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With the globalization of printing, coupled with interactive and motion design, the cost of adding additional colors to a logo has changed dramatically. No longer are corporations always limited to creating a mark with a restrictive color palette. However, this relatively new phenommenon can make designing logos more complex and harder to control. Today we are not only faced with understanding print production, we are also charged with understanding the Web, its interactivity, motion design, and, in many cases, environmmental graphic design, packaging, textiles, and product design. Managing color has never been so complex, both in its technical application and conceptual direction. Some of the world’s most inspiring four-color logomarks are showcased here to help us understand how these issues have been addressed by utilizing hue to its fullest potential.
From large corporations to small fashion houses, from building facilities to advertising, marks and their colorful use engulf our environmment and influence our consumption. Understanding how, when, and why colors should be used in a given circumstance is the mainstay of hue application.
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Team CdLS
Designer: Laurie Churchman
Studio: Designiore
Associative Color Response:
· good spirits, inviting: mid-orange
· dignity, pleasing: high-chroma blue
· surging, brilliant: red
· new growth, hope: green
Color Scheme: split
complementaries plus one hue (tetrad)
This logomark uses a tetrad color arrangement (a contrast of four or more colors on the color wheel) for emphasis. The equally weighted blue, green, and negative white line encompass the colors and create unity within the arrangement.
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S. P. Shaughnessey & Company
Designer/Art Director: Drew M. Dallet
Studio: Boom Creative
Associative Color Response:
· brimming with life, thinking: green
· quality, practical: gray
· strong, prestigious: black
Color Scheme: monochromatic plus neutral (tinted)
The equal line weight of the inverted white type creates a “C” and “P” individually and a broken “S” as a whole. In addition, the counterform defines a contiguous green “S” that is unified with the white stroke through proportion. The white stroke is half the weight of the green stroke.
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Campus Lasik
Designer/Art Director: Drew M. Dallet
Studio: Boom Creative
Associative Color Response:
· clear, thinking: green
· quality, practical: gray
· service, professional: blue
· school, prestigious: black
Color Scheme: analogous plus neutral (tinted)
The font choice connotes a university emblem, while the thick-and-thin line quality unifies the mark in a
way similar to the stitching used to attach a badge to a college leather jacket. The blue fields seem to indicate the circular form of the iris.
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Ask Me! About UNLV
Designer: Ken Kelleher
Associative Color Response:
· cheerful, warm: orange
· passion, practical: gray
· school, prestigious: black
· brilliant, extrovert: red
Color Scheme: two hue plus achromatic tints
The sans-serif type adds to the quick read, and the orange exclamation point emphasizes the passion and energy with which questions will be answered. Hierarchy in the statement is determined by the tints and hues of each word, with “about” being the least important. The change from sans serif to serif in addition to the red color emphasizes “UNLV.”
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Firedog
Designers: Clifford Boobyer and Andrew Philip
Studio: Firedog Design
Associative Color Response:
· dynamic, provocative: red
· professional, solid: gray
· powerful, basic: black
Color Scheme: one hue with tinting and shading
The subtle shift from shadow to highlight creates dimensionality to the button. Although the dog sits on a narrow depth of field, adding black to the red prevents the tint from turning pink and reinforces the dog’s vigor.
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WeB•X Internet Solutions
Designer/Art Director: Drew M. Dallet
Studio: Boom Creative
Associative Color Response:
· dynamic, provocative: red
· professional, solid: gray
· strong, invulnerable: black
Color Scheme: one hue plus achromatic tints
The white “x” seems to radiate out from the red dot at the center of the logomark. This is enhanced by the smooth transition from thick to thin line, the elliptical gray shapes in the background, and subtle simultaneous contrast of the gray and red triangles. These qualities are mirrored in the type choice and placement.
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tech Source Solutions LLC
Designer/Art Director: Drew M. Dallet
Studio: Boom Creative
Associative Color Response:
· develop, experience: dark red
· versatility, trustworthy: green
· basic, invulnerable: black
Color Scheme: complementary tints plus neutral
The shadow produced by the gear belies the flat appearance of the wheel. The lack of dimension is created through the equal line weights and shades of complementary color (red and green), while the tint of black in the shadow defines depth.
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St. Patrick’s Massacre
Designer: Mark Raebel
Studio: Arsenal Design
Associative Color Response:
· St. Patrick’s Day, springtime: green
· new growth, fruity: high-chroma green-yellow
· wheat, cheerful: yellow
· basic, neutral: black
Color Scheme: analogous plus neutral
Overlapping of imagery communicates depth, and in this logomark creates the illusion that the knife is spearing the shamrock. Yellow is used in both the foreground of the knife and the background field. This helps to unify the composition but does not detract from the implied depth.
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Saint Pat’s at the Tip
Designer: Mark Raebel
Studio: Arsenal Design
Associative Color Response:
· St. Patrick’s Day, refreshing: green
· tasty, friendly: orange
· heavy, basic: black
Color Scheme: two points of a triad with tinting plus neutral
The orange calls attention to the predominant hierarchy and helps to slow the reader’s eye, which is essential for this typeface. In addition, the bold white line around the distressed black type helps to clarify the readability and unifies “Saint Pat’s” with the secondary type.
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Pediatric Palliative Care
Studio: Essex Two
Associative Color Response:
· stimulating, fun: red
· happy, pleasing: blue
· energetic, warmth: yellow
· school, spatial: black
Color Scheme: additive primaries plus neutral
Not only are the primary colors equally spaced from each other on the color wheel, they are also equally spaced within this logomark. This helps to reinforce the building-block effect of the interlinking structure without diminishing the significance of the mark as too childish.
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SpotLight Projects
Studio: Essex Two
Associative Color Response:
· anticipation, welcome: yellow
· spatial, mysterious: black
Color Scheme: one hue plus neutral with tints and shades
The subtlety with which the spotlights are trained is achieved through the definition of each tint. This effect can only be accomplished through controlled overprinting of one gradation over another and a precise halftone dot that gradually reveals the foreground of the stage.
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Microsoft Office Licensing Products.com
Designer: Ann M. Simon
Associative Color Response:
· producing, vital: orange
· strength, work: blue
· use, hope: green
· active, vital: yellow
Color Scheme: complementary (orange, blue) plus diad (yellow, green)
The shift from equally weighted sans-serif typefaces in the background to a serif typeface in the foreground increases the depth in this narrow field. The thick and thin stroke of the “O” calls attention to the triangles created within the blue field.
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Eternal Health & Wellness
Designer: Carlo Irigoyen
Art Director: Brenda Spivack
Studio: Red Table
Associative Color Response:
· luxuriance, energy: yellow-orange
· life, warm: brown
Color Scheme: two hues with tints
The equal line weight of the mark is in stark contrast to the thick and thin strokes of the typography. The juxtaposition of contrasting line weight allows both the logomark and the logotype to work independently of each other. Together the logo is unified through the binary opposition as yin/yang and the commonality of the color.
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