This logo was created as part of a logo design competition held by Lindenwood University for the Lindenwood Showcase (archive), an event showing the achievements of students and faculty across all departments. Each logo was voted on by faculty, staff and students, and mine was the winner!

Process

From the very beginning, I began to think about how to visually represent the idea of showing something, as well as appearing academic but agnostic to any specific discipline.

After spending some time in my sketchbook, I settled on the nib of a fountain pen to represent academics. After all, any academic endeavor, whether it’s art, writing, math, biology or otherwise, relies on making or reading marks to work. Using a writing utensil to represent academics isn’t a new idea, but I think the form of a fountain pen’s nib is a much more unique and less used form than a pencil (which seems somewhat elementary) or quill (which can come across as dated).

I also settled on using radiating lines to convey showing something. This also isn’t a unique idea, especially in the context of the competition. Many of my competitors used the same thing, and even previous logos for the competition used radiating lines. However, it is the most straightforward way to communicate this concept, and gave me the opportunity to use some of the alternate colors that were provided in the Lindenwood University Branding Guidelines.

Once I had both of these ideas I sat down and got to work, ending up with this:

Results

I think that what made this logo better than the others and different from the previous winners was that it appeared much more contemporary. Many of the logos that were submitted relied on Lindenwood’s history, using things like books, quills, pillars, etc. Many also used Bembo Std after seeing the Lindenwood logotype, which at times worked with the rest of their designs but sometimes would have been better served by Trade Gothic. I thought that something that focused on the university’s history didn’t serve this sort of event, as it is fundamentally about what students are doing now and showing their future potential.