LogoArchive Challenge 6 — BP&O
LogoArchive was designed, designed and sent for printing in one day. It was brought up by a panel discussion at Somerset House as part of the Print! After its sixth numbered release, LogoArchive continues to reconfigure itself with each new edition to surprise and delight, especially in a moment of deliberate difficulty. This edition, which was published just in time for Earth Day, celebrates the symbols that are inspired by nature.
The book is an artifact shaped by the conditions of its time. These can be visible – deliberate and visible on the surface – and invisible, only revealed over time. LogoArchive is very aware of this temporality. In addition to documenting the symbols of the past, the zine has always tried to introduce an element of the present into its content and materiality. This theme continues to lean and enables the context of an unprecedented pandemic of our time to prevail and give old things new meaning and form.
The new financial pressure and the limited economic resources of the publisher due to the pandemic will reduce and reduce the number of this new edition. However, this imposition introduces two new elements along with other logos. First, a new feature called Logo Stories, which was taken over from the Instagram account. Second, a participatory role that the World Health Organization offers donations for the sale of each issue that guide and coordinate global efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to the ongoing threat from COVID-19.
LogoArchive configures the well-known format of a logo book into an ongoing series of zines. The aim was to recognize and promote the relationship of the designers to the symbols of the past and to offer an alternative that moves away from a book-shaped, project-based and inspiring usefulness towards technology and design craft. Fewer logos, high-quality and unexpected materiality, and an ongoing and recurring publication schedule are central to this intention and also contradict the passivity promoted by social media platforms and the search for a closer relationship with the symbols presented.
In an interruption of the format in which the numbered editions are normally printed on Colorplan Ebony, edition 6 is printed on Colorplan Lockwood and bound with white staples. This extends the theme of trees and leaves and avoids the potentially dark properties of black. The rejuvenation of nature in our absence and the desire to return to nature after a long period of closure become the sub-text of this issue. It offers a hopeful outlook and a metaphorical view of the future and at the same time reminds us of the precarious balance between nature and human action.
Instructions to wash our hands, to stay at home and to keep our distance, accompanied by pictograms, remind us of the crucial importance and lasting power of symbols and the value of semiotics for the different multicultural communities of today. Where words can fail, symbols and the commonality of human form unite us to act together in order to achieve a common goal. In this sense, and thus the current conditions can influence the design of the topic, symbols of the past take on a new meaning. The zine becomes a surface that reminds us of our civic responsibility and maybe gives us a little pleasure in difficult times.
LogoArchive Issue 6 is a 12-page booklet printed by With Print with five passes of digital white on Colorplan Lockwood bound with white staples. This edition is available as a limited version of 300. These are only available in the LogoArchive Shop.
