IBPA Logo Project
Overview of Project...
Vision Statement - What we are building
by Florrie Kichler
The Independent Book Publishers Association (formerly PMA) is the leading professional trade association for independent book publishers. We serve the needs, foster the growth and advocate for emerging and established independent book publishers.
Mission Statement - Why we exist
by Florrie Kichler
The Independent Book Publishers' Association mission is to advocate for, support and educate our members and to improve the standards of independent publishing.
Logo Design Goals - Basic
by Terry Nathan and Florrie Kichler
- The letters IBPA need to be prominent
- The tag line Independent Book Publishers Association needs to be an optional additional element
- For the first year, the 25th Year Anniversary needs to be an optional additional element
Logo Design Goals - Technical
by John R. Webster
- Represent independent book publishing
- Be classic looking
- Have strength and power
- Be unique and creative
- Look good and be readable in small to large sizes
- Adapt well to a multitude of uses
- Allow for design flexibility
Project Schedule...
Phase 1 Logo Design
by John R. Webster
The following schedule is for phase 1 of the logo design project. Each activity has a start and finish date. April 11, 2008 is the first milestone for selection of the 3 finalists of the logo designs. April 30, 2008 is the second milestone for the selection of the final logo design.
The activities in the schedule along with their start and finish dates as well as the 2 milestones are:
- First round of logo designs posted on website: 4/3/08
- Selection of finalists: 4/4/08 - 4/10/08
- Milestone #1 - Selection of finalists: 4/11/08
- Color schemes presented: 4/10/08
- Color schemes selected: 4/15/08
- Logo finalists presented: 4/18/08
- Milestone #2 - Selection of final logo: 4/30/08
The tight schedule for phase 1 of the project is necessary for us to be able to include the new logo in the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Awards video presentation.
Phase 1 is the design of the new logo.
Phase 2 and 3 will follow in sequence upon completion of phase 1.
Phase 2 is the design of the corporate identity materials.
Phase 3 is the creation of the Corporate Identity Standards PDF manual.
Logo Design Concepts...
Presented below are the first round of logo design concepts. They are presented in three basic categories: styled type; books or publishing styles; and type with styled marks. Click the thumbnails to enlarge and read descriptions. Rolling over an enlargement will allow you to scroll through all the concepts in that category.
IBPA Logo Design Concepts - Category #1
Logo design concepts with stylized type
IBPA Logo Design Concepts - Category #2
Logo design concepts with stylized book or publishing aspects
IBPA Logo Design Concepts - Category #3
Logo design concepts with stylized marks
Download a 3 page PDF (2.3 MB) that includes all the logo concepts shown here.
Color Schemes...
Dominant color…
Developing a new color scheme for IBPA begins with selecting a dominant color. The dominant color will be the color that is used the most and that best represents the Association.
We have narrowed the field down to the following four dominant colors:
blue |
blue - green |
green |
purple |
We selected lively shades for each of the four dominant colors that provide good contrast without being too dark or too light. They are fresh contemporary colors, without being too trendy. Various types of color schemes can be built around any of the four dominant colors.
Color Psychology…
Blue: Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. Blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America and represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.
Blue-Green: Blue-Green combines some of the emotional aspects of both blue and green.
Green: Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money. Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection. Olive green is the traditional color of peace.
Purple: Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic. According to CSS Zen Garden's Design category, purple is by far the least commonly used color (which means it would stand out from the crowd).
Additional thoughts…
Although, to our knowledge, there was never an official dominant corporate color for the PMA logo, the most commonly used dominant corporate color for PMA has been blue.
The current PMA corporate identity materials (letterhead, envelopes, and business cards) use a neutral warm gray color only. Most of PMA's core marketing materials use some shade of blue.
We have reproduced the PMA logo in a wide variety of different colors depending on what other colors are being used in order to create pleasing designs with harmonious colors. This has worked very well, and we will continue to use this technique in the future with the new IBPA logo.
Finalists…
| IBPA logo with 25 Years We created seven variations with numerous treatments of "25 Years" and some options have the word "Celebrating" added. These treatments are still a little rough and the chosen one will need to be refined. |
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| VERSION 1: We still feel that this design is a strong option as it is a clean, simple and modern approach. We have darkened the teal. The crescent shape echoes the circles used throughout the logo. |
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| VERSION 2: A script was used here following the same arch of the letters below. If this version is chosen the descender of the "g" will be modified so that it doesn't interfere with the letters it crosses over. |
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| VERSION 3: An oval was used here to tie into the oval shape of the arched letters. |
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| VERSION 4: This design does not use any similar elements from the logo and stands out as a contrasting element. |
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| VERSION 5: A more dynamic positioning of the "2" and "5" that creates a sense of movement while still being constrained in a box. |
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| VERSION 6: The same treatment of "25 Years" that is being used on the Publishing University materials and website. The upward tilt of the oval creates a feeling of liveliness.
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| VERSION 7: A banner treatment that is a little more traditional. |
| Finalist #1B – Revised The logo is shown below with the final elements added. The first one is one color— all black, the second is grayscale, the third is one color—blue-green to match PMS 663U, and the fourth is two color in blue-green and warm gray. |
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Presenting the three finalists for the IBPA logo. We've also included one additional logo which is a combination of two of the finalists.
Each logo appears first in black and white, in large and small sizes. Followed by various color combinations and with "Independent Book Publishers Association" added. We concentrated on blue-green and purple as the primary colors with harmonious accent colors as secondary.
| Finalist #1 Letterforms reduced to their most basic shapes with a playful "i" that is evocative of a human form. This design brings forward a subtle element from the previous PMA logo in the upside down triangular shape at the top of the "i". |
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| Finalist #1B Finalist 1 with variations on the treatment of the name in relation to the logo. |
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| Finalist #2 A strong font intersected by flying pages. The winged shapes are representative of an open book and also provide upward movement. This logo manages to encompass both hard and soft qualities. |
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Finalist #3 |
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| Finalist #4 This bonus design came about when Florrie requested a variation of finalist #2 using lowercase letterforms. We combined the winged-page shapes in #2 with the lowercase letterforms of #1. This combination has characteristics of both of those finalists. • bold • free form • clean • energetic • modern • creative |
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Contacts...
- John R. Webster - Creative Director, Abacus Graphics: jrw@abacusgraphics.com
- Francie Droll - Managing Creative Director, Abacus Graphics: fd@abacusgraphics.com
- Terry Nathan - Executive Director, IBPA: terry@pma-online.org
- Florrie Kichler - President of the Board, IBPA: fkichler@patriapress.com
