Hasta La Ideas

When Chevrolet was preparing their new Corvette sports car in the early ’50s, the task of designing the logo fell to Chevy interior designer Robert Bartholomew. Bartholomew’s design (above) featured two crossed flags: One, the checkered flag that symbolized race victory, the other, the American Stars ‘n Stripes.

However, using the American flag to promote commercial products was illegal at the time, and Chevy execs reportedly decided at the last minute to nix that part of the design. (It’s not clear why they waited until four days before the car’s unveiling, but you can practically picture Bartholomew sitting at his drafting table going goddammit.) Bartholomew’s last-minute replacement was a flag sporting both the Chevrolet logo and a fleur-de-lis, a French symbol that was reportedly part of Louis Chevrolet’s family crest. (See our post on heraldry here.)

New badges were whipped up based on Bartholomew’s drawings, and the Corvette debuted in 1953 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

Sadly, after that story, all mention of specific designers associated with subsequent logos are nil. What we do know is that Bartholomew’s design stuck around until 1957, then underwent multiple tweaks and changes throughout the years. Amassing a photo list has proved trickier than expected, as there were multiple emblems for the hood, tail and fenders, but we’ve tried to put together a visual chronology focused on the nose badges.

In 1956 and ’57, a Chevrolet chevron was added to the design:

In 1958 we see a typographic update that persists until 1961:

(more…)

Design studio Apropos has created a logo and graphic system for Clarks Plus* which will be used to highlight new technology developed by footwear manufacturer Clarks to increase comfort around the ‘ball of the foot’..

“Plus* is a product technical feature that will appear across categories and collections, rather than a stand-alone range in itself,” explains Apropos’ Gareth Wild. “It will appear in premium women’s, men’s and sports designs as from now (Spring 2013) and will expand over subsequent seasons. There are plans for packaging, point-of-sale and advertising though that’s being handled by Clarks internal design dept – who wilI interpret the branding system I’ve created.”

The new Plus* logo exists in three different iterations, the difference between each being found in the asterisk to the right of the all lowercase logotype. Each of the different versions is used depending on the category of shoe, whether it’s for women, for men, or a sport shoe. The asterisks also appear in pattern form too:

“Working directly with the marketing department at Clarks, we developed a logotype system with hi-lighter asterisk* iterations for each category, combined with a softened serif word mark,” says Wild of the work. “It’s a modular system primarily designed for product use with potential for packaging, POS and environmental graphics,” he continues. “The different asterisk symbols combine to form a pattern that can be interpreted by product designers across a variety of styles – from high heels to leisure shoes, sandals, trainers and potentially children’s designs.”

apropos-site.com.

CR in Print
The February issue of CR magazine features a major interview with graphic designer Ken Garland. Plus, we delve into the Heineken advertising archive, profile digital art and generative design studio Field, talk to APFEL and Linder about their collaboration on a major exhibition in Paris for the punk artist, and debate the merits of stock images versus commissioned photography. Plus, a major new book on women in graphic design, the University of California logo row and what it means for design, Paul Belford on a classic Chivas Regal ad and Jeremy Leslie on the latest trends in app design for magazines and more. Buy your copy here.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878, or buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month.

La tazza in acciaio smaltato di Seamless & Steadfast la trovate su Bestmadeco.

Queste sono le The Stylus per Nixon. Archetto pieghevole, telecomando per smartphone, driver potenti e a bassa distorsione.

How do you project moving images onto water? That was the challenge faced by Red Paper Heart, a Brooklyn-based collective of designers and coders. Tasked by nightlife tracker UrbanDaddy with creating an event featuring “a memorable interactive experience in water,” RPH decided to “create animations that partygoers could swim through.”

Sixty-five thousand ping pong balls later, they had their solution:

(more…)