Episode 06: Voodoo Doughnuts, Black Cat Fireworks and Other Unsung Logos

Two Designers Walk Into A Bar

Episode 06: Voodoo Doughnuts, Black Cat Fireworks and Other Unsung Logos

Released November 25, 2020
© 2020 Two Designers Media, LLC

Welcome to Two Designers Walk Into a Bar. A place where pop culture, loving creatives, discover design icons that make us tick. And we share a few cocktails in the process.

Today we shine the spotlight on some unsung heroes of the design world that are under appreciated. Logos we sleep near in hotel rooms, or the ones you seek out to fill your own gas tank or your own stomach and put a match to when you want to have a little bit of fun.

Yeah.

So, put that a little special something in your evening coffee or kickback with a local brew and join us as we walk back into the bar.

Todd do you like eighties, romcom movies?

Of course.

Okay. Do you know how in the movie, when there’s the popular girl and she goes to the dance and then there’s always sort of the nerdy girl with the glasses who goes to the dance and then she takes off her glasses and suddenly everyone realizes how beautiful she is, even though she…

She takes the glasses off in slow motion.

Okay, yes. Maybe shakes her head and her hair falls down.

Yeah. And the music changes.

Yeah. Boys turn around and are just all struck by her beauty.

Yeah. We’re not talking about movies today, right?

Well, we are talking about hidden gems. We’re talking about logos that may have been part of our lives hidden in plain sight. Maybe constantly overlooked by the Apples, the Targets, the Nikes, the Cokes…you know, the popular girls on campus.

Yeah. I love it.

Okay. So we’re going to dig deep into some things that we probably all have seen, or maybe some of us have seen. We may not have looked at it twice because it wasn’t a case study logo design.

And we’re going to look at how beautiful that is.

Yes, these aren’t Paul Rand beauties, but they’re beauties nonetheless. Well, beauties is beauties, right?

All right. Let’s get started.

Okay. So we each have a couple of examples to talk about today of hidden gems – under appreciated logos.

Yes. Give me your first one.

Okay. Well, my first one is from the animal kingdom. And my first one is also from…let’s see if we can drill down on this little bit. I’m going to give you three hints and you can tell me if you think you can figure out what it is.

Okay. Oh my God. That’s going to be hard. I mean, you’re talking about a bunch of logos out there, but okay. Let’s play along.

All right. I’ll give you a hint. The animal in the logo. He is the King of the jungle.

Okay. So it’s Snoop Dogg. Or, Snoop Lion.

Yes. Well, let’s just, let's just go with lion.

Okay.

And this lion really enjoys a beverage.

Okay. I need another hint.

Okay. He tends to enjoy his beverages when he is on the road, maybe at work or staying in a hotel.

Okay. Okay. So that’s a service…some kind of beverage…like a coffee service?

You’re getting warmer.

Okay. Uh, I’m getting closer to the lion. Oh! Royal Cup.

Yes. Royal Cup is a logo that I just adore. I don’t really remember where I first saw this logo. I don’t remember if I was saying in a hotel…

I see it on trucks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve definitely seen it on some trucks as well. So I started digging and I started to do a little research. We would cross paths every so often.

You and the king…

Well, no, it wasn’t Elvis. Focus on the lion.

Okay.

We’re talking about lion. Todd, I know you love Elvis, but let’s focus on the task at hand.

Yeah, I do love Elvis, but I do love a coffee-drinking lion too.

Both are high energy.

Okay. They both have beautiful manes, beautiful heads of hair, right?

They do. They do.

Royal Cup is this family owned – believe it or not – beverage company started in 1896 in Birmingham, Alabama. They have a great website. We’ll post links to it. It tells all the history about Royal Cup. So it’s a wonderful logo. It’s this symmetrical male lion’s head, this beautiful flowing mane. He has a crown sitting on the top of his head and, he is sipping sort of a little tea cup of coffee, and he has his one arm. Coming into the logo, but what the designer did – and I have researched this, I’ve actually asked Royal Cup to get back in touch with me. I don’t know who the designer is. So if anyone out there did this or knows who did it, please, please, please email us, hit us up on social media.

Yeah, let us let us know, because this is an unsung hero as far as I’m concerned. Right?

So the lion, his arm is a knocked out negative piece of the main. But the designer was able to make it symmetrical and it totally works. So when you see Royal Cup, of course, you first see the lion, then you start to read the crown and then sort of the third level of information and it’s, “Oh, aha.” I get it. He’s drinking coffee. These guys sell coffee. I just love this logo.

So how funny is it that you have a lion. First of all drinking out of a little dainty tea cup, because of all the teas that I’ve been to, I've never seen a lion drinking, any tea or coffee for that matter.

Have you ever seen Mr. T?

I have seen Mr. T.

He does have quite a nice mane as well as a matter of fact.

This is really getting into kind of a meta space isn’t it.

Really is.

Okay. So that’s very cool and a really elegant take on a member of the animal kingdom. Of a feline member of the animal kingdom. I’ve got one that’s probably on the other end of the spectrum, although it's very appreciated, not quite as classy is that…

Todd, are we driving through the neighborhood of lowbrow culture again?

Elliot, you and I are taking a baseball bat to the mailboxes of the neighborhood of low brow culture. Let me give you a hint and see if you can pick it out. I’ve already given you a clue it’s part of the feline world, right?

Okay, so start guessing.

No, I’m just kidding. You probably need more than that. This company hasn’t been around as long as Royal Cup, but it has been around since the 1940s and of its type, it is the oldest registered company brand in the U.S.

Okay.

All right. Let me give you another, I mean, I’m still…that’s not very helpful. The name of the company is also a feline.

Hmmm, is it Bobcat?

Uh no, that’s a good one though. They make a lot of money off of their apparel and you’ve seen it. You see it around holidays, like the 4th of July or New Year’s Eve.

Oh boy. Could we say that maybe this company, they pack a punch.

They, uh, always, yeah.

They always end things with a bang.

Yeah. Big happy finish, man! Yes. We’re talking about Black Cat Fireworks.

I love it.

So they’ve been around a while…oldest fireworks company brand in the U.S. And the logo for those of you who haven’t seen it – and I’m sorry for your loss, you’ll get to see it on our website because it’s absolutely gorgeous – used in a variety of different ways because they’re like ‘Standards manuals? Who cares.’

It’s mostly the head of a black cat screeching against a yellow background. The cat has yellow eyes, a red nose and mouth and blue whiskers. And the word ‘Black’ appears above the head in red. The word ‘Cat’ appears below in yellow, and it appears like the cat is coming at us from between the type. So it is like whoever drew it and designed it said, ‘We’re using all the colors. We’re just going to use all the colors and it’s going to be as vibrant as possible.

It’s obviously hand drawn and it looks like an explosion of color, which is really cool to me. It could also be used with the black cat against a black background. So you just see eyes and mouth and whiskers, which I think is really cool.

If you’re buying apparel from them, of course black on black. And you know, I’m not so clear on what black cats have to do with fireworks, other than the screeching sound, maybe. But if you didn’t know, you could think that this logo probably could pass for a rat killer too. It looks just like that.

