Identity Re-Design: Laugh Lover's Ball

The Laugh Lover's Ball - An Evening of Sophisticated Silliness! is an annual February event in Seattle. The evening usually involves a host of national and local comedians performing a number of comic genres including: sketch, stand-up, poetry, music and some audience participation gags.

In late 2001 Seattle comedian David Crowe contacted me to redesign the identity for the comedy event held each Valentine's Day. For the previous six years a collage of art elements, photo imagery and distorted type had been combined in a logo representing the night of comedy. Crowe felt it was time to create a strong, simple, cleaner symbol to represent the fundraising event from year to year. I was asked to create a new identity that would maintain elements of the logo already in use. While continuing to use their signature font Harrington, I incorporated the arrow tip as the "A" letterform in the word "BALL." A more graphic representation of the "Groucho Marx" glasses/nose combo was used to illustrate a face on the heart idea "borrowed" from the original design and the tagline for the evening was included in the new logo. Years later the revamped logo is still representing this great event.

(Note: My new book, Identity Crisis!: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities Into Successful Brands, contains case studies from 35 designers and firms located around the world. Learn more about the book on the Identity Crisis! blog.)

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives