becomes a timedepending perception. The result form is then the pattern that is caught only if you've seen several different occurances.
At each page load the dots are distributes random within the five defined areas. And connected of course.
One is chosen (no, not at random) but by some kind of intuition.
The dots are distributed over time as notes and composed as a simple logo sound bit:

Extended sound

It’s pretty simple the score in a simple version og the logo sound. If there’s something in it that triggers, a rythm, a tone beneath, you may go a bit further: what if we put a little more sound into it...:

And with video added

Okay then, a little bit animation on the logo anyway.

TypoMov

13. APR 2001 // animation /typografi
The spoken information on the other hand is dynamic with an absolute demand of presence. If you're not there, you'll miss it, because the spoken word disappears instantly. The meaning of the spoken information may be stored in your memory, but the words are gone.
TypoMov is a brief presentation of the main points of a lecture […]
ATypI Copenhagen dynamisk logo

ATypI Copenhagen logo

We had the napkin with the notes from the galla dinner at ATypI in Leipzig 2000, Henrik Birkvig and I on the flight back to Copenhagen, and we knew that we, together with Kim Pedersen, were about to organize ATypI in Copenhagen the year after. And already then we sketched the cliches for identity of the conference: Red-white, old-new […]
Catch me

Catch me

7. JUN 2014 // cd-cover
‘Grib mig’ is the title in danish, for the time being, of a coming cd, for which Marianne Mortensen and Michael Vesterskov had gathered four musicians for two days live recordings. I had the pleasure of being among the audience – and to design the provisional cover that together with a sign up form should make the audience pre-order […]
Egg pattern

Egg pattern

14. APR 2014 // design
Pattern with eggs for the tablecloth and the napkins for the easter celebration lunch. Enjoy.
iSticks and iSkins

iSticks and iSkins

13. DEC 2010 // ipad /mobilt web /offentligt rum
The danish boulevard newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, has decided to campaign for the freedom of speech – seen as the freedom of nudity. The danish MEP, Morten Messerschmidt is supporting by taking the discussion into the European Parliament.
Seven clicks towards Mobile First

Seven clicks towards Mobile First

The net is flooded with apps - for smartphones and tablets. But web sites are still better viewed on a computer, right? So the marketing department is happy and web design is business as usual. Maybe because apps and web sites are considered as two different things, rather than two versions of the same.
You may create coherence […]
Welt aus Schrift, type exhibition in Berlin

Welt aus Schrift, type exhibition in Berlin

12. NOV 2010 // design /typografi /berlin
Posters, books, jugend, bauhaus and de stijl ... via swiss to decon. The Welt Aus Schrift exhibition in Berlin is beauty in the literal sense of the letter. Do take a visit!
Bridges and letters in Amsterdam

Bridges and letters in Amsterdam

Round the city of Amsterdam, crossing the grachten - many of the bridges have their names displayed with ‘De Amsterdamse Brugletters’.

The photography is dead – long live the photographer

10. JUN 1998 // design /illustration
First the good news: The photography has lost its trustworthyness, because the digital technology has made it obvious to anybody that every photopgraphy can be manipulated.
And then the bad news: We are being told that actually the possibility of computer manipulation it self killed the reliability. And thus tend to maintain […]
Spis Bare [Just Eat] receives Bording Prisen 2009

Spis Bare [Just Eat] receives Bording Prisen 2009

15. JUN 2009 // design /tidsskrift /spis bare
The danish magazine Spis Bare is a very inspirering food-professional og well-informed magazine med professional depth and delicious presentation.
Friday June 12 the magazine Spis Bare was awarded Anders Bordings Mediepris 2009. I have in collaboration with the editor, Mette Jensen, developed the magazine during the last […]

The user rules

1. MAJ 2000 // design /web
Usability and accessibilty on the web becomes synonymous with free choice and professionalizing of the user. Thus, she is more and less self responsible for being able to recieve the information of the websites.
The computer is putting still greater demands to the user, but despite of that it is easier to use today than ever. […]
Web design, home pages for starters

Web design, home pages for starters

1. SEP 2001 // design /web
To the puritan any design that make any demands, will be noise. But you may as well take the opposite stand, that the purely textbased information is reserved for the skillede readers.
Torben Wilhelmsen, Thomas Green and Geert Sander Published first time in 1997. The book was one the selected Books of the Year in 1998 in Denmark. […]
Type, design and automated layout, Atypi 2011

Type, design and automated layout, Atypi 2011

Saturday morning at the ATypI conference in Reykjavík Torben Wilhelmsen was on stage to talk about integrating type and design through templates into automated page layout for multi platform publishing such as magazines and blogs on computer, ipad and other mobiles.
Fontc[art] Generator

Fontc[art] Generator

20. OKT 2001 // javascript /random /typografi
Everything that can’t be automated is design.
At the ATypI conference in Copenhagen 2001 Erik van Blokland, Letterror, made the statement that design is not to make one or more possible solutions of a certain task. Design is rather choosing the right one among all these possibilities. And since the making of the examples […]

Michael Vesterskov Band at Christianshavns Beboerhus

13. NOV 2009 // musik /offentligt rum
The concert was as a birthday present to Michael Vesterskov from the band who played at the theatre piece Det Blå Hotel [The Blue Hotel]. And gifts are, just like services, not something you pay back. You hand them along.
So Michael gave us the music, as the host offers gifts for the guest. Thank you.
Bites #14 Free Wil

Bites #14 Free Wil

3. JAN 2010 // musik
This is an extended version of the logo sound composed for the wil.dk logo.