Well Todd, I would argue a black cat is a rat killer.

That’s true. This logo could be as great on fireworks and rat killer because it just looks like excitement. A little bit of scariness.

Well, yeah, I would say probably gunpowder is black too.

Well, okay. Maybe that’s where it comes from then.

Right. And gun powder has this explosive nature, like this angry cat does.

Yeah. And to your point a second ago, a cat screech – you know when a couple of alley cats are getting in a fight – they start caterwauling and they sound like screeching fireworks.

So yeah, I think it’s really perfect.

Do you happen to know who drew this logo?

I do not. I couldn’t find that. My guess is it probably has been around for a while, but if anyone out there knows, please do let us know, because I would love to talk to this master.

Okay. Speaking of the master, I am going to stick with the cat family.

I think I’m sensing a trend here.

I am actually going to take us overseas. And I’m going to take us to 101 years ago.

Oh, they had cats back then?

I think they’d just been invented.

Okay. Well, we’ll have to check on that.

We’ll have to. You know, Wikipedia will tell you.

Yeah, well that means you’ll check on it then.

For those of you who know me – I don’t think I’ve mentioned this actually in a podcast before – I have a brother a few years younger than me who happens to live overseas. He lives in Japan and my family several years ago went over to visit him in Tokyo. So we get off the plane at the airport, we get our bags and we walk out.

We meet him in the lobby of the airport. I look up and I see this amazing black and yellow logo. That is an abstraction of a mother cat holding a kitten. So if I were to show you that. What industry do you think that would be for?

Gosh Elliot, you know, it could be anything from parenting to uh…

Why would it be at an airport?

Oh, Oh the airport. Security of some kind.

Okay. Yeah.

Um, uh, luggage carry and stuff. Transport.

Yes, yes. Logistics. It is a logo for Yamato transport company, and I love this logo. Actually. I love this company. I’m a cat person…an unabashed cat person. And, Japan is an unabashed and shameless cat country. If you think about Lucky Cat…Beckoning Cat. Of course you think about Hello, Kitty. Cats are huge in Asia. Definitely huge in Japan. As I mentioned a minute ago, this logo is a yellow oval and it is a mother cat carrying a kitten in her mouth and that symbolizes the company’s promise that they will take care of your item or your cargo entrusted with them just as though this were a precious package in their own family. So it’s a mother cat taking care of a kitten. And as soon as my brother mentioned what this company is, I knew it. I immediately understood the logo and I love that. It wasn’t usual. It’s not a truck or a shield or something that has an arrow in the negative space.

(Gasp!)

Sorry, for those of you who haven’t figured that out yet with FedEx. There’s one person out there.

…And guess what? In the Sixth Sense, the guy’s dead.

Todd, I’ve been meaning to see the old movie. Hold on. Wait. Now I got to go change my Netflix queue. All right. All right.

Well, I have a very quick question. Yamato. Is that a person’s name or does that translate to something in Japanese?

So Yamato was an ancient name in Japan and a period in the country’s history. The founder was a gentleman named Yasuomi Ogura and he also is the guy who drew the logo.

Oh, that’s awesome.

Yeah. And in Japan, their trucks are all over the place and they even sell – you’ll love this, do a quick Google image search – They actually sell small boxes that are little cat play houses that are shaped, like their trucks and printed, like their trucks. It almost looks like a mystery machine from Scooby-Doo, but for your cat. The company in Japan is referred to as Kuro Neko, which means black cat in Japanese and it’s actually their URL. If you look at the Japanese URL it’s actually Black Cat Yamato. Isn’t that brilliant. And what I love about it being a transport company, it has to go overseas. Obviously it’s going between Asia and the U.S. and in that sense, I would argue this logo is actually far more brilliant than FedEx or UPS with apologies to now Landor and Future Brand. And the reason I say that is because there’s no language barrier. It’s this picture that once, you know what it is, it makes total sense.

And in fact, I won’t get into the deeper story, but one time I was at a design conference and I was wearing a shirt that had nothing, but this logo on it and a guy appeared out of the shadows and pointed at my shirt and said, “Hey man, isn’t that some kind of, uh, Japanese shipping company?” And this is an American guy.

And I said, yeah, yeah, it is Yamato. And he's like, ah, I thought so. And then. He, uh, vanished and just sort of disappeared. Got some kind of hipster, dude, you're at no, this was at a hotel lobby and I think he was kind of like a, like a design goblin or something. I think he just kind of, you know, appeared some kind of magical creature, uh, anointed my shirt and then just poof in a puffy green smoke, he was gone as goblins are tending to do.

That's amazing. Okay, Todd, uh, what is your second logo? Right. So I'm sticking with the animal kingdom, but I'm finally getting away from the family of felines. Um, have you heard of Muncie Mware, Elliot? I have, yeah. Yeah. Like golf shirts and things like that. Right. And before that they made underwear. Or as we, as it's pronounced here in the South drawls,

nowhere and military garments, they're based in Minneapolis. So they introduced a line that I love. I actually, I love the clothing line and they introduced it in 1955. The original penguin you familiar? Yes. Yes. I love the line of clothing. It's retro. It's cool. And the logo doesn't look like it's changed from 1955, either.

As I said, Monsignor was known for something called union suits. Have you ever heard that term? Isn't that the good old, long underwear with a trap door in the back? It is. It is. I never knew that, but yet union suits is just code words for long underwear. Well, Todd, you got to keep in mind. The state I grew up in was part of the union.

Oh, okay. Well, we could not have called it that. And I said, yes, you called it a Yankee soup. We got it. Yankees are all right. All right. So, and they're also Monsignor is credited for creating the classic golf shirt, which we now call polo shirts. Right. Um, but let me tell you about this logo. The original penguin.

It's hand drawn. It's a hand drawn penguin. It's decked out with a collar and a tie because you know how fly penguins are women? Well, they're always, they're always wearing a tuxedo. Oh yeah. That hand drawn penguin is complimented by a hand-drawn logo type, which reads penguin. With the words and original above it, all of that looks hand done.

Like even today, when you go to the website, click on that link on our website, you'll see, you'll go right there. And it looks like it's hand drawn, which I'm sure someone has scanned it from, you know, 150 years ago when it was first created, but it's still looks hand drawn and imperfect. And rough and the penguin looks like it has duck lips, which I think is spectacular, but it's just beautiful in its originality.

And it's a uniqueness. What I love about this is they have not really appeared to change from the 1950s. So. I'm sure. You know, I can't man. I bet Elliott I being in Minneapolis and being sort of hipster where I bet they've had a long line of designers lining up, approaching them to redo the logo, you know, to make it like I'm doing air quotes relevant for today to bring it more up into the social space and you know, all that bullshit that we designers tell clients when we're trying to redo something.

But Nope, they have stuck with it. And it was even bought by Perry Ellis some time ago that, uh, from months anywhere. So still not changed. They're sticking with the roughness of the, the Oop, the original pink one. And, uh, in your research, did you find who. Pull that original Mark together. Nope. I can only assume it was done by, um, a staff designer at Munson where at the time, but no names associated with it.

