The Logo: BLC Studios

This logo represents the video production studio at Bethany Lutheran College, which I work for. We have been in need of a logo for some time so I sought this as an opportunity to work on one. Thanks professor Kain!

A few requirements quickly emerged from my research. 1) in order for the college to accept the logo it would at the very least need to fit within their color scheme. Academically, the color scheme is light green and red (Pantone 206 to be exact). At first thought, this was a good thing as red is exciting, dynamic and often used to invoke the emotion of action. Yet, I needed to consider one other thing. This logo would be used heavily on SD TV broadcasts and from what I have learned of NTSC TV is that red is the most difficult to reproduce without annoying noise, buzz, ect. So my first task was to try red, (Pantone 206) on an NTSC TV, non-HD. To my pleasure, it worked well because pantone 206 is darker red (nearing purple). Clearly it would work well in the situation and make the college PR team happy.

Next, I spent considerable time analyzing the studio and its communication goals. I talked to students, faculty, asked myself what it was we wanted people to think when they saw the BLC Studios logo. Unfortunately, for logo design, our studio offers a wide range of production opportunities: film, live television, news, sports casting. As with any good logo design it helps to identify one strong point to emphsize or communicate. Clearly, this wasn’t going to be easy.

To save you from endless reading after a long series of interviews and test logos I determine a few design goals:

1) Excitement, passion

2) Movement, energy

3) Something simple that a low resolution 720×480 screen could reproduce well

4) Something that would clearly say Bethany Lutheran College

One of the biggest challenges of the logo was the conclusion that I needed to included the full college name, Bethany Lutheran College. Why? Well, who knows what BLC Studios is? Who will even ask or remember BLC Studios if they have never heard of it? Having the Bethany Lutheran College was needed to generate follow-up from those that just didn’t get BLC Studios. Bethany is a very small school (600 students) so was important. Hence, the text Bethany Lutheran College at the bottom.

The color red was chosen for reasons above, but I did also make a black and white version in case it would be needed.

The slant of the text was an energy choice. It was chosen to show movement, energy, forward thinking. That combined with the red color should export the passion and excitement we want people to feel.

The font choice came after hours and hours of trying new fonts from dafont.com. Ultimately, the final choice worked best because it was Sans Serif (something important for the limited resolution of SD television, 720×480 resolution). Serif fonts have a tendency to flicker because they are to thin. Also it seemed to blend well with the motion lines, making them almost a part of font and not detached like in the other designs.