The Ladder: Infrequent Intelligence from the NCSDO Staff
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In 1995, as Hampshire College passed the 25th anniversary of its founding, we designed for it a new visual identifier. Up to that point, Hampshire had exclusively used its seal in this role.
Our work on the logo was based on familiarity with the college from engagements dating back to 1981, and it proceeded with the advice and consent of interested members of the faculty and administration.
Many doodles involving the letter H eventually brought forth inspiration: The letter formed by the negative space between four rectangles could stand for the founding idea of the college. Leaders of the Pioneer's Valley's four institutions of higher learning had envisioned Hampshire as a place that could do things those institutions could not do to provide a student-driven education. In essence, the college was founded to fill a gap, or negative space, in higher education. And, we observed, the colors of those four institutions—being mutually compatible—could together become Hampshire's colors.
High-concept stuff. The College adopted the logo enthusiastically—and it remains in service today.
Hampshire students—not involved in the logo's development—entered the creative process after the fact in a merrily cynical spirit and became (perhaps unwittingly) our partners in its promotion.
- They named their new student hang-out The Negative Space Cafe.
- A gifted artist produced for the student newspaper a cartoon strip telling the "story" of how the logo came about. I, as then-head of the consultant agency, was depicted as a bald guy in a suit. (Unfortunately, our copy of that strip has gone missing.)
- Another group of students made a video "commercial" for the logo, which may be seen—barely—here: It is an NCSDO heirloom.
Recently, we were delighted to find that student interest and creativity around the logo continues, as this new video on the Hampshire admissions Web site shows. Two young Hampshire alums, Evan Viera and Chris Bishop, produced it.
Alex Rivera produced the 90s piece. Since then, he's built a successful film and digital media career on satire. His first feature film, "Sleep Dealer"—a sci-fi about workers in a futuristic Mexico—premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and has won multiple international awards. He tells the background of the film in a new interview on Hampshire's Web site (which, incidentally, opens with the H icon).
Posted by Bernice Thieblot on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:27:55 -0500 | Permalink