Yeah. Unsung logos, unsung heroes. I love that. What a great title for this episode?

All right. Yeah. So last but not least, I'm going hyper-local. With my third logo. Okay. And again, remind people your hyper-local is Winston Salem, North Carolina? Yes. Not your hyper-local year. My hyper-local is about two hours in the car for you. I'm still like your sunshine gets there a little bit later than it does here.

That's true. It's pumped in there, but yes, you're hyper-local Winston Salem, North Carolina. Great city. Yes. Okay. Now I'm going to allow you to try to figure out yet again what this logo might be all about. Okay. Oh, man, please. I don't know that much about some of the, okay. All right, let's go for it. All right.

Okay. I am going to give you two hints. Okay. And the first hint is like you deviated away from cats. I am finally following your lead and I'm going to be doing the same thing. So this is not a cat. Okay. So that's not, that's not one of the hints. Well, I guess it ends it up. Thank you. I guess it is a hint.

Yeah, but there's one animal I would argue too. If we're counting a lie in that you can go ahead and cross off your list. Okay. So it's an insect. Okay. All right. But it is also for a local gas station. Okay. Um, okay. So it's not a tiger. So that's a female in a dinosaur. It's not Sinclair. Um, Karen, um, I'll give you, I'll give you a hint.

It's a pun. Okay. Upon on, uh, cars, a on gas, gas, gas. Gas holes, maybe a, those are the people with the gas guzzlers who go there too often. I don't, I don't know, but I like that that might be a great name for a gas station. I'm going to pitch that to them. Okay. All right. So it's something to, okay. All right.

So you agree some kind of pun with gas, um, gas, stop gas. Okay. Insect gas, gas, gas. Okay. Yeah. Gas hopper. Yes. Gas. Oh, good. Guess ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you win a free gallon of unleaded gas. You just have to drive to gas hopper. Well, drive here first. I'll give you $3. Then you can drive to gas hopper and get your gas.

Cool. Take it. Yeah. A takeaway you can get, man. So tell me about it. Yeah. So this gas station, I will freely admit I do not know the history of it. Yeah. I've been in Winston Salem for over 20 years. This gas station has been there the whole time. Uh, it's a couple miles from my house. And I just love this logo.

Of course, it'll be on our website. So folks can go and look at it. If they don't live around gas hopper, and I'm going to deliver a piece of bad news. Even if you do live around the gas hopper, they are currently in the process of upfitting and redoing the station. And I fear this logo is going to go away forever.

So I will tell you though, What about the name? Are they going to keep gas, opera, or they're going to keep the name, but I also have an additional reward that might be worth the drive to gas hopper. And I'll explain in a moment. Um, so basically this is a word Mark. It's the word gas hopper painted in green.

And whoever at whatever sign company or whatever local genius did this translated the word Mark and added a few flourishes so that it looks like a grasshopper. It is a wonderful, wonderful logo. Whenever I drove by this gas station. I just thought it was the greatest thing. And I always felt that the folks coming and going, you know, getting gas, getting snacks, whatever, just really had no appreciation for this thing.

And, um, but as it turns out, there is a microbrewery in Winston Salem called hoots, and it is literally a block away. It's a, Stone's throw away from this gas station and they have an IPA. Called gas hopper. And what we will do, we will post a picture of the can on our website done by, um, a great firm, uh, here in town at Winston Salem, friends of mine, uh, called airtight.

So they did this identity for hoots. They subsequently did this canned for gas hopper, and it is just absolutely great. So it celebrates the neighborhood, celebrates the gas station and I just love, love, love the visual. Pun that comes from the execution of this. Okay. So it's the word gas hopper. And it's made to look like a grasshopper.

Yes. All right. Can you say a little bit more about that? Absolutely. Well, it's got, this guy has got some legs. Yeah. Has the G the counter form of the G is, um, an eye. It's the grasshoppers eye. It's this red eye. Then the bottom of the G the descender of the G it's all lowercase, the descender of the G forms, the jaw, you know, the mandible or whatever of the grasshopper.

It's just, it's a wonderful, wonderful Mark. Right, man. That sounds awesome. Did they know, know how cool that that Mark is at DAS hopper? Yes, hopper HQ. Boy, I really wish they did. One other thing I want to bring up real quick as well, is that the G also has a couple antenna coming off of it. And so it's like truly, uh, you know, truly the Grasshopper's head.

And then the PS, whoever put this together, the peas are kind of bouncing a little bit. The lowercase peas and the descenders on the peas turned in the haunches of the grasshopper. So it's as powerful rear legs. Because it's a lowercase G in the front, he's also smiling. You know, he kind of looks like he's about to say something.

I just, I adore this logo and I'm really, really sad that, uh, there's a good chance that it's going away. And by the time people hear this, it might actually be, Oh man. Oh man, do they sell apparel? And things like that with this, luckily the brewery does. Oh, great. Yeah. So it's not the actual logo, but it's reasonably.

Close. Um, again, I don't know who did this. I swung by the gas hopper and asked them, and they just, they had no idea. And I'm really disappointed because it's the station's getting redone. They have a big led sign that it's, it's on a corner of two streets, a busy corner. And so there's this led sign, but it just has this sort of corporate sterile G H monogram with some kind of swoop or swish going through it.

And no one. Coming there is going to know what the hell G H stands for. You know, it was brilliant because it was the gas hopper, you know, and, and just this idea of like, you hop in, you get what you need and you hop out like, it just worked on so many levels. I love

man, man, that is hyper-local. Okay. I've got one more. That began as hyper-local has certainly spread a little bit and. I'm going to take a major departure and this is not going to be an animal at all. So hold on to your panties, Elliot, I'm going to give you a little couple of clues here too. Okay. Well, let me put on my belt and let me tighten my suspenders and snap snap snap.

My union sued back up, up, up. You're gonna say first, let me put on my panties. This is not local to me here in North Carolina. I had, uh, I had heard about this place on the West coast. I had clients in, uh, uh, Portland, Oregon, uh, it being on the West coast and, um, immediately went and checked this place out.

So it started in Portland, Oregon. And I'll tell you that it is a doughnut shop. Okay. You know what? I I'm going to go. I am somewhat of a donut connoisseur, and I have not personally ever been to Portland. I've been all up and down the West coast, but the rest of my family has been to Portland. My wife has been to Portland many times.

And if you're saying Portland and you're saying donut, I think I might be able to triangulate in on this very quickly, but I'm going to need one, one more answer. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Would this happen to be a donut shop that made the maple bacon donut famous? Uh, yes. You know what I'm talking about?

It's almost, it's almost scary. Famous is home is how famous it is. Yes. It's wickedly famous. Yeah. I would almost say the place is magical. It is magical. Like a dark force of donuts. We're talking about voodoo donuts. Yes. Yes. Yeah. If you haven't been there in a couple States now, Very small, still number of shops, but very local.

