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Guest Blog: Bob Hogue on Logos

The first of several guest blogs features Bob Hogue, a retired professor from Youngstown State University and new resident of the state of Florida! Bob has generally volunteered his time in +Public’s first research project, the Community Brands Inventory. This project will see the team collect 1000 logos from communities across the country, build a searchable archive of the logos, and ultimately do an analysis on the common themes and designs that many logos share. To learn more, visit http://inventory.pluspublic.org. Special thanks to Bob for archiving over 400 logos!


My fascination with logos goes all the way back to at least 1969 when the then-new logo for Bell Telephone was released:

I’ve since learned that the logo was designed by Saul Bass, who also designed quite a few other classic logos. What impressed me about this logo at the time, and even now, is how simple, memorable, and representative it is.

Ever since then, I’ve been a fan of logos. To me, a logo is the way we identify with and remember a company. I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but we still have the tendency to do so. And a logo is the book cover for a company, organization, or community. That is why they are so important.

When I learned of +Public’s project to gather and catalog logos of communities, I wanted to help out. I started with a master spreadsheet provided by RJ Thompson and used it to explore the websites of various cities and towns. Before I knew it, I had gathered 100 of them. It was so much fun (really!) that I kept going and ended up with about 700. I tried to include a variety: ones I liked, ones I didn’t like, and ones in between. In the process, I was impressed with the wide diversity of logo styles and messages.

This is a superb project by +Public, and I’m very glad to be able to help with it.

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