Designer: Michael Ulrich

Weary of being the self-described “best-kept secret in Columbus, Neb.,” the Columbus Area Arts Council is looking for a bright, bold new look to increase public awareness of this nonprofit agency and its commitment to all of the fine arts. Of the current logo, executive director Susan Schoenhofer says, “It does not reproduce well small. It is one color; we could use full color on the website and postcards. It does not pertain to the fine arts—visual, performing and literary.”

Schoenhofer also requests a color change, as the group is “sick of ” both the blue and purple versions of their mark. Another challenge is that the logo has to work with the agency’s two identities: Columbus Area Arts Council and Columbus Art Gallery.

DG creative director Michael Ulrich tried several ideas—like combining an artist’s palette with a musical note and a unique, nonliteral design with a squiggle—before coming back to his initial creation. Ulrich explains, “I started off with the golden rectangle, as that seemed a reasonable place to begin for an arts logo. I divided it into its prerequisite parts and realized it looked a lot like Mondrian. I colored it red, white, blue and yellow—like Mondrian—rotated the logo 90 degrees counter-clockwise and noticed the mark resembled the state of Nebraska. So I drew in the Missouri River and voilá.”

To truly make the mark pop, full color should be used in as many applications as possible, particularly those that will be widely viewed. Because the group is a nonprofit, Ulrich suggests soliciting donations from the community to keep costs low, such as asking a local paper distributor/printer to donate paper, ink and/or press time. And for the posters, the group might ask for free screen-printing help from a design class. Ulrich’s other money-saving advice? “Print up a year’s worth of newsletter/postcard/poster shells in four-color and then inexpensively run them out in black and white,” answers Ulrich. “Or how about business-card blanks with a four-color logo on one side, then you run off black-and-white personal info on the other using a relatively inexpensive laser/ink-jet printer?”

1. Original logo
The logos for the Columbus Area Arts Council and Art Gallery don’t work well in small applications, and the design doesn’t say anything about the organization. The arts agency asked for a contemporary, colorful mark they can be proud of.

2. Redesign
DG creative director Michael Ulrich employed the golden rectangle and modeled his design on Dutch painter Piet Mondrian’s work.

3. Early options
Ulrich considered a logo combining an artist’s palette and a musical note, as well as a squiggle-and-rainbow-line mark that would be sure to draw attention—but ultimately may be a hard sell in the Midwest.

4. Fonts
Aline Incise was chosen because of the san serif font’s warm, human and contemporary feel.

5. Color Like the design, the color palette was inspired by Mondrian’s popular paintings.