New Logo!

Visual Literacy Journal#1

Rachel Watson

I began reading the two texts for this course early in the spring and slowly, at an enjoyable pace, made my way through both. I found this a very fulfilling experience as my mind began to knit together the concepts and to create visual works with, as Freud might say, my id, ego and superego (Berger, 2008, p. 4). In fact, I found myself awake at 2:30 am one morning contemplating a new logo for the University of Wyoming (UW) Ski team. Thoughts regarding shape, balance and direction floated through my head (Berger, 2008, ch. 3).

Thus, in a state that was half waking, half sleep I imagined an image, that with asymmetrical balance, would create excitement and energy (Berger, 2008, p. 78). I hoped to use lines and shapes to direct the viewer’s eyes and to allow the viewer to see, in the image, both a skier and the letters “U” and “W” (Berger, 2008, pp. 80-81). It was when I realized that I could use psychological closure to “complete” the body of the skier that the image began to truly take form (Berger, 2008, p. 83). As I worked, I found that I was able to complete the entire logo using derivations of only one shape, a circle. In retrospect, this seems fitting as a circle is said to represent endlessness, warmth and protection (Berger, 2008, p. 75). These are all emotions that I associate with skiing, as I will be a skier forever and as a coach, I hope I represent warmth and protection to my athletes. Although I journal about this logo here for the first time and show it for the first time (below), I have not yet described all aspects of visual literacy that informed my creation. I hope to do this in future journal entries. I also hope that the logo will continue to evolve throughout the summer as I incorporate additional principles of visual literacy. 

Visual Literacy Journal #2

Rachel Watson

In this entry, I return to the logo for the University of Wyoming (UW) Ski team about which I wrote in entry 1. With continued insights from the course, I have considered not only elements of shape, balance and direction but I have also begun to consider color. Lynell Burmark (2002) writes that color can increase engagement and recall. She further notes that the color yellow can be very stimulating. For my design, this is serendipitous happenchance because the only appropriate colors for the logo are those incorporating the University’s colors of brown and gold (yellow). Burmark further goes on to remind us that text (or logo in this case) should contrast with the background (p. 73). Again, a fortunate consequence of school colors in brown and gold is their natural contrast. However, when suggesting effective design for presentations, Burmark notes that a darker background is preferable. She notes that these dark colors are calming and tend to recede whereas warm colors, such as yellow, are better for the foreground text and graphical elements (p. 73). I thus have attempted a logo in which the skier / letters are in yellow against a brown background. The darker color then theoretically recedes, leaving the yellow to “jump out” and excite (fig. 1).

            Upon completing this design, I was pleased with the way in which the UW now seems more evident. It does seem that the background recedes leaving the logo to be the “eye grabber”. I still felt some concern about the head of the skier, which in effect is the only portion of the logo that is not both a part of the skier and the UW. Thus, I further incorporated Burmark’s design principles and attempted to make the head a slightly darker color with the hope that it would recede with respect to the remainder of the skier. Also, in order to further detract attention from the skier’s head, I noted that Berger (2008) states that, “We can use focus to emphasize certain things and deemphasize others…” (p. 135). I thus attempted to deemphasize the head by making it appear less focused.

This leaves me now to ponder the appropriateness of a brown background for a skier who, of course, always skis on snow and a radiant, light background. Perhaps my design of this logo will be ever evolving but it is unarguably made better with the application of each new design principle and with each rendering.