CATUG logo

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

Criteria

It should identify both the "Christian" and "Apple user" elements. We are not allowed to use an unaltered Apple logo, except within the Apple-supplied user group signature.

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using typography instead does have an advantage in that it makes the logo more timeless and less likely to become out of date in the future.

Design ideas

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. Part of the Apple logo is cleverly and subtly used in the design!

We also considered a classic Mac shape, as used by some other groups, but ruled this out:

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.

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.

On the other hand, (8) 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. Some members liked (11), where CATUG has a cross within the T, and an Apple in A.

(12) is catug with a huge bite out of an apple, with a flame in place of the leaf in the Apple logo. (13) and (14) make the Christian visual element more obvious.

(15) is the first suggestion without letters, keeping just the visual elements of (14). (16), (17) and (18) add back the acronym, the domain or the full name respectively.

(19) groups the words "Apple Technology" together, by abbreviating to Tech. The text-based design incorporates Christian and Apple logos; the Cross is at the top and central. The font is Optima, with the cross in a larger size. (20) is just another way to deface the Apple logo.

On the second page, (21) shows a flame over the world in place of a leaf over an apple, with a bite taken out to make the Apple reference more recognisable.

(22) is yet another way to use Christian symbols in the middle of the Apple.

(22)