Articles
David DeSandro Delivers on the New STC France Logo
You may realize by now that STC France has a fantastic new logo. That’s it up there on the left, with the indicative colors of red and blue. Beautiful, isn’t it? We certainly think so. It’s a professional, high-grade logo indeed and we are extremely happy to have it! We are also extremely grateful to the talented person who created it for us, so in his honor and for the benefit of other STC communities who might take up a similar effort, I would like to introduce him and share the story of how it came about.
The logo is the work of David DeSandro, a talented young designer still in school at the time we worked with him. Don’t take the logo alone as merit to David’s abilities, have a look at his site and portfolio too and you’ll see this guy is going places. Each page of David’s site is hand-crafted, something David takes pleasure in doing. He can be sure this reader and many others appreciate his efforts.
Let’s begin at the beginning. That’s a good place.
Background
Auditing and redesigning the STC France web site were the first things I tackled when becoming the new STC France Web Manager. I was also struck by the clear need for STC France to cultivate a brand going forward, and the new site would be a good debut for that effort. There was only one problem, while I have a design eye and know a thing or two about creating usable web sites, I admittedly do not have the kind of graphic design skills it takes to do a professional logo, and the Chapter needed a logo badly for the site and rebranding effort both.
Though a good logo does not mean brand creation, a good logo should be symbolic of the brand one is trying to establish. In this case, not a monotonous hybrid of the STC logo and some French thing tacked onto it, but a real, professional-grade logo that would stand apart and not be confused with STC’s own branding aims. This great new logo would symbolize the spirit of STC France for years to come.
I proposed to the Chapter board that we give the logo project to a design student, which would help satisfy a Chapter aim to work with students more. Both parties would gain from this collaboration; STC France would gain a new logo, naturally, and the student would gain professional experience and a portfolio opportunity.
Enter David.
Making the Connection
The France Chapter typically establishes student-chapter relationships with local students, but not strictly. If you have a particular connection in the network, use it!
David resides in Arlington, Virginia. He’s also an avid user of Textpattern, as a lot of talented designer-types are, and it’s the Textpattern community that David and I know each other from. I started taking notice of David’s work when we both contributed design ideas to the forthcoming redesign of the Textpattern web site. Whereas my ideas were oriented to structure and copy, David’s were more on the site’s design, and he presented his ideas in this impressive low-fidelity prototype.
Although neither of our contributions were ultimately used in the textpattern.com effort (the design work went to SquaredEye, another talented designer and Textpattern community member), I liked David’s eye for originality, as well as his overall good nature and positivity in the community. That coupled with the fact David was still in school, he quickly came to mind as a first go-to for the logo project.
Conditions of Arrangement
I was completely up front with David about our constraints and conditions of exchange, and gave him all opportunity to pass on the project should he feel the situation was not compatible to his time and skills.
Following is the short list of conditions presented:
- No money would be transferred.
- No deadline, per se, would be imposed; he was the student, we would work around his time availability as needed.
- An article would be written highlighting his work. (You’re reading it.)
- A board member would write an honest and relevant Linkedin recommendation.
- A graphic brief would be provided to guide the design effort.
David confirmed he understood the conditions and still wanted to give it a go. There was no formal contract or other red tape nonsense, just expressed enthusiasm via email to get started.
Another big plus in David’s favor is that before we even got to passing him the graphic brief, he had already scoped the STC and STC France web sites for context and background to help guide his creative thinking. He even discovered his apartment was only two blocks from the STC headquarters; an amusing surprise for both of us.
The Graphic Brief
Keeping in line with simplicity and facilitation of effort, the graphic brief was nothing more than a specifications list of six items we sent as an email. The joke was we didn’t have any logo or letterhead to use anyway, and email was simply quicker.
For the benefit of other STC chapters who might find this useful in thinking about their own logo pursuits, following are the six specifications we first passed to David:
- Colors should be black, blue, white, red (the latter 3 symbolizing the French flag).
- It should be desirable to have some sort of French symbolism that constitutes the body of the logo. For example, the Eiffel Tower is favorable with the board, but other ideas are explorable so long as they are recognizable to an international audience and in professional taste (i.e., do not use frogs, wine bottles, baguettes, berets, etc.).
- Logo might have the words “STC France” incorporated at larger sizes and without this text when used at smaller sizes. Thus it should be interesting to see a version with and without the text.
- Logo should not be taller than wider (problematic for using Eiffel Tower, so perhaps only a portion of the tower?). Logo can be wider than taller, but it must be usable at different sizes without distortion of the image. At a minimum, the logo must be distinguishable as an 80×80px avatar, though this version could be without the “STC France” text component. If you can get a version with the text to be distinguishable at 80×80, fine.
- Font-family for logo text is ideally a serif font and preferably “Hoefler Text,” which is the lead font in the font stack for the web site headers.
- A new logo may suggest the need for rethinking the existing banner design, whether image, size, or what have you. You’re welcome to offer comments in that direction, though not obligated and it’s certainly not the primary focus.
The specifications may be thought of as flexible requirements augmenting the creative foundation David most certainly had already laid in his mind. For example, the spec for colors was obviously not cast in stone, and we would have shot ourselves in the foot if we had made the original color spec a hard rule.
It should also be said that some of the items had additional notes to expand on concepts in one way or another. Most of these notes were removed here for the sake of being concise, but if you’re going this route, don’t shy away from a little elaboration. Up to a point, the more details the better for the designer to grasp what your aiming for. At the same time, don’t try to force what simply isn’t going to work. Give the designer some benefit of the doubt when it comes to interpretation, and be open to that interpretation. You might be pleasantly surprised, as we certainly were.
