Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Names, Logos and Burger Buns


There's a new burger joint in Falls Church, VA that I visited not to long ago. They pride themselves on delivering all natural, grass-fed, free-range meat, made to order each and every time. 



The Name: Burger 7. I've been scratching my head as to why they named the place Burger 7. I can't seem to find any reference to the number 7, so I'm baffled. If you know - please enlighten me, because it's driving me nuts. Maybe I can entice our very own Thingnamer to take the challenge on. 

Their Logo: Two burger buns with the name between them. Looks familiar doesn't it? The moment I saw this logo, I thought of Burger King. The original Burger King logo (below, left) was created in 1969, and then replaced in 1999 with the current logo (below, right). The colors are very similar, a close cousin I would say: tan / yellow orange for the bun, and red for the lettering. The biggest difference between the two is, the Burger 7 logo has more of a hand drawn look, perhaps its a nod to the fresh burger buns they bake in store. 


Burger 7 and Burger King aren't the only companies that use the cliche buns. Below are few random burger bun logos I've found on the good ol' internet. Surprisingly, 4 out of 6 of these logos are using red lettering! I wonder if people just really like ketchup. 



It's amazing how many times one concept can be used for so many similar companies. I'm always curious what goes through a designer's mind when they take a concept that's been done before, and recreates it slightly different. Is it a means for reinventing, or is it a lack of original ideas?

Perhaps we need to introduce some more ways to pump those creative juices using one of my favorites, Caffeine for the Creative Mind.

This post is also up at Stokefire

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Pet Peeve, or a Fact of Life?




So I'm sure you've all seen this before. The dreaded Hovering art director. Stokefire's fabulous Lena Blackstock sent this around the office about a month ago, and I started thinking about it again. 

I have a thing about people behind me. I don't like to sit with my back facing the room, and when I do, you can find me turning around every 5 minutes. So what happens when I have hovering "art directors?" I cringe, I fidget, I turn to my side, and I can't look straight at the screen. It doesn't help that I like to look at the people talking to me (which I don't think is actually a bad thing). I can handle one, maybe two, but any more than two it's turned into an audience. Plain and simple, I get creeped out.

So what do I do now?

Stokefire's Chief Creative just named me the Art Director. Will I become the dreaded "hovering art director?" There is a fine line between directing and telling. Will I be that one person that every designer dreads, the person that says "click there," "do this," "do that." I can tell you one thing, I'd rather direct, but I suppose only time will tell.