AOL Visual Development Guide - Chris Leon

Visual Development Guide

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Visual Development Guide

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Table of Contents 6 Chapter 1: Logo Research Identity Evolution Brainstorming & Keywords 24 Chapter 2: Initial Sketches Initial Sketches Refinement 44 Chapter 3: Digital Sketches Digital Sketches Similar Logos 52 Chapter 4: Final Logo Final Logo Standardization

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Chapter 1:

Logo Research

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Brand Identification

Redefining an Iconic Identity A major step in reviving a iconic brand from our past is forming its new identity. For its millions of former users, AOL defines an era of their lives, and for many marked the beginning of experience with the Internet.

There running man logo was synonymous with email and chat that connected people thousands of miles apart at the blink of an eye.

Through its many evolutions since its early days, connection and community have remained core tenets of the brand, but now there identity has become dated, a symbol of a previous decade of internet exploration. Before AOL can move into a new era, a new symbol linked to its soul must created.

For this symbol to stand for everything AOL has come to represent, we must first define what it is AOL stands for. The brand soul is defined by three main keywords: Community, Connection, and Education.

With these words as a starting point the process of creating a new logo can begin.

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Logo Evolution

1991

1998

2005

2012

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Brand Direction AOL’s logo has taken several forms over that last two and a half decades with, up until recently, a triangle existing at the center of it.

Moving forward the logo must be modern and accessible. It is probably in AOL’s best interest to move away from its old identity and begin to evolve for the future.

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Keywords

Community In its early days, AOL developed a communities that defined the way a generation communicated. As the brand is revived, this community building should still remain a major tenet. However as the world becomes more and more digital, the community that AOL should focus on is the tangible communities in which we live in. Where as the early AOL sought to create communities online, the new AOL should look to strengthen the communities we live in.

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Connection AOL has always been about connecting people online whether that be through email, instant messaging, or chat rooms. In the age of social media, connection online has come to mean something different but the main tenets still exist. The new AOL should look to expand beyond digital connections and get people to connect in real and tangible ways.

AOL can show people that technology does not have to be an isolating thing, and instead can be used to create new deep personal connections. The new AOL should look to bring the world together.

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Education Though not necessarily synonymous with education, AOL has always kept it close to its core. AOL was the first ever ISP to offer online classes and education portals and their partnerships with schools and teachers developed the foundation on which online education as we know it today was built. The new AOL should fully embrace this part of their history and continue to expand on it. It is not enough to just get people online, they should also look to educate people on the best ways to use their technology safely and securely. Education is one of the best ways to create better, stronger communities and my focusing these efforts on underserved or left behind demographics, the goal of better equality can be achieved.

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Chapter 2:

Initial Sketches

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For the initial round of community inspired sketches, I wanted to cap-

Community

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ture the idea of strong foundation, building up, interconnection, and communication. The ideas ranged from literal interpretation of these themes to the more abstract.

One theme that I explored in several variations was the idea of the different levels of community: the self, the family, the village, the world. By representing the layer cake in which we all live, my hope was that logo would speak to the interconnectedness of world we live in.

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Another key element of my community sketches was idea of people. I

Community

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looked for different ways to represent the human element, whether it be through literal representation or the more abstract idea of overlapping letterforms with humanist curves.

Much like how the triangle was often incorporated in earlier AOL logos, I felt like the arrow was a strong symbol for the community aspect of the new AOL. The arrow represents moving forward, growth, and renewal, all important components of community building.

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Connection

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For the initial round of connection inspired sketches, I thought a lot about the idea of service and its role in connection. This resulted in the image of a pair of hands repeated in a number of my initial sketch ideas.

The hands have been a symbol of connection, best exemplified by the painting on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.

One of the more abstract directions I took for this section was the image of goblet, based off of the myth of Ganymede, the cup bearer of the gods. unfortunately this idea was probably too abstract and tangential and was scraped fairly early on.

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Connection

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Similar in a way to one of the themes used in community, I wanted to explore the levels of service. To build a meaningful connection to the world around us requires sacrifice and service to ourselves, our families, and the communities we live in.

For a lot of the word marks related to connection, I played with scripts believing that interconnection of the words would translate to this idea of togetherness. Ultimately I moved away from direction because I need feel they did an adequate job of representing the new AOL as a whole.

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For the initial round of education inspired sketches, I started with more

Education

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literal interpretations of what education is in form of books atomic symbols and other images one might encounter while in school. In the end I found a lot of these images would limit what people would think is possible with the new AOL.

I tried a variety of methods to bring the idea of education out in my sketches but was often left wanting more. I tried a number of variations on a lighthouse theme, based on the idea of education lighting a path to a better future for oneself and those around them. Unfortunately I feel like this concept may have been too abstract.

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Building blocks was another theme that appeared multiple times in

Education

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these sketches either in the more literal sense or as a way to build letterforms. This also tied in to my use of atom structure as a way to build education influenced letterforms.

A lot of the literal imagery used to represent education was too limiting for an AOL that’s goal was to stand for so such more. That is way a vast majority of these sketches were abandoned in the early stages.

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Community

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The refined sketches looked to build upon many of the themes previously explored in a more tangible way. For community this often meant exploring the idea of communication.

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In the refined sketches for connection, the visual theme of the can seen

Connection

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in several different varieties. Also present was a refined idea of the goblet combined with the concept of the levels of service.

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For education, I refined ideas that I hoped would exentuate the impor-

Education

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tance of education for the betterment of the self. The idea I thought best captured this was the pillar, with education being a major pillar of a successful life.

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Chapter 3:

Digital Sketches

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For the digital sketches, I looked to simplify many of the more abstract

Digital Sketches

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ideas I was tackling before. If someone is unable to decipher what a logo means, chances are that is not a successful logo. The triangle appeared in several iterations of the logo at this stage.

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Chapter 4:

Final Logo

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For the final logo system I moved away from much the harsher geometric shapes of earlier iterations for something more curved and inviting.

Additionally I scraped the imagery and focused on a mark constructed out of the letters AOL..

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The letterforms was built off of a system of circles and squares that gave them a comforting consistency. The goal was letterforms that were simple and memorable, a wordmark that sticks in the viewers mind and emulates the simplicity and accessibility of the new AOL.

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Similar logos

There are many companies that incorporate concentric circles as part of their logo architecture, some to more of an abstract effect, while others use the circles to represent letters similar to what is done in the new AOL logo. A particularly effective logo that employed this strategy is the Qualite Graphique Garantie logo for a British design firm and blog.

Radar Register of Advanced Diabetic Retinopathy

Orthapaedic Hospital

Rogers Broadcasting

Gaydio FM

Essence Music

Siwar Saudi Arabia

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Qualite Graphique Garantie

Shy Camera

Style Aesthetic Clinic

Colegio Andrews

Great Alpine Road

Create Product Design UK

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While there were many similar symbol marks, the most similar wordmark may belong to Mason Design Associates, an interior architecture firm out of the United Kingdom. The similarities lie in the way the logo set architecture to build each letterform.

Third Street Music School

Sfnarad, The Museum Council of Iceland

3 Suisses

Colegio Andrews

Great Alpine Road

Create Product Design UK

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Eaux Claires

Moskau GmbH

Arteria

Mason Design Associates

Schade und Fullgrabe

Asbest Technik

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Typography Roboto Design Christopher Leon Printing Imagink

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