bryant’s blog

First, I’ll introduce the general concept and requirements.

The idea is to depict the Birmingham skyline and join it with something meaningful that represents record collecting/collectors, which would most likely and simply be a record itself.

The logo needs to contain more or less realistic depictions, particularly of Birmingham (through its skyline and Vulcan) and a vinyl record. This is not to say that everything needs to be accurate or exact, but that the record looks like a record and the skyline looks like Birmingham’s skyline.

Example logo using the Birmingham skyline:

This is just an example and not necessarily ideal, but it works because the buildings look more or less like tallest buildings in downtown Birmingham.

I’ll describe what the Birmingham skyline looks like (from its north side facing south, probably the ideal perspective for the logo) and then I’ll present a few photos. Think of a typical downtown area with some taller building poking out here and there, but beyond the buildings is a mountain that kind of acts as a barrier or divider, and on the mountain is where the Vulcan statue sits. It is like looking at the Hollywood sign from downtown Los Angelas, but the downtown is much smaller. =)

Unlike the image above, the mountain is not a mound and the mountains should be continious for the most part, flat on the top, and the statue of vulcan should be on the right side (instead of the left).
Photos of Birmingham:

These are taken from the top of the mountain, but it should give you can idea of what the building that make up the skyline look like. Flipping these horizontally will give you the perspective I was using above.

Implementing the skyline….

#1 - Using a 45 RPM record — the label as the canvas and the black vinyl w/ its grooves as the “border.”

Using a 7 inch/45 RPM record (instead of 12 inch/33 RPM) would give you more label area. The size ratio of the label and the record doesn’t have to be perfect or exactly like above. The even darker ring outside of the label (before it actually gets to the grooves of the record) would be a reasonable distance to increase the canvas for the skyline, but what is important is that it looks like a record (not necessarily an exact replica).

Skyline fits in the center/label area, with blue sky on top, the mountain continuing left to right across the middle region, and from the bottom up to the middle would be buildings that make up the skyline, w/ Vulcan on the right more or less on top of the mountain (or little down like the Hollywood letters).

With that in place, the text of the logo could go in several places, either to the right of the main image, or even partially on the record and continuing off into the “white space” to right, or in the “sky” area, or you could have the letters BRC sitting on top of the mountain and have the full name to right of the main image, etc.

#2 - Any variation using the skyline and a record, perhaps the record could come from behind the mountains like a sunset, but idea #1 sounds cooler to me. =)

Colors

Throw in black and white as well.

Fonts

This is not all that important and could easily be part of the revision process, but fonts from logos 2,3,4 (http://www.logobee.com/view/birm/) look nice.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

First, I’ll introduce the general concept and requirements.

The idea is to depict the Birmingham skyline and join it with something meaningful that represents record collecting/collectors, which would most likely and simply be a record itself.

The logo needs to contain more or less realistic depictions, particularly of Birmingham (through its skyline and Vulcan) and a vinyl record. This is not to say that everything needs to be accurate or exact, but that the record looks like a record and the skyline looks like Birmingham’s skyline.

Example logo using the Birmingham skyline:

This is just an example and not necessarily ideal, but it works because the buildings look more or less like tallest buildings in downtown Birmingham.

I’ll describe what the Birmingham skyline looks like (from its north side facing south, probably the ideal perspective for the logo) and then I’ll present a few photos. Think of a typical downtown area with some taller building poking out here and there, but beyond the buildings is a mountain that kind of acts as a barrier or divider, and on the mountain is where the Vulcan statue sits. It is like looking at the Hollywood sign from downtown Los Angelas, but the downtown is much smaller. =)

Unlike the image above, the mountain is not a mound and the mountains should be continious for the most part, flat on the top, and the statue of vulcan should be on the right side (instead of the left).
Photos of Birmingham:

These are taken from the top of the mountain, but it should give you can idea of what the building that make up the skyline look like. Flipping these horizontally will give you the perspective I was using above.

Implementing the skyline….

#1 - Using a 45 RPM record — the label as the canvas and the black vinyl w/ its grooves as the “border.”

Using a 7 inch/45 RPM record (instead of 12 inch/33 RPM) would give you more label area. The size ratio of the label and the record doesn’t have to be perfect or exactly like above. The even darker ring outside of the label (before it actually gets to the grooves of the record) would be a reasonable distance to increase the canvas for the skyline, but what is important is that it looks like a record (not necessarily an exact replica).

Skyline fits in the center/label area, with blue sky on top, the mountain continuing left to right across the middle region, and from the bottom up to the middle would be buildings that make up the skyline, w/ Vulcan on the right more or less on top of the mountain (or little down like the Hollywood letters).

With that in place, the text of the logo could go in several places, either to the right of the main image, or even partially on the record and continuing off into the “white space” to right, or in the “sky” area, or you could have the letters BRC sitting on top of the mountain and have the full name to right of the main image, etc.

#2 - Any variation using the skyline and a record, perhaps the record could come from behind the mountains like a sunset, but idea #1 sounds cooler to me. =)

Colors

Throw in black and white as well.

Fonts

This is not all that important and could easily be part of the revision process, but fonts from logos 2,3,4 (http://www.logobee.com/view/birm/) look nice.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.