Here's a fun little project I did not a while back: The creation of a seal and logo for a Student Organization that was just created here at UC Berkeley.
The objective of this project was to create a seal and logo for a brand new Student Organization called the "Latin American Leadership Society". I was approached by one of the founders of the organization (we were both well acquainted) and I was asked to create a logo for them.
The objective of this project was to create a seal and logo for a brand new Student Organization called the "Latin American Leadership Society". I was approached by one of the founders of the organization (we were both well acquainted) and I was asked to create a logo for them.
The two examples you see here (on top and below) are the finished Logo & Seal in what is now their official format within the organization.
Both the Logo & Seal went through considerable variations throughout the project. Since I was asked to develop the Seal & Logo with little specifications as to what kind of style the organization wanted, I initially did a fair amount of brainstorming, quick sketching, and quick presentation (to the founders of the organization) to see what kind of style piqued their interest. Below are two early drafts of two very different style of Logos (save for the placeholder font).
Eventually, the circular stamp-like seal attracted them the most, so it was decided that that style was to be the official one in use. Once that was settled, I began work in earnest and started developing the final form on the seal and logo.
A nifty little feature I decided to include: Since this organization is expected to expand to other campuses around the country, I thought it be pretty great if each campus had its own variation of the seal. As a result, I decided to leave a space in the logo for the name of the campus. Obviously, since the organization was created at Berkeley, the first name would correspond to Berkeley.
Perhaps the biggest struggle I had with the project was in defining what sort of style (beyond the circular format) the seal and logo themselves were to be presented in. At first I tried doing a classy, serif-font-guided Seal and Logo that looked very formal and conservative.
It proved difficult. Serif fonts don't go too well with circular seals, and doing an appropiate seal with serif font is quite the tricky undertaking.
I looked around and noticed there was a higher number of sans-serif seals among universities and organizations than serif based seals, and little by little I got convinced that a sans-serif based Seal and Logo would end up looking nicer and more modern than a serif-based one.
Below are some of the seals that most guided the design aesthetic I ended up choosing for LLS:
It proved difficult. Serif fonts don't go too well with circular seals, and doing an appropiate seal with serif font is quite the tricky undertaking.
I looked around and noticed there was a higher number of sans-serif seals among universities and organizations than serif based seals, and little by little I got convinced that a sans-serif based Seal and Logo would end up looking nicer and more modern than a serif-based one.
Below are some of the seals that most guided the design aesthetic I ended up choosing for LLS:
The Seal of Geogia Tech (Go Jackets!) with a beautiful sans-serif condensed font.
The Seal of UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) with a not-quite-totally-sans-serif font, but still gives off a sort of sans serif feel, as it is not quite as pronounced in the edges as your standard serif font.
The OEA (Organización de los Estados Americanos) Seal, which translates to "The Organization of American States"
'cause you know it's only in the America that America means a country, and not a continent.
'cause you know it's only in the America that America means a country, and not a continent.
Needs no introduction.
(Also, a beautiful use of sans-serif font)
Seal of the University of Michigan. The one seal that kept proving to me that serif based seals are actually feasible and can indeed look very nice (although it is fair to note that the serif qualities of this font are not that distinct here).
A funny twist of events is that the official logo and seal ended up having the same color scheme as this logo. The founders of LLS seemd to have a great liking to this color pattern (more on this later).
A funny twist of events is that the official logo and seal ended up having the same color scheme as this logo. The founders of LLS seemd to have a great liking to this color pattern (more on this later).
This variation above ended up being the final attempt at a serif-based Seal & Logo. I think with a little more work it could've actually ended up looking quite nice, but I was on a timer, and by the time this version of the serif Seal came up, I was actually making good progress with the sans-serif version (which ended up being the official one).
Not a bad attempt if you ask me, in fact, I still consider this version a Work-In-Progress, and I'm probably going to give this version a few more spins later down the line just to see where I can take it.
Not a bad attempt if you ask me, in fact, I still consider this version a Work-In-Progress, and I'm probably going to give this version a few more spins later down the line just to see where I can take it.
Lo and behold, the semi-final design aesthetic that I ended up sharing to the LLS members. These permutations of the seal all came from the sans-serif version that I was working on while developing the serif-based one.
By the time these permutations rolled out, I had changed a couple of minor things in the seal. Little details such as the space and thickness of the circular bars, the compasses that separate the "Berkeley" name from the "Latin American Leadership Society" name (which although – if you pay attention – they have been featured in the early drafts shown in this very presentation, I had not actually come up with them until these versions were created), and of course the fonts themselves.
Once I showed these versions to the LLS crowd, they voted and decided to go with the second option, the blue and gold color scheme, to reflect the official colors of UC Berkeley (which is ironic really, since the actual colors of the Berkeley seal were featured in the 3rd option seal, and not the second).
By the time these permutations rolled out, I had changed a couple of minor things in the seal. Little details such as the space and thickness of the circular bars, the compasses that separate the "Berkeley" name from the "Latin American Leadership Society" name (which although – if you pay attention – they have been featured in the early drafts shown in this very presentation, I had not actually come up with them until these versions were created), and of course the fonts themselves.
Once I showed these versions to the LLS crowd, they voted and decided to go with the second option, the blue and gold color scheme, to reflect the official colors of UC Berkeley (which is ironic really, since the actual colors of the Berkeley seal were featured in the 3rd option seal, and not the second).
After dropping the "THE" from the seal and doing a minor color adjustment to make the colors more deep and contrasting (both of these minor changes as per instructions from the LLS members), this ended up being the official seal of the "Latin American Leadership Society".
For those of you curious, the font used in the official seal is the Avenir Next Condensed.
For those of you curious, the font used in the official seal is the Avenir Next Condensed.
As for the logo itself, the work was actually surprisingly quick. Once I had defined the Avenir Next Condensed font for the seal, I happened to serendipitously stumble upon the Fira Sans font while messing around the Typekit in Adobe Illustrator. It meshed really really well with the seal, and I opted to go with it.
After some little white space and spacing adjustments – and a slight modification of the line that divided the two parts of the logo – the final form of the logo came into being.
A fun little project, just for Spring Break.
Thanks for reading, hope you liked the work.
After some little white space and spacing adjustments – and a slight modification of the line that divided the two parts of the logo – the final form of the logo came into being.
A fun little project, just for Spring Break.
Thanks for reading, hope you liked the work.
All work was done in Adobe Illustrator CC.
Alejandro Esteban Salazar
