Journal Exercise 3 - Graphic Design and It's Use of Color

The Five Spot logo I stumbled upon on a picture gallery type website for designers. After searching for a while, I later found out a bit more about the designer, the restaurant and the logo. Patrick King on The King Group designed this sometime around '96 for a friend that was opening a nightclub. The nightclub opened around the time of the movie Swingers and also the same time as those Gap ads with groups of swing dancers and the theme of the logo evolved from there. It was a bar that was open in Philidelphia for a number of years hosted many big bands (as in Big Band music) as well as well known hip hop and soul singers. The bar unfortunately was burnt down in 1997.

I think the typography of this logo reflects all the artists and events the bar hosted. It's colour screams, 50's, lounge and swing music and dancing. The sans condensed and playfulness typeface remind me of Blue Note album covers of to 50's and 60's......and then Blue Note album covers also remind me of great soul artists of that time. The colours give the logo movement, the warmer colours are displaced throughout the logo and go up and around the cooler coloured letters. The desaturation of the colours gives the logo a lounge vibe. Overall it's a great logo and captures everything the designer set out to portray.

ORIGINAL LOGO

Exercise 1: Alter the Color Scheme

1a) Monochromatic Color Scheme

This variation reminds of airlines and airports. The colours used are very popular with airlines.....they love their blues. The fact that each word is coloured differently rather each letter,gives the logo an upward movement rather than a frentic, swinging kind of movement so I think that's also what's brought me to the airline distinction.

1b) Complimentary Color Scheme

This colour variation reminds me of basketball jersey colours.
The dark purple "I" and the "E" are fading way into the background while the yellow is jumping to my eye first followed closely by the lilac. My eye/mind almost blocks out the "I" and "E" and assumes that the fact that they are darker colours, they are not as important to read in the word.

1c) Analogous Color Scheme

This specific colour scheme with the warm yellow and orange-reds portrays a more sexy kind of vibe. The different coloured letters still give the logo life but these colours seem a bit more sensual.Probably a good colour choice for swingers bars, not bars for swing dancing.

Exercise 2: Alter the Intensity

2a) Intense Colours

The colours for this variation are just that, INTENSE......too intense. The intensity almost hurts. The screaming colours against the black background make the intensity that much more and it's burning my retinas right now. The colour scheme would be good for a venue geared towards children...but the intensity of the colours might just make the kids a bit crazy after a while.

2b) Less Intense Colours

This variation looks like something that's been left out in the sun for too long. It looks aged and weathered. Doesn't look like the happening, swinging spot the bar was. The colours don't give the logo the same life....the type choice gives it a feeling of the 50's but it's original colour gives the logo it's life and portrayed the bar more completely.


Exercise 3: Alter the Temperature

3a) Warm Colour Palette

This alteration gives the logo a whole new feel. It now feels as though this could be for a 60's lounge. The colours are so vibrant with this variation, the letters almost vibrate next to one another.


3b) Cool Colour Palette

I really don't like this variation. All the tinted blues and green make me
a) Naseous &
b) Think of hospitals and medicines and pills. Overall something you don't want to be thinking about when you're looking at the branding for a swing bar.