It began in Portland, two friends. They shared this entrepreneurial spirit and a flair for the business of show as it were. Um, So show business. Yeah. Well, you can say it that way if you want, but sorry. I'm in why you want to rain on my parade, but well, you know, Hey, there's no business like the donut business.

That's right. What's great about this is these two guys that started the business voodoo donut. Wait, are those, were those their names of do and donut? No. No, no. Um, they have names. I don't have them here. We will post a link on a website. So for our purposes though, as we're recording this, we'll just say their voodoo and donut.

Okay. We'll say mr. Voodoo and mr. Donut. So they had this neighborhood area and. They had located a little storefront shop. And what they decided with some research was that the neighborhood needed a donut place. There were no donut shops. So what they did is they added their flair to it. This donut shop is anything but conventional.

Let me tell you about some of the flavors Ellie. He said you've never been there. No, they're not big places by the way. They're like. People lined out the door here to get these donuts. One flavor known as old, dirty bastard, crumbled up Oreo cookies and chocolate. Um, another flavor, one of my personal favorites is captain my captain, which is sprinkled with captain crunch.

Oh, I thought it tasted like old poetry and salt.

Okay. The end, the end, the flop, sweat of the prep school student

and the most popular. And my favorite is the voodoo doll, which is a person shaped donut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel steak stuck right in the middle. And on a good day, when you get these voodoo doll donuts. The raspberry jellies kind of use an out from the stab wound.

Oh, this, you know, this reminds me, I have an item on my to do list. Um, The next time we're together. Uh, can I get a lock of your hair please? Donut? Don't ask, don't ask. Don't ask. Okay. Uh, yeah, sure, sure. All right. I'm getting back into my part of the story here then. Um, they use several marks for the shop and everything kind of has this hand done, do it yourself flavor, which is great.

It really fits them. The main Mark is a person with these hollow eyes wearing a top hat popping from the hole of a donut. Uh, his arms are outstretched and he has a Sceptre in his left hand. And, uh, on top of the Sceptre is another donut because, you know, you can, he's got a giant donut that he's kind of living in.

Right. And then he has a Sceptre of a donut donut magic. Yeah, of course, uh, the words voodoo circle, the top of the donut around the guy's head. And, uh, they're set in this font that appears like it was built out of like wood parts. Yeah. Like a clubhouse sorta situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really. Yeah. Again, like very hand done.

And then another symbol that they use is kind of a mr. Blobby character. Do you know who mr. Blobby is? Okay. This children's show creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy. Mr. Blobby, look it up is kind of like just as bulbous character. Anyway, this donut looks like that kind of rounded arms stretching out wide mouth and eyes open, like really wide open and a graphic swirl on the tummy, which is where you would stab with the pretzel stick.

Um, I'm looking at this guy right now. He sort of looks like ghost of Twinkie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's sort of like if Twinkie were Twinkie meets the Exorcist, right. If you eat enough Twinkies, you will also meet the Exorcist. That's right. And, um, another visual that they use quite a lot too is on the box itself.

The colors they use are Pepto-Bismol pink and this dark, almost black color printing on the box has this hand drawn word, voodoo. The words actually voodoo and donut are hand drawn, but the V of voodoo is actually Naik looking off towards the left and then the body and tail of the snake sort of form a top part.

So it's like they took the Van's logo and made it evil and creepy and wonderful. And Andrew, it. So basically a donut shop that is fun for the whole family. Yes. And, uh, You know, it might be worth coming back from the dead for yeah. And the donuts are good by the way, too. Oh, Oh, well, that's an even just marketing.

Well, this sounds delicious. Um, I think this is a great way to, uh, to end our little collection of logos, so let's circle back around. So yeah, that was my. Oblique doughnut reference. You see what I did there? Yeah. That was a bleak. Yeah. Yeah. Well, most donuts aren't totally circular, so I'd have to be ugly.

Okay. Yeah. There's enough with the geometry humor. Yeah. Yeah. Let me, let me put on my union suit and uh, circle back around with it. Yeah. Well open the trap door union suit because, uh, you know, anything can happen as we jumped back into this. Thinking about this collection of logos, I would say of all of them.

I won't say that a majority of them are unprofessional because I don't feel that's fair. I think we're celebrating them all because they all work. Get the end of the day, the vernacular that they have and the audience that they serve get all just works. I would say the Royal cup is the one that was very, obviously.

Done by a professional individual or firm. It's very clean, very thoughtful, very well done. Again, a number of visual puns. Like I mentioned, you know, you look at it at first glance, it's a lion. You go back and you look at it and you're like, Oh, he's wearing a crown. You go back and you look at it again. Oh, he's drinking tea or drinking coffee.

And it's just so poetic in its simplicity. And I just absolutely love it. As I've said, then you go to Yamato, which was drawn by the founder over a hundred years ago, which reminds me. Voodoo donut, you know, for all we know mr. Voodoo and mr. Donut could have been the two guys who drew this. Right. And then gas hopper.

Somebody probably just went to sign shopper. They were opening their gas station up and someone said, Hey, would it be all right if. We made this, what a fun name, maybe for all. I know the sign company came up with the name. I mean, you know, anyone's guess, but somebody really took the ball and ran with it and that's what makes it so great.

I agree with you. And what I love is that, uh, as you started off by saying, these are sorta of in the neighborhood of low brow, you know, probably with. Let's I'm going to exclude Royal cup. That certainly is a different swing at what we're talking about, but they all are kind of a take on representing the brands that they represent.

They're interesting marks. Um, they're showing us that everything doesn't have to be built around the golden ratio and it doesn't have to be smooth and perfect. That it can deliver character and it can deliver interests and it can create this wonderful brand vibe just by being what it is. Yeah. And, and again, it's authentic to what it is.

It's true to what it is, the culture of those companies. And a lot of these guys, as you mentioned, they just kind of threw the rule book out the window. If you go back and look at the voodoo donuts, there is. Some consistency, but a lot of inconsistency, you know, you think about, um, logo design based around best practices with how people read from left to right.

The snake in voodoo donut. He's looking in the wrong direction. He's looking at the left, the cat, carrying the kitten and Yamato. It's carrying the kitten in the wrong direction. Right. Um, although in Japanese, you know, it's, it's actually a different visual syntax when you read. Nevertheless, it's perfect.

Like the end of the black cat fireworks the kitty. If I remember correctly, he's looking to the left as he shrieking. Right. He's not looking to the right. So he's fighting the way the words are going to, so all of these things, I, and maybe I think in some way, that's what adds to the joy of all of these.

Um, yeah. Everything except, uh, the lie and, you know, the gas hopper, the G and the gas hopper. You can't flip that. It doesn't make any sense. So, um, you know, it all just breaks the rules and breaking the rules is really what makes it work. Yeah. It's the, the librarian taking the glasses off and now she's a supermodel shaking the hair and, uh, looking to the left, all of a sudden the supermodel.

Well, the lighting is better when you look that way. I think that is, I think you're right. That sounds great. Well, this, that sounds like a wonderful, insightful place to lead this. Well, Todd, I really loved, uh, really it's sort of a stroll down memory lane, but also, uh, at least for me it was a drive across town.

