Logo Histories

Logo Histories is a new series of zines dedicated to telling the stories behind modernist logos of the past. In each issue readers will come to understand the contexts, concepts and considerations that gave shape to these.

In Volume 1: Hoogovens, Post Office (Proposals), Fuji Bank, Olympic Games, Golden Gate Transit, Herman Miller, British Rail (Proposals), Sildamin, Beekman Downtown Hospital and Lucas Industries.

The principle visual language of this series is layers, of going deeper to discover something of the ideas and considerations that gave shape to modernist logos of the past. As LogoArchive's Logo Histories is more stories than logos, the cover integrates the first story right into the cover, two layers below the article titles. Between the cover and the first text, a logo grid furthers the theme of layers and going deeper, revealing the foundational principles two of logos, Hoogovens and Lucas Industries. To emphasise this visual language contrast is used. The interior pages are composed from Blocker, a paper that, while only 80gsm, is specifically created to reduce show-through. The transparent is juxtaposed alongside the opaque.

The zine series supports a new collaborative project, a weekly newsletter delivered through the Substack network.