We started the ball rolling with a simple line of heavily serifed text, with the ‘I’s of The Light Review replaced with candlesticks. So far, so very, very, clunky.
As a professional creative who has spent a lifetime getting exasperated with clients getting in the way of a decent design, I hope I know when to sit back and let events take their course. I was introduced to Becky Blake, handed her what I hoped was a decent brief, and waited to see what would happen.
The on-line world has changed the way that logos need to work. Its no longer just a badge and something to put on the top of a letterhead; web pages have all kinds of uses and company branding needs to keep up with the content.
We identified three – maybe four – different logo environments:
- The formal header; the full name in a single line
- The informal header; full name but used as a branding statement
- The condensed block; imagine an old-fashioned rubber stamp if you will. Initials.
- The logo-in-logo; did I mention the candlestick?
Experts in their field will – and ought – to challenge any client brief because, after all, they are the experts in their field. The first graphic stroke then, was to remove the candlestick from one of the ‘I’s. Simple, but genius. How many candlesticks do you need?
The word ‘Light’ now becomes the focal point of the logo, in whatever form. Its impossible for the eye not to be drawn to the candle flame and its halo. Ah yes, the halo. Graphic stroke number two.
The Light Review never appears in logo form without the candlestick; whether as the full name or its initials, the candlestick logo-in-logo holds the focus.
So why a candle – in this age of super-technology? That was my choice and it all goes back to the mythos at the core of what Light means to us. If anyone is asked for their image of what lies at the very root of Light, it’s the candle flame. And I’d refer you to Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’, any of the emotive light studies by Joseph Wright of Derby (his ‘Blacksmith’s Shop’ series describe incandescence better than any textbook) . . . and don’t get me started on the chiaroscuro of the Dutch and Italian masters.
The candle became the first portable artificial light source (you just had to remember to blow it out when you put your candle stub into your pack). Everything that we’ve come to rely on in our modern society is merely a technological conjuring trick that enables us to see in the dark, Only FIRE is an essential element in our existence.
Look at is like this:
- When Prometheus gifted fire to humankind, his reward from the other gods was to be chained to a rock and have his liver pecked out by a giant eagle . . for eternity
(listen – – – – do you hear that?). - When Edison (yes, among all the others) invented the electric light bulb his reward was simply to become very rich.
Go figure the priorities.
So a candle it had to be – and it looks perfect.