Yeah. And for me it was a good reminder that I need to go get some donuts. Oh, I could go for some donuts right now and gas. Oh, I already have that. All right, Elliot later. All right, man. Thanks so much.

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Episode 006:
“Unsung Logos”

Two Designers Walk Into A Bar

Episode 006: “Unsung Logos”

Released November 25, 2020
© 2020 Todd Coats and Elliot Strunk

Welcome to Two Designers Walk Into a Bar. A place where pop culture, loving creatives, discover design icons that make us tick. And we share a few cocktails in the process.

Today we shine the spotlight on some unsung heroes of the design world that are under appreciated. Logos we sleep near in hotel rooms, or the ones you seek out to fill your own gas tank or your own stomach and put a match to when you want to have a little bit of fun.

Yeah.

So, put that a little special something in your evening coffee or kickback with a local brew and join us as we walk back into the bar.

Todd do you like eighties, romcom movies?

Of course.

Okay. Do you know how in the movie, when there’s the popular girl and she goes to the dance and then there’s always sort of the nerdy girl with the glasses who goes to the dance and then she takes off her glasses and suddenly everyone realizes how beautiful she is, even though she…

She takes the glasses off in slow motion.

Okay, yes. Maybe shakes her head and her hair falls down.

Yeah. And the music changes.

Yeah. Boys turn around and are just all struck by her beauty.

Yeah. We’re not talking about movies today, right?

Well, we are talking about hidden gems. We’re talking about logos that may have been part of our lives hidden in plain sight. Maybe constantly overlooked by the Apples, the Targets, the Nikes, the Cokes…you know, the popular girls on campus.

Yeah. I love it.

Okay. So we’re going to dig deep into some things that we probably all have seen, or maybe some of us have seen. We may not have looked at it twice because it wasn’t a case study logo design.

And we’re going to look at how beautiful that is.

Yes, these aren’t Paul Rand beauties, but they’re beauties nonetheless. Well, beauties is beauties, right?

All right. Let’s get started.

Okay. So we each have a couple of examples to talk about today of hidden gems – under appreciated logos.

Yes. Give me your first one.

Okay. Well, my first one is from the animal kingdom. And my first one is also from…let’s see if we can drill down on this little bit. I’m going to give you three hints and you can tell me if you think you can figure out what it is.

Okay. Oh my God. That’s going to be hard. I mean, you’re talking about a bunch of logos out there, but okay. Let’s play along.

All right. I’ll give you a hint. The animal in the logo. He is the King of the jungle.

Okay. So it’s Snoop Dogg. Or, Snoop Lion.

Yes. Well, let’s just, let's just go with lion.

Okay.

And this lion really enjoys a beverage.

Okay. I need another hint.

Okay. He tends to enjoy his beverages when he is on the road, maybe at work or staying in a hotel.

Okay. Okay. So that’s a service…some kind of beverage…like a coffee service?

You’re getting warmer.

Okay. Uh, I’m getting closer to the lion. Oh! Royal Cup.

Yes. Royal Cup is a logo that I just adore. I don’t really remember where I first saw this logo. I don’t remember if I was saying in a hotel…

I see it on trucks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve definitely seen it on some trucks as well. So I started digging and I started to do a little research. We would cross paths every so often.

You and the king…

Well, no, it wasn’t Elvis. Focus on the lion.

Okay.

We’re talking about lion. Todd, I know you love Elvis, but let’s focus on the task at hand.

Yeah, I do love Elvis, but I do love a coffee-drinking lion too.

Both are high energy.

Okay. They both have beautiful manes, beautiful heads of hair, right?

They do. They do.

Royal Cup is this family owned – believe it or not – beverage company started in 1896 in Birmingham, Alabama. They have a great website. We’ll post links to it. It tells all the history about Royal Cup. So it’s a wonderful logo. It’s this symmetrical male lion’s head, this beautiful flowing mane. He has a crown sitting on the top of his head and, he is sipping sort of a little tea cup of coffee, and he has his one arm. Coming into the logo, but what the designer did – and I have researched this, I’ve actually asked Royal Cup to get back in touch with me. I don’t know who the designer is. So if anyone out there did this or knows who did it, please, please, please email us, hit us up on social media.

Yeah, let us let us know, because this is an unsung hero as far as I’m concerned. Right?

So the lion, his arm is a knocked out negative piece of the main. But the designer was able to make it symmetrical and it totally works. So when you see Royal Cup, of course, you first see the lion, then you start to read the crown and then sort of the third level of information and it’s, “Oh, aha.” I get it. He’s drinking coffee. These guys sell coffee. I just love this logo.

So how funny is it that you have a lion. First of all drinking out of a little dainty tea cup, because of all the teas that I’ve been to, I've never seen a lion drinking, any tea or coffee for that matter.

Have you ever seen Mr. T?

I have seen Mr. T.

He does have quite a nice mane as well as a matter of fact.

This is really getting into kind of a meta space isn’t it.

Really is.

Okay. So that’s very cool and a really elegant take on a member of the animal kingdom. Of a feline member of the animal kingdom. I’ve got one that’s probably on the other end of the spectrum, although it's very appreciated, not quite as classy is that…

Todd, are we driving through the neighborhood of lowbrow culture again?

Elliot, you and I are taking a baseball bat to the mailboxes of the neighborhood of low brow culture. Let me give you a hint and see if you can pick it out. I’ve already given you a clue it’s part of the feline world, right?

Okay, so start guessing.

No, I’m just kidding. You probably need more than that. This company hasn’t been around as long as Royal Cup, but it has been around since the 1940s and of its type, it is the oldest registered company brand in the U.S.

Okay.

All right. Let me give you another, I mean, I’m still…that’s not very helpful. The name of the company is also a feline.

Hmmm, is it Bobcat?

Uh no, that’s a good one though. They make a lot of money off of their apparel and you’ve seen it. You see it around holidays, like the 4th of July or New Year’s Eve.

Oh boy. Could we say that maybe this company, they pack a punch.

They, uh, always, yeah.

They always end things with a bang.

Yeah. Big happy finish, man! Yes. We’re talking about Black Cat Fireworks.

I love it.

So they’ve been around a while…oldest fireworks company brand in the U.S. And the logo for those of you who haven’t seen it – and I’m sorry for your loss, you’ll get to see it on our website because it’s absolutely gorgeous – used in a variety of different ways because they’re like ‘Standards manuals? Who cares.’

It’s mostly the head of a black cat screeching against a yellow background. The cat has yellow eyes, a red nose and mouth and blue whiskers. And the word ‘Black’ appears above the head in red. The word ‘Cat’ appears below in yellow, and it appears like the cat is coming at us from between the type. So it is like whoever drew it and designed it said, ‘We’re using all the colors. We’re just going to use all the colors and it’s going to be as vibrant as possible.

It’s obviously hand drawn and it looks like an explosion of color, which is really cool to me. It could also be used with the black cat against a black background. So you just see eyes and mouth and whiskers, which I think is really cool.

