Go Team Venture! Logo of the Week

if you take a graphic design class, odds are you'll get an assignment to design a logo. logos are all around us, but we often don't recognize the simple but powerful messages they have to convey. a designer often has explain what a company or organization is without using any words beyond the brand name. that's a tough job. this is one of my favorite logos as of late:


the Venture Brothers airs on the Cartoon Network's adultswim and is a throwback to Jonny Quest-style adventure cartoons, but with a darkly humorous and cynical adult slant. this logo uses both positive and negative space to convey a whole bunch of images and ideas: the skull nose is actually the Venture Brothers giving each other their signature high-V (the Venture high-five), the title makes use of negative space and the natural break where the skull's teeth would go, and then they get all post-modern on us, using the skull again as the center of the "o" in "Bros."

geesh. when you explain it, it's a mouthful, but when you see it, it's simply awesome.

if you need help designing your own logo or trademark, the csm library has several books on the topic:

• Color harmony logos : more than 1,000 colorways for logos that work
• Logo design that works : secrets for successful logo design
• TM : trademarks designed by Chermayeff & Geismar

don't forget, you can always search the entire Peninsula Library System catalog (for all of San Mateo County) and have anything sent to csm library to pick up free of charge! sweet deal!