CATUG logo

The Operational Board of CATUG have started discussing designs for new logos.

Design ideas

Some criteria for a good logo are:

1. Looks good in B/W
2. Looks good in greyscale
3. Looks good in full color
4. Looks good at 58 pixels by 58 pixels
5. Looks good at 12 inches by 12 inches

The Ops Board like the idea of a logo that adopts the same configuration as an iOS app.

The logo must look good next to the text of the name, but it need not include text internally.

On the other hand, using typography instead does have an advantage in that it makes the logo more timeless and less likely to become out of date in the future.

Some early sketches are online here:

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/21874172/1/CATUG%20Logos?h=1217c5

The numbers below relate to the examples in the above gallery.

(1) to (4): The tongue of fire on the cross would be widely recognised as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Its placement also evokes the leaf on the Apple logo.

(5): The lion evokes the Lion of Judah (Christ), Narnia, and Apple's next OS. Look for another logo hidden in the design!

We also considered a classic Mac shape, as used by some other groups.

Pro

• Simple
• Recognisable
• Can add a cross on the screen
• Classic means it is not tied to this year's current products

Con

• Dated–we need to be progressive
• Many current Apple users are switchers & may not be familiar with the old designs
• We are not just Mac users, but also iPad etc
• User experience even on OS X may be moving towards being more like the iPad and iPhone

(6) and (7): Hence, two more ideas use iPad & iPhone as well as an Apple Mac display. The font is Bleeding Cowboy; it has a grunge look that attracts the youthful. This can be changed; it is easier to show people a radical font and for them to imagine using a simpler one, than the other way round.

Font ideas

Some of us are inclined towards a clean sans serif organizational typeface, in the same category as Apple's use of Myriad Pro. Maybe another humanist sans serif. Going with something on Font Squirrel would allow us to embed it and use it for text on our web pages, too.

(8): On the other hand, this is a quick proof-of-concept supporting a case for serif fonts, and using typography rather than graphics to create the logo. It is subtly iconic in that it uses Apple's old corporate font, Apple Garamond Light.

(9) and (10) use other fonts with our abbreviation on a cross. In (11), CATUG has a cross within the T. Some members like the latter; however, these do not have visual pointers to Apple.

(12) is catug with a huge bite out of an apple; the leaf has been changed to a flame, but this may not be obvious.

It may be helpful to group the letters/words together, in particular "Apple Technology". The following text-based design incorporates the two essential elements, Christian and Apple (not just Mac), by using their instantly recognisable and timeless logos. The Cross is at the top and central. A design to be added to the gallery uses Optima font, with the cross in a larger size:

Chris†ian

pple Tech

User Group