If you’re buying apparel from them, of course black on black. And you know, I’m not so clear on what black cats have to do with fireworks, other than the screeching sound, maybe. But if you didn’t know, you could think that this logo probably could pass for a rat killer too. It looks just like that.

Well Todd, I would argue a black cat is a rat killer.

That’s true. This logo could be as great on fireworks and rat killer because it just looks like excitement. A little bit of scariness.

Well, yeah, I would say probably gunpowder is black too.

Well, okay. Maybe that’s where it comes from then.

Right. And gun powder has this explosive nature, like this angry cat does.

Yeah. And to your point a second ago, a cat screech – you know when a couple of alley cats are getting in a fight – they start caterwauling and they sound like screeching fireworks.

So yeah, I think it’s really perfect.

Do you happen to know who drew this logo?

I do not. I couldn’t find that. My guess is it probably has been around for a while, but if anyone out there knows, please do let us know, because I would love to talk to this master.

Okay. Speaking of the master, I am going to stick with the cat family.

I think I’m sensing a trend here.

I am actually going to take us overseas. And I’m going to take us to 101 years ago.

Oh, they had cats back then?

I think they’d just been invented.

Okay. Well, we’ll have to check on that.

We’ll have to. You know, Wikipedia will tell you.

Yeah, well that means you’ll check on it then.

For those of you who know me – I don’t think I’ve mentioned this actually in a podcast before – I have a brother a few years younger than me who happens to live overseas. He lives in Japan and my family several years ago went over to visit him in Tokyo. So we get off the plane at the airport, we get our bags and we walk out.

We meet him in the lobby of the airport. I look up and I see this amazing black and yellow logo. That is an abstraction of a mother cat holding a kitten. So if I were to show you that. What industry do you think that would be for?

Gosh Elliot, you know, it could be anything from parenting to uh…

Why would it be at an airport?

Oh, Oh the airport. Security of some kind.

Okay. Yeah.

Um, uh, luggage carry and stuff. Transport.

Yes, yes. Logistics. It is a logo for Yamato transport company, and I love this logo. Actually. I love this company. I’m a cat person…an unabashed cat person. And, Japan is an unabashed and shameless cat country. If you think about Lucky Cat…Beckoning Cat. Of course you think about Hello, Kitty. Cats are huge in Asia. Definitely huge in Japan. As I mentioned a minute ago, this logo is a yellow oval and it is a mother cat carrying a kitten in her mouth and that symbolizes the company’s promise that they will take care of your item or your cargo entrusted with them just as though this were a precious package in their own family. So it’s a mother cat taking care of a kitten. And as soon as my brother mentioned what this company is, I knew it. I immediately understood the logo and I love that. It wasn’t usual. It’s not a truck or a shield or something that has an arrow in the negative space.

(Gasp!)

Sorry, for those of you who haven’t figured that out yet with FedEx. There’s one person out there.

…And guess what? In the Sixth Sense, the guy’s dead.

Todd, I’ve been meaning to see the old movie. Hold on. Wait. Now I got to go change my Netflix queue. All right. All right.

Well, I have a very quick question. Yamato. Is that a person’s name or does that translate to something in Japanese?

So Yamato was an ancient name in Japan and a period in the country’s history. The founder was a gentleman named Yasuomi Ogura and he also is the guy who drew the logo.

Oh, that’s awesome.

Yeah. And in Japan, their trucks are all over the place and they even sell – you’ll love this, do a quick Google image search – They actually sell small boxes that are little cat play houses that are shaped, like their trucks and printed, like their trucks. It almost looks like a mystery machine from Scooby-Doo, but for your cat. The company in Japan is referred to as Kuro Neko, which means black cat in Japanese and it’s actually their URL. If you look at the Japanese URL it’s actually Black Cat Yamato. Isn’t that brilliant. And what I love about it being a transport company, it has to go overseas. Obviously it’s going between Asia and the U.S. and in that sense, I would argue this logo is actually far more brilliant than FedEx or UPS with apologies to now Landor and Future Brand. And the reason I say that is because there’s no language barrier. It’s this picture that once, you know what it is, it makes total sense.

And in fact, I won’t get into the deeper story, but one time I was at a design conference and I was wearing a shirt that had nothing, but this logo on it and a guy appeared out of the shadows and pointed at my shirt and said, “Hey man, isn’t that some kind of, uh, Japanese shipping company?” And this is an American guy.

And I said, yeah, yeah, it is Yamato. And he's like, ah, I thought so. And then. He, uh, vanished and just sort of disappeared. Got some kind of hipster, dude, you're at no, this was at a hotel lobby and I think he was kind of like a, like a design goblin or something. I think he just kind of, you know, appeared some kind of magical creature, uh, anointed my shirt and then just poof in a puffy green smoke, he was gone as goblins are tending to do.

That's amazing. Okay, Todd, uh, what is your second logo? Right. So I'm sticking with the animal kingdom, but I'm finally getting away from the family of felines. Um, have you heard of Muncie Mware, Elliot? I have, yeah. Yeah. Like golf shirts and things like that. Right. And before that they made underwear. Or as we, as it's pronounced here in the South drawls,

nowhere and military garments, they're based in Minneapolis. So they introduced a line that I love. I actually, I love the clothing line and they introduced it in 1955. The original penguin you familiar? Yes. Yes. I love the line of clothing. It's retro. It's cool. And the logo doesn't look like it's changed from 1955, either.

As I said, Monsignor was known for something called union suits. Have you ever heard that term? Isn't that the good old, long underwear with a trap door in the back? It is. It is. I never knew that, but yet union suits is just code words for long underwear. Well, Todd, you got to keep in mind. The state I grew up in was part of the union.

Oh, okay. Well, we could not have called it that. And I said, yes, you called it a Yankee soup. We got it. Yankees are all right. All right. So, and they're also Monsignor is credited for creating the classic golf shirt, which we now call polo shirts. Right. Um, but let me tell you about this logo. The original penguin.

It's hand drawn. It's a hand drawn penguin. It's decked out with a collar and a tie because you know how fly penguins are women? Well, they're always, they're always wearing a tuxedo. Oh yeah. That hand drawn penguin is complimented by a hand-drawn logo type, which reads penguin. With the words and original above it, all of that looks hand done.

Like even today, when you go to the website, click on that link on our website, you'll see, you'll go right there. And it looks like it's hand drawn, which I'm sure someone has scanned it from, you know, 150 years ago when it was first created, but it's still looks hand drawn and imperfect. And rough and the penguin looks like it has duck lips, which I think is spectacular, but it's just beautiful in its originality.

And it's a uniqueness. What I love about this is they have not really appeared to change from the 1950s. So. I'm sure. You know, I can't man. I bet Elliott I being in Minneapolis and being sort of hipster where I bet they've had a long line of designers lining up, approaching them to redo the logo, you know, to make it like I'm doing air quotes relevant for today to bring it more up into the social space and you know, all that bullshit that we designers tell clients when we're trying to redo something.