The Back and Forth
Two weeks after David received the graphic brief, he provide us with a number of design ideas. Each was unique and exciting in their own right, but one really struck home with the board collectively, which happened to be the one following the specifications the closest.
For professional reasons, we’ll refrain from showing the first-round designs and leave that to David’s discretion at his own site. What you can surmise is we focused on the first attempt of the logo we now have, which interestingly enough was only presented in black (perhaps to really distinguish the Eiffel Tower negative). The first logo draft also used a non-serif font for the word “France.”
After the board discussed the design a bit, we sent David a couple more comments for what we thought could easily lead to the final round based on the great first attempt. We decided to make the non-serif font on the word “France” serif (seemingly more fitting to France’s culture and history), and give blue and red coloring to the “stc” letters, respectively. We also had some notes about line smoothness and overlap but David was already ahead of us there, and when he returned the second version the logo was what you see now. Damn near perfection!
One curious note: The blue and red colors were originally lighter in shade, the same as those I originally used in the site design. By some odd—and at first undetected—circumstance the colors darkened in tone, and saved, when David opened the graphic file between applications. I really liked the result and thought he had intentionally made the change, even thanking him for his attention to detail. We had a good laugh when the truth was revealed, but it was an accident for the better and we not only kept the logo’s darker tones but I changed the site’s styles to match it. Design happens like that sometimes.
The Final Result
Look at this striking logo. STC France gained an emblem to symbolize the direction of its brand: a community founded on technical communication, but which progressively aims to cultivate and maintain cross-industry, academic and business relationships in France.
The fluid, lowercase lettering lends an agreeable, humanistic touch, capturing our true nature as a friendly, inviting community. Remaining elements—colors, symbolism, the word “France” in regal font—speaks to our geography and the essence of French pride. Overall, it sings to various sensibilities in the communication domain (technological or otherwise), including writing, design, culture, historical influence and so forth. This will be something to embrace in our relationship-building efforts, and maintain in our dialog with the local community.
We revealed the logo at the recent Annual General Meeting (which was also STC France’s 18th birthday commemoration) and it was met with high regard. David’s presence was even inquired about, and had he been there he would have received a warm applause.
The logo’s quality is worth hundreds in cash, if not thousands, and yet in the spirit of collaboration and professional development David came through for us big time. We are lucky for it. By our standing, David deserves top dollar for all future work he undertakes.
Compatibility with the STC Logo Use Guidelines
Should there be any question, our new logo is in complete harmony with the Guidelines for Using the STC Logo. The guidelines define how to use STC’s logo, specifically, which we are using justly (opting for the gray-tone version), and at right of our web site’s banner to reflect the parent organization. The STC France logo is an independent endeavor symbolizing our community alone; it’s put left on the banner to show the immediacy of the Chapter’s site.
Difference in styling of the letters “STC” between logos is acceptable; otherwise, it could be said we were using the design aspects of another brand for our own. That would not only crossover into violation of the organization’s guidelines, but it would not be in our best interest. France’s logo version is an artistic interpretation more suited to the message we want our brand to deliver.
Our hats are off to you, Mr. DeSandro. You did a great job!
This is brilliant at so many levels (but now I can’t remember my exact words! I wrote a comment earlier when I was at work, but I can see it didn’t “take”. Encore une fois…)
1. This article tells a great story. (I love the color accident.)
2. The sharing and explanation of this process is well done.
3. This is an inspiration to all chapters and SIG throughout STC.
4. It’s a great example of student mentoring, although being a mentor of David must have been a privilege – perhaps he did mentoring, too! :)
My current creativity is irritated that I forgot what I wrote earlier. Trust me when I say I was very enthusiastic.
I do remember closing with best wishes to David DeSandro. His future looks very bright from here.
Thank you, Karen.
Sorry about the commenting glitch. I thought that’s what you had meant in your tweet. I was noticing a funny absence of comments too right about the same time. I’m inclined to think it was a blip in the web host connection. It’s possible. Seems to be OK now, though.
As to your comment #4, I think David and I did communicate well on this, though there wasn’t much need for a lot. Therein lies the magic of it, I guess.
Destry and David,
Great work, as I’ve already said many times… I can admire the result almost everyday when logging.
It’s a real identity marker for the STC France Chapter, and we can be proud of it.
I do remember having been struck, at the beginning by the darker colors. Now I understand!
Congralutations for this proof of collaborative effort. A mentorship initiative, too, which won’t be the last one!
As Destry mentions, this was a great opportunity for both myself as a student designer and STC France as a client. STC France was a superb group to work with, as they had clear goals they wanted communicated with the logo. I’m very pleased that I was able to come through and provide the visual identity.
Thank you STC France for the work and than you Destry for the flattering write-up!!
Hi Destry, Hi David,
Great article on a great logo. I hope the write up will be sent for inclusion in Intercom illico presto!
I too was struck by the dark and saturated colours (I’m still in two minds about that!) and a certain push-pull (slinky?) effect on the stc letters. I can see the s pushing, and the c pulling, but that t is definitely taking it easy!
Cheers,
The logo is beautiful. Thank you for this great story.
I love it! I also like the example of how chapters can work with student talent to solve mutual needs (inexpensive design work versus practical experience)
As a board member during the process, I was in complete admiration throughout. I love the result. Thanks Destry, for managing it, and David, for doing such a great job.
What an absolutely simple, yet stunning logo! Great story, too! Fantastic design is always appreciated…humans with a sense of aesthetics cannot help but feel joy in seeing beautiful things. You have incorporated the colors, letters, and a venerated symbol for France into a great modern design. Thanks for posting the link on LinkedIn…
Alice Jane Emanuel · 5 June 2009, 15:40
I love the new logo. STC France has a wonderful style that David DeSandro captured. Thanks for the design, David!