OK, so Texas Forums really grew up like a wild child. We’ve never been strategic about our look or even our name. “Texas Forums” was just a domain name I grabbed in 2003 so we’d have a web site for our project on Americans’ Role in the World with KLRU. THAT web site was about four pages in earth tones for the southwest AND because most universities (exception being the UT Orange) are not using earthier tones that are hard to match.
Our first (and only) logo was a freebie that Jill Johnson found online. I like it’s peaceful colors, the use of the star (hey, it’s Texas!) and the circles sitting around the table. The text has never fit in right with the logo. It feels like it was added at the last minute, but then you don’t really need text with a good logo. (How often do you see words next to a swoosh?)
But now we’ve got Cesar Torres, recent UT grad and new LBJ Library graphics guy, on the job.
In keeping with the circles and in response to my description about how forums help people find where they overlap and share values and common ground, Cesar created this potential logo. I like the colors…in fact they are very close to our newsletter and (at least the blue) close to this blog. But Diane Miller (I have to use her name a lot on this blog because people seek her out on google and find us!) saw this and said, “the circle thing is kind of overdone.” She’s got a point.
So there’s this option. Again, I like the colors. I like them alot.
The dangling star is supposed to represent dialogue boxes like in cartoons and graphic novels. It might look as though Texas Forums is doing the talking which is not the message we want to convey. It makes me think of the cute graphic popular for decades that was accompanied by the line, “Kilroy was here.” This design was partially inspired by the graphics on the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation.
Cesar also introduced me to the adobe kuler site where anyone can put together fabulous color schemes.
SO…I will post some of these ideas here over the next few weeks to get your feedback. What do you think about these possibilities?
This is just round one, let’s see what come out in a second go-round!
I like the dialogue box idea, and it’s subtle with the star a paler tone like that. The colors do look great!
I like the one with the upside down star best, but turn it back upright.