But Nope, they have stuck with it. And it was even bought by Perry Ellis some time ago that, uh, from months anywhere. So still not changed. They're sticking with the roughness of the, the Oop, the original pink one. And, uh, in your research, did you find who. Pull that original Mark together. Nope. I can only assume it was done by, um, a staff designer at Munson where at the time, but no names associated with it.

Yeah. Unsung logos, unsung heroes. I love that. What a great title for this episode?

All right. Yeah. So last but not least, I'm going hyper-local. With my third logo. Okay. And again, remind people your hyper-local is Winston Salem, North Carolina? Yes. Not your hyper-local year. My hyper-local is about two hours in the car for you. I'm still like your sunshine gets there a little bit later than it does here.

That's true. It's pumped in there, but yes, you're hyper-local Winston Salem, North Carolina. Great city. Yes. Okay. Now I'm going to allow you to try to figure out yet again what this logo might be all about. Okay. Oh, man, please. I don't know that much about some of the, okay. All right, let's go for it. All right.

Okay. I am going to give you two hints. Okay. And the first hint is like you deviated away from cats. I am finally following your lead and I'm going to be doing the same thing. So this is not a cat. Okay. So that's not, that's not one of the hints. Well, I guess it ends it up. Thank you. I guess it is a hint.

Yeah, but there's one animal I would argue too. If we're counting a lie in that you can go ahead and cross off your list. Okay. So it's an insect. Okay. All right. But it is also for a local gas station. Okay. Um, okay. So it's not a tiger. So that's a female in a dinosaur. It's not Sinclair. Um, Karen, um, I'll give you, I'll give you a hint.

It's a pun. Okay. Upon on, uh, cars, a on gas, gas, gas. Gas holes, maybe a, those are the people with the gas guzzlers who go there too often. I don't, I don't know, but I like that that might be a great name for a gas station. I'm going to pitch that to them. Okay. All right. So it's something to, okay. All right.

So you agree some kind of pun with gas, um, gas, stop gas. Okay. Insect gas, gas, gas. Okay. Yeah. Gas hopper. Yes. Gas. Oh, good. Guess ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you win a free gallon of unleaded gas. You just have to drive to gas hopper. Well, drive here first. I'll give you $3. Then you can drive to gas hopper and get your gas.

Cool. Take it. Yeah. A takeaway you can get, man. So tell me about it. Yeah. So this gas station, I will freely admit I do not know the history of it. Yeah. I've been in Winston Salem for over 20 years. This gas station has been there the whole time. Uh, it's a couple miles from my house. And I just love this logo.

Of course, it'll be on our website. So folks can go and look at it. If they don't live around gas hopper, and I'm going to deliver a piece of bad news. Even if you do live around the gas hopper, they are currently in the process of upfitting and redoing the station. And I fear this logo is going to go away forever.

So I will tell you though, What about the name? Are they going to keep gas, opera, or they're going to keep the name, but I also have an additional reward that might be worth the drive to gas hopper. And I'll explain in a moment. Um, so basically this is a word Mark. It's the word gas hopper painted in green.

And whoever at whatever sign company or whatever local genius did this translated the word Mark and added a few flourishes so that it looks like a grasshopper. It is a wonderful, wonderful logo. Whenever I drove by this gas station. I just thought it was the greatest thing. And I always felt that the folks coming and going, you know, getting gas, getting snacks, whatever, just really had no appreciation for this thing.

And, um, but as it turns out, there is a microbrewery in Winston Salem called hoots, and it is literally a block away. It's a, Stone's throw away from this gas station and they have an IPA. Called gas hopper. And what we will do, we will post a picture of the can on our website done by, um, a great firm, uh, here in town at Winston Salem, friends of mine, uh, called airtight.

So they did this identity for hoots. They subsequently did this canned for gas hopper, and it is just absolutely great. So it celebrates the neighborhood, celebrates the gas station and I just love, love, love the visual. Pun that comes from the execution of this. Okay. So it's the word gas hopper. And it's made to look like a grasshopper.

Yes. All right. Can you say a little bit more about that? Absolutely. Well, it's got, this guy has got some legs. Yeah. Has the G the counter form of the G is, um, an eye. It's the grasshoppers eye. It's this red eye. Then the bottom of the G the descender of the G it's all lowercase, the descender of the G forms, the jaw, you know, the mandible or whatever of the grasshopper.

It's just, it's a wonderful, wonderful Mark. Right, man. That sounds awesome. Did they know, know how cool that that Mark is at DAS hopper? Yes, hopper HQ. Boy, I really wish they did. One other thing I want to bring up real quick as well, is that the G also has a couple antenna coming off of it. And so it's like truly, uh, you know, truly the Grasshopper's head.

And then the PS, whoever put this together, the peas are kind of bouncing a little bit. The lowercase peas and the descenders on the peas turned in the haunches of the grasshopper. So it's as powerful rear legs. Because it's a lowercase G in the front, he's also smiling. You know, he kind of looks like he's about to say something.

I just, I adore this logo and I'm really, really sad that, uh, there's a good chance that it's going away. And by the time people hear this, it might actually be, Oh man. Oh man, do they sell apparel? And things like that with this, luckily the brewery does. Oh, great. Yeah. So it's not the actual logo, but it's reasonably.

Close. Um, again, I don't know who did this. I swung by the gas hopper and asked them, and they just, they had no idea. And I'm really disappointed because it's the station's getting redone. They have a big led sign that it's, it's on a corner of two streets, a busy corner. And so there's this led sign, but it just has this sort of corporate sterile G H monogram with some kind of swoop or swish going through it.

And no one. Coming there is going to know what the hell G H stands for. You know, it was brilliant because it was the gas hopper, you know, and, and just this idea of like, you hop in, you get what you need and you hop out like, it just worked on so many levels. I love

man, man, that is hyper-local. Okay. I've got one more. That began as hyper-local has certainly spread a little bit and. I'm going to take a major departure and this is not going to be an animal at all. So hold on to your panties, Elliot, I'm going to give you a little couple of clues here too. Okay. Well, let me put on my belt and let me tighten my suspenders and snap snap snap.

My union sued back up, up, up. You're gonna say first, let me put on my panties. This is not local to me here in North Carolina. I had, uh, I had heard about this place on the West coast. I had clients in, uh, uh, Portland, Oregon, uh, it being on the West coast and, um, immediately went and checked this place out.

So it started in Portland, Oregon. And I'll tell you that it is a doughnut shop. Okay. You know what? I I'm going to go. I am somewhat of a donut connoisseur, and I have not personally ever been to Portland. I've been all up and down the West coast, but the rest of my family has been to Portland. My wife has been to Portland many times.

And if you're saying Portland and you're saying donut, I think I might be able to triangulate in on this very quickly, but I'm going to need one, one more answer. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Would this happen to be a donut shop that made the maple bacon donut famous? Uh, yes. You know what I'm talking about?

It's almost, it's almost scary. Famous is home is how famous it is. Yes. It's wickedly famous. Yeah. I would almost say the place is magical. It is magical. Like a dark force of donuts. We're talking about voodoo donuts. Yes. Yes. Yeah. If you haven't been there in a couple States now, Very small, still number of shops, but very local.

