Toot! Toot!*: New edition of 'Type Rules!' includes identity of design firm Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

The identity for Portland design firm Jeff Fisher LogoMotives is one of the new typographic images illustrating the recently released third edition of the book Type Rules!: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography, by educator and expert Ilene Strizver of The Type Studio. The volume was published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Type Rules! is a practical guide to understanding type and how to use it effectively. It is intended for beginners and advanced professionals alike, and covers a broad range of topics. The new edition includes:

• New information on OpenType, font management utilities, font web sites, and interactive typography.
• An expanded history of type and an updated glossary of key terms.
• Exercises throughout to help reinforce the concepts presented in the book.
• A wealth of tried-and-true as well as recently developed type tips.
• More in-depth type issues, including scaling logos.

The featured logo was selected after author Strizver made use of her Twitter account @TheTypeStudio to request "type-centric images and design" examples for the new edition of her book. Fisher contacted Strizver, provided a link to a Flickr gallery of his identity work, and the author selected the identity representing the logo design firm.

The Jeff Fisher LogoMotives identity also appears in Letterhead and Logo Design 5, American Corporate Identity/14, New Logo & Trademark Design (Japan), the 1998 PRINT Regional Design Annual, The New Big Book of Logos, PRINT’s Best Logos & Symbols 6, Logo Design for Small Business 2, The Big Book of Business Cards, Logos from North to South America (Spain), New Logo & Trademark Collection (Japan), and The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success.

Fisher, a 30+ year design industry veteran, is the author of Identity Crisis!: 50 redesigns that transformed stale identities into successful brands and The Savvy Designer's Guide to Success: Ideas and tactics for a killer career. He is currently writing the book Logo Type: 200 Best Typographic Logos from Around the World Explained, about typography in identity design, with a scheduled 2011 release.

The designer has received over 600 design awards and his work has been published in more than 140 books on identity design, self-promotion and the marketing of small businesses.

More information about Jeff Fisher, and his design and writing efforts, may be found on the Jeff Fisher LogoMotives blogfolio.

(* If I don’t "toot!" my own horn, no one else will.)

© 2010 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Logodotes: Al Bauer Advertising

[Over the 30+ years I've worked professionally as a designer, interesting side stories have come up about my identity designs. This is one of an ongoing series of "Logodotes" - anecdotes about my logo designs.]

In 1980, my first year out of college, ad agency owner Al Bauer asked me to design a logo to identify his firm. Bauer had been toying with the idea of using an abstract image to represent the company. In fact, he'd even considered making use of an abstract painting created by his daughter, artist Marlene Bauer. The pre-digital printing expense of reproducing a four-color image led to the client quickly changing his mind about the possibility.

The initial concept (above left) evolved out of my interest in the minimalist logo imagery I studied in school during the 1970's. Many logos of the time were simple, somewhat heavy, and involved geometric forms. The client almost immediately selected this particular design. I was told that he appreciated its abstract representation of how advertising was often a very orderly discipline - until something went completely out of whack.

A couple of weeks later an excited Bauer called me, having just realized the design was in actuality very abstract lower-case a and b letterforms (visually defined above right).

© 2010 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives