IBOJDPCNT Local No 643

Homer's union, the International Brotherhood of Jazz Dancers, Pastry Chefs and Nuclear Technicians, Local No. 643, is the latest Springfield entity to go under my mouse for an identity.

Nothing says "Union" like a gear, so that's where I started. I dropped in simple iconic graphics representing the three different fields the union represents, and finished off with some workmanlike typography.

The font in the gear is Garamond Bold Condensed. The typefaces in the title area are Franklin Gothic Condensed, Futura Light Condensed, and Franklin Gothic Heavy. Dull as dishwater, but all union logos are.

Malibu Stacy

I had some down-time today while waiting for files to transfer, so I went ahead and did another Springfield logo treatment. This time it's Lisa's favorite fashion doll, Malibu Stacy.

As always, I started by looking at the real-world inspiration, in this case the marketing monster known as Barbie. Of course I had a vague idea of what the logo ought to look like, but I was surprised to see how often the good folks at Mattel refresh their brand identity. There are a lot of variations on the basic pink script logo. Sometimes it's been swirly and girly, other times it looks like hand-drawn lettering, and still other times it's a rounded-serif italic. The only thing that remains consistent is the garish trademark pink color.

With that in mind, I decided that "Malibu" should contrast with "Stacy" in every possible way; it's geometric and angular, all caps, widely-spaced, smaller, and bright blue. (The blue is intended to remind one of the ocean, as in Malibu Beach.) The font is ITC Serif Gothic, a popular font from the '70s that remains interesting and not too dated.

For "Stacy" I started with one of the marvelous sign-making fonts from A&S, in this case A&S Signwriter, which I then converted to outlines, threw a stroke on and tortured within an inch of its life, fattening the letters, fattening them even more at the bottom, extending the crossbar on the t and elongating the tail on the y. Then I tipped the whole thing (except the crossbar on the t) to a slight angle and laid "Malibu" over it with a white stroke placed behind it. I chose a lavender color for the logo since pink is claimed by the competition.

Try 'N' Save

Try 'N' Save is the Springfield version of what used to be Pic 'N' Save, a chain of cheapo discount retailers that is today called Big Lots. Pic 'N' Save was the west coast version; in other areas, it was called "MacFrugal's" (how come nobody ever complains about the insulting ethnic stereotyping of the Scots? I bet if it were called "Frugalberg's" somebody would make a little noise...). Eventually, MacFrugal's/Pic 'N' Save merged with Odd Lots/Big Lots and now there's only one major bargain/close-out store chain. (By the way, the parent company also owns Kay-Bee Toys, so if you wait long enough, everything that goes through the toy store eventually ends up at the bargain shop. Just an FYI.)

Anyway, back to the design...

The last Pic 'N' Save logo was one of those vaguely western-looking ones, sort of like the font I used for Moe's, tall and thin with big fat slab serifs. For Try 'N' Save I went with something a little more informal and looser feeling. The Las Vegas font collection from House Industries is based on signage from classic Vegas casinos; I used Nugget, which is based on the Golden Nugget. It's a very narrow font, so I once again stretched it horizontally 250% (I really hate doing that, but sometimes it's necessary). The color is Pantone 199, a bright red that leans a little toward magenta, with a thin black keyline added to give it a little solidity.

As with Moe's, the goal is to create a slightly outdated logo, something that looks like it was done by a low-budget design outfit about 20 years ago and hasn't been freshened up in a while.

Things Unnecessary

"Things Unnecessary" is the store where Homer bought himself a $500 astrolabe in the Season 15 Christmas episode. The store is intended to be a satire of outfits like Sharper Image and Brookstone, but the name is a play on a chain store called "Things Remembered." These are stores that specialize in items for people with more dollars than sense; personalized tchotchkes, the sort of thing you might receive as a gift if you were a bridesmaid. The merchandise is all the sort of thing I call "look, I got you a gift" gifts; somewhat impersonal (in that it doesn't reflect anything at all of the recipient's tastes or preferences), almost entirely useless, but too expensive-looking to dump at the Goodwill, and since it usually has the recipient's name or initials engraved on it, it's almost impossible to re-gift. Exactly the sort of place that would stock $500 astrolabes.

The name and type of business demands a logo that has a veneer of elegance, an upscale look, with a sleek but ornamental typeface, so I started with University Roman, a somewhat swashy font with big loopy letters, a strong vertical shape, long spiky serifs, and what I would describe as a "Disney" flavor. Elegant but superficial, with something of a soulless quality.

A veneer of reflective gloss with a slightly cold metallic color, and a completely extraneous ligature of the too-precious double-s and the g, and we have an upscale logo with a vaguely tacky feeling about it.

Awfully quiet out there

Is anybody out there? I see I have a few followers, and a couple other people have told me they look at these, but a little feedback wouldn't hurt. Somebody comment already. Are there any Springfield institutions you'd like to see me take a whack at?

Hello? Bueller?

Moe's Tavern

Moe's is another of the long-time Springfield landmarks that never really had any kind of a logo; the establishing shot of the exterior shows a purple building with green-and-orange diamond-cut stained glass windows, and (again) plain red block letters spelling out the name, "MOE'S" over the door. The words "Moe's Tavern" appear in black lettering on the side wall.

I decided that Moe's sign should probably look like it hadn't been updated in a few decades; in the mid-1970s there was an 1890s revival (along with a '20s revival and a '50s one, almost simultaneously, as nostalgia is prone to do), with a lot of businesses adopting the late-Victorian-to-Edwardian letterforms and decorative devices. In my old neighborhood there was an entire mall decorated in that style, and some people may remember Farrell's, a chain of "gay '90s" ice cream parlors. In Southern California at least, the turn of the century design also included an Old West flavor (same time period, different culture), with "western" fonts popping up here and there.

I've opted to use one of those western fonts, in this case Ponderosa, but I've tortured it. Ponderosa is an astonishingly narrow font with gigantic serifs, so I scaled it horizontally to 300% of its original proportion for enhanced legibility. Then I rotated it 10° counterclockwise (or as I prefer to think of it, widdershins) and stacked layers of keylines on it and dropped it in front of a circular element.

Colors are derived from the interior of the bar; brown from the wood, green and orange from the windows, and yellow from the customers' skin tone.

Globex Corporation

Hank Scorpio's world-dominating corporation was an ideal candidate for a refresh; the original was, once again, plain gothic type, with a globe replacing the O.

Given that world-dominating corporations usually try to present themselves as benign and friendly, I decided to go with environmentally-conscious blues and greens, which also helps to integrate the globe with the letters.

Fonts are Gill Sans, Extra Bold and Light. I decided to play up the arrow formed by the intersection of the E and X by filling it with the green from the globe.

I think it's as warm and fuzzy as any malevolent corporation bent on tyranny and evil.