Designer: Sam Berkes

Yes folks, it is Comic Sans. Even the staff at Barrio Logan College Institute (BLCI) recognizes the obvious lack of quality identity design inherent in its logo, remarking that it “has a detached appearance,” “looks slapped together” and—possibly our favorite quote—“looks like a middle-school art project.”

BLCI, “the little organization that could,” is an after-school program in San Diego that helps prepare students for college. The organization’s current logo needs to appear more professional to draw attention to the quality programs available. Community partnership coordinator Tyler Wagner says BLCI has little budget for updating the group’s identity, so DG art director Sam Berkes’ redesign maintains a price tag which BLCI should be able to handle.

“I chose the free font Sansumi for its elegant, slim design,” says Berkes. “Getting fonts on freefont websites doesn’t always have to be a crapshoot. Sometimes you can find decent-looking fonts that work well for logo designs.”

Berkes incorporated a cap illustration he pulled from a royalty-free image—again, to keep costs low. “I updated the graduation cap, taking the sketched original and making it a bit more realistic for the final design,” explains Berkes.

Another consideration in designing the logo was color. Berkes says, “Since there will be a mix of web use and printed pieces, I decided the logo should be kept to one color. It can be printed using PMS 476 or printed with a four-color process, depending on cost. For most cases, printing with a one-color PMS should be less costly than four-color, especially for business cards, letterhead and envelopes. BLCI can use the four-color breakdown for brochures and other printed materials.”

In addition to redesigning BLCI’s logo, Berkes created new stationery and business card designs for the group. The original stationery is distracting—with numerous caps faded into the background, making reading text difficult. The new materials incorporate elements from the new logo, keeping the pieces consistent and professional.

1. Original logo
According to Tyler Wagner of Barrio Logan College Institute, the existing logo was old, amateurish and—uh, oh—used Comic Sans.

2. Redesign
DG art director Sam Berkes spruced up the design using a stylized graduation cap and updated font.

3. Early options
Early directions have an urban, upbeat look.

4. Fonts
Berkes used Sansumi Demi Bold Regular in the final design (free at www.dafonts.com).

5. Color
The Barrio Logan website uses earth colors for its palette (several from the site are incorporated into an earlier option shown in number three). Berkes chose a variation of one brown tone from the site to create the mark with.

6. Illustration
Berkes used the graduation cap in image 5246086, liquidlibrary, www.jiunlimited.com.

7. Original letterhead
The school’s original letterhead—with the logo repeated in a ghosted pattern across the page—was distracting.

8. New letterhead
Incorporating the redesigned logo, Berkes created a new identity system. Printing one-coloronly with Pantone 476 should help keep printing costs down.