More Revisions

Idea's centering around the coat of arms for the city of Utrecht, Netherlnds.  Utrecht art supply was named after old Utrecht Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, which in turn was named after the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands.  The cherub was pulled from some of Utrecht's packaging.  I have no idea what it is or what it means for the company-I can only defer that it is from a renaissance painting and thought it might make an interesting emblem.

Changes after class critique that the logo resembled blood splatters instead of paint.  I took photographs of actual paint strokes and then live traced them in Illustrator.

evolving logo designs

 

So after talking to a friend about the project he had some interesting ideas about my previous desings.  He suggested I focus on the "U" in Utrecht and we drew up some sketches.   They are a little more sophisticated than the direction I was previously going, which only goes to show that bouncing ideas off others can be advantageous. 

Sketches

Here are some of the first draft sketches (done in illustrator) for the logo.

Like I said, just first draft ideas to get them out of my head. I'm not exactly happy with any of them, they are a little too basic and seem like clip art to me. I'm still unsure which direction to take the logo as I'm having some trouble marying the ideas of retail branding vs. artist branding.  My thought was to focus in images centering around the production of linen (seeing as though that is where the company strated) and I came up with the design of the spinning wheel.  I tried hand-writing the Utrecht script, though I'm not sure its really working.  Other trains of thought were to incorporate Pantone chips and elemts such as t-squares into the name.  It all seemed too 'corporate', for lack of a better word, and didn't say 'professional artist'.  I then experimented with making brush marks in Illustrator and trying to incorporte Utrecht into the mix.  I like the visual quality of it, however as a logo on producs such as a tube of paint it might not hold up with its characteristics.

A Random Thought

While I was sketching idea's for my logo I started thinking about what images I could use to signify linen, as it was the primary foundation of Utrecht.  It then occurred to me that I have no idea how linen is made, so in the spirit of random research I looked it up. 

apparently, linen is made from flax seeds (as is linseed oil).  The flowers are grown in fields and harvested.  The flax is pulled from the ground from the roots and then must be retted, a process which involves either submerging them in water for a few days (which yields a gold-ish thread color), or done in the field with morning dew, which could take up to six weeks and yields a silver-ish thread color. Retting allows bacterial action to cause the stalk to loosen and decompose. The flax is then laid out to dry and de-seeded by running a 'comb' through the stalks.  In the final stage the fiber is drawn through a series of combs to remove any remaining boom and tow,  called hackling.  Over 85% of the plant has been removed in the process of arriving at the end product called strick. The long thin fibers resembling human hair have to be handled carefully to keep them from tangling. A distaff is used to keep the fibers separate and in line during spinning. The flax wheel is traditionally a small wheel. The flax needs to be continually moistened while spinning.  After the thread is spun the yarn, now called linen, is stretched and boiled to set the twist put in by the spinning.

It's interesting that the seeds from a single plant are the basis of two major artistic resources for artists, linen and linseed oil.  For those not familiar with painting techniques, linseed oils is the binding medium in oil paints and is also used as a medium, either by itself or combined with turpentine or a combination of turpentine and damar varnish.  

More Research on New Utrecht (NY)

I decided to look more into the history of the town of New Utrecht and New Utrecht Avenue for inspiration for my logo. 

History
Previously named Old Utrectht, the town was one of six Dutch towns the British incorporated and was the base of operations for the Battle of Long Island.  In 1652, Cornelius Van Werckhoven of Utrecht, Holland, purchased land in Brooklyn from the Nyack indians native to the land.  The price was 6 shirts, 2 pairs of shoes, 6 stockings, 6 adzes, 6 knives, 2 scissors, and 2 combs.  In 1657, New Utrecht was granted status as a village.  The area is now 84th street between 16th and 18th street in Brooklyn.  in 1661, govenor Peter Stoyvesant granded Utrecht a charter.  Some of the historically notable sites in New Utrecht are the New Utrecht (Dutch) Reformed Churc, the Old Utrecht Cemetary, and the New Utrecht Liberty Pole.  The church is revered as the 'heart' of the town and originally was an octoganal shaped building with a tall spire. 

Below are some pictures

I find the town and it's history much more interesting than that of the store itself.   If there were a way to incorporate the essence of the town and its heritage, possibly even its links to the European Utrecht, in the logo it could give Utrecht (Co.) that sense of establishment and old world quality it stems from. 

Competition in brand products

In addition to Utrecht being a national retail store, they  produce and market their own line of canvas, linnen, oil, acrylic, and watercolor paints, as well as paper pads.  Some of their top non retail competitors are companies such as Old Holland, Winsor and Newton, Gamblin, Liquitex, and Holbein.  After comparing the Utrecht logo to retail competitors, I then compared it to the other product line competitors.

The above company identities represent some of the more trusted name brands in art supplies.  The logos speak the 'language' of the artist more so than those of the retail art supply stores listed in the previous entry.  The most noteable differences between these componay identies and the retail store identities are they are more colorful (where color is used) and have a more sophisticated look.  In comparisson, the Utrecht logo does not hold its weight in this category, thus begging the question should the Utrecht logo focus more on the retail identity or the product identy of the company? Which is the more important message to convey to the consumer?