Okay, so a tiny bit of preamble: In recent months, my wife has gotten me involved in the local neighbourhood association. It’s had its ups and downs, and I do wish I have more time to myself to get work done, but my wife is happy with her political activism, and I’ve been happy to support her. It hasn’t been entirely selfless; I’ve been wanting to see some change for a long time, both in my neighbourhood and in my home town. So really, this activism cycle has served my own interests, too.
Last year, we did most of our work helping to complete the Stinson Neighbourhood Action Plan. I did several posters, a pretty detailed park/rec centre map, a mural design, and a fair bit of neighbourhood branding. Donated dozens of hours of graphic design, gratis. It was work, but it was fun. I even presented the plan map to the neighbourhood, chatting with people for almost three hours straight, while barbecue and martial arts demonstrations happened mere yards away. What a great day. I just wish I were thinner, so I wouldn’t flinch every time I see the photos.
Anyway, I said brief and I meant it. At the end of last year, the whole deal changed, and the current neighbourhood association executive body has brought a resounding end to all of that. Save for one last glimmer of hope: the Stinson Community Association logo submission contest. We (Dawn and I) ended up submitting a number of ideas, but none of them were chosen. In the meantime, I offered to polish up any logo submissions that get chosen that need a little more work. Four were selected for the jury to vote on, and though there were a couple of winners, all four logos got at least some support and approval. I actually find myself wondering what folks would have said about our designs if they had seen them.
Anyway, since there isn’t much likelihood of them seeing the light of day otherwise, I thought I’d share our rejected designs. I should probably wait until the contest is all over and done with, but it’s early, I haven’t taken my medication yet, and I have a few errands to run today, so waiting doesn’t appeal to me just now. We’ll deal with regret later.
First up is the initial design:
Basically, Dawn did up the initial house design, based on the brownstones at the corner of Stinson and Wellington. They’re rather classy little houses, and it was no sweat off my brow following on her plan and adding the logo and curlicue effects, to give it that ‘Victorian’ feel.
After the initial submission, which gained some approval from a few interested parties, there was a suggestion that we needed more and varied Stinson buildings. So I did this:
This incorporated not only Dawn’s brownstones, but as well a classy old mansion currently being used as a clinic, and an apartment building not far from there, which has some interesting architectural features.
Sadly, this met with mixed approval; I suspect one of the execs had seen that it was me who submitted it, and decided against the idea from the start. Anyway, I reworked the idea a bit and added it to one of the new ‘not mine’ designs, which had some buildings that didn’t really resemble Stinson buildings. We’ll see if they gain approval this time. If not, I’ll give up on that idea and push one of the other concepts until they bend.
Meanwhile, it was just a month ago when some of the communications committee suggested I do another design, and fortunately, I did have half an idea in my head for something less figurative:
The concept was simple: I wanted a series of interlocking circles to illustrate the concept of a neighbourhood community coming together. I thought it was rather appropos. Sadly, the logo concept didn’t make the cut, so I won’t get the chance to rework it and convince people that I was right. There’s no room for this concept in the series of logos that we voted on last Thursday. I could almost get away with applying it to one of the logos I reworked this morning, but somehow, I just don’t feel like there’s any point. Perhaps if it had gone to jury instead of being cut beforehand, I might have a better idea of whether it failed entirely, or just failed to interest the execs. *shrug*
Anyway, that’s my presentation for today. I trust that no one reading this feels personally slighted by any of my comments.
Time to take my meds and move on to something that has an outside chance of making me money some day. Have a great day, and thank you for reading.
Lee.