It began in Portland, two friends. They shared this entrepreneurial spirit and a flair for the business of show as it were. Um, So show business. Yeah. Well, you can say it that way if you want, but sorry. I'm in why you want to rain on my parade, but well, you know, Hey, there's no business like the donut business.

That's right. What's great about this is these two guys that started the business voodoo donut. Wait, are those, were those their names of do and donut? No. No, no. Um, they have names. I don't have them here. We will post a link on a website. So for our purposes though, as we're recording this, we'll just say their voodoo and donut.

Okay. We'll say mr. Voodoo and mr. Donut. So they had this neighborhood area and. They had located a little storefront shop. And what they decided with some research was that the neighborhood needed a donut place. There were no donut shops. So what they did is they added their flair to it. This donut shop is anything but conventional.

Let me tell you about some of the flavors Ellie. He said you've never been there. No, they're not big places by the way. They're like. People lined out the door here to get these donuts. One flavor known as old, dirty bastard, crumbled up Oreo cookies and chocolate. Um, another flavor, one of my personal favorites is captain my captain, which is sprinkled with captain crunch.

Oh, I thought it tasted like old poetry and salt.

Okay. The end, the end, the flop, sweat of the prep school student

and the most popular. And my favorite is the voodoo doll, which is a person shaped donut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel steak stuck right in the middle. And on a good day, when you get these voodoo doll donuts. The raspberry jellies kind of use an out from the stab wound.

Oh, this, you know, this reminds me, I have an item on my to do list. Um, The next time we're together. Uh, can I get a lock of your hair please? Donut? Don't ask, don't ask. Don't ask. Okay. Uh, yeah, sure, sure. All right. I'm getting back into my part of the story here then. Um, they use several marks for the shop and everything kind of has this hand done, do it yourself flavor, which is great.

It really fits them. The main Mark is a person with these hollow eyes wearing a top hat popping from the hole of a donut. Uh, his arms are outstretched and he has a Sceptre in his left hand. And, uh, on top of the Sceptre is another donut because, you know, you can, he's got a giant donut that he's kind of living in.

Right. And then he has a Sceptre of a donut donut magic. Yeah, of course, uh, the words voodoo circle, the top of the donut around the guy's head. And, uh, they're set in this font that appears like it was built out of like wood parts. Yeah. Like a clubhouse sorta situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really. Yeah. Again, like very hand done.

And then another symbol that they use is kind of a mr. Blobby character. Do you know who mr. Blobby is? Okay. This children's show creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy. Mr. Blobby, look it up is kind of like just as bulbous character. Anyway, this donut looks like that kind of rounded arms stretching out wide mouth and eyes open, like really wide open and a graphic swirl on the tummy, which is where you would stab with the pretzel stick.

Um, I'm looking at this guy right now. He sort of looks like ghost of Twinkie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's sort of like if Twinkie were Twinkie meets the Exorcist, right. If you eat enough Twinkies, you will also meet the Exorcist. That's right. And, um, another visual that they use quite a lot too is on the box itself.

The colors they use are Pepto-Bismol pink and this dark, almost black color printing on the box has this hand drawn word, voodoo. The words actually voodoo and donut are hand drawn, but the V of voodoo is actually Naik looking off towards the left and then the body and tail of the snake sort of form a top part.

So it's like they took the Van's logo and made it evil and creepy and wonderful. And Andrew, it. So basically a donut shop that is fun for the whole family. Yes. And, uh, You know, it might be worth coming back from the dead for yeah. And the donuts are good by the way, too. Oh, Oh, well, that's an even just marketing.

Well, this sounds delicious. Um, I think this is a great way to, uh, to end our little collection of logos, so let's circle back around. So yeah, that was my. Oblique doughnut reference. You see what I did there? Yeah. That was a bleak. Yeah. Yeah. Well, most donuts aren't totally circular, so I'd have to be ugly.

Okay. Yeah. There's enough with the geometry humor. Yeah. Yeah. Let me, let me put on my union suit and uh, circle back around with it. Yeah. Well open the trap door union suit because, uh, you know, anything can happen as we jumped back into this. Thinking about this collection of logos, I would say of all of them.

I won't say that a majority of them are unprofessional because I don't feel that's fair. I think we're celebrating them all because they all work. Get the end of the day, the vernacular that they have and the audience that they serve get all just works. I would say the Royal cup is the one that was very, obviously.

Done by a professional individual or firm. It's very clean, very thoughtful, very well done. Again, a number of visual puns. Like I mentioned, you know, you look at it at first glance, it's a lion. You go back and you look at it and you're like, Oh, he's wearing a crown. You go back and you look at it again. Oh, he's drinking tea or drinking coffee.

And it's just so poetic in its simplicity. And I just absolutely love it. As I've said, then you go to Yamato, which was drawn by the founder over a hundred years ago, which reminds me. Voodoo donut, you know, for all we know mr. Voodoo and mr. Donut could have been the two guys who drew this. Right. And then gas hopper.

Somebody probably just went to sign shopper. They were opening their gas station up and someone said, Hey, would it be all right if. We made this, what a fun name, maybe for all. I know the sign company came up with the name. I mean, you know, anyone's guess, but somebody really took the ball and ran with it and that's what makes it so great.

I agree with you. And what I love is that, uh, as you started off by saying, these are sorta of in the neighborhood of low brow, you know, probably with. Let's I'm going to exclude Royal cup. That certainly is a different swing at what we're talking about, but they all are kind of a take on representing the brands that they represent.

They're interesting marks. Um, they're showing us that everything doesn't have to be built around the golden ratio and it doesn't have to be smooth and perfect. That it can deliver character and it can deliver interests and it can create this wonderful brand vibe just by being what it is. Yeah. And, and again, it's authentic to what it is.

It's true to what it is, the culture of those companies. And a lot of these guys, as you mentioned, they just kind of threw the rule book out the window. If you go back and look at the voodoo donuts, there is. Some consistency, but a lot of inconsistency, you know, you think about, um, logo design based around best practices with how people read from left to right.

The snake in voodoo donut. He's looking in the wrong direction. He's looking at the left, the cat, carrying the kitten and Yamato. It's carrying the kitten in the wrong direction. Right. Um, although in Japanese, you know, it's, it's actually a different visual syntax when you read. Nevertheless, it's perfect.

Like the end of the black cat fireworks the kitty. If I remember correctly, he's looking to the left as he shrieking. Right. He's not looking to the right. So he's fighting the way the words are going to, so all of these things, I, and maybe I think in some way, that's what adds to the joy of all of these.

Um, yeah. Everything except, uh, the lie and, you know, the gas hopper, the G and the gas hopper. You can't flip that. It doesn't make any sense. So, um, you know, it all just breaks the rules and breaking the rules is really what makes it work. Yeah. It's the, the librarian taking the glasses off and now she's a supermodel shaking the hair and, uh, looking to the left, all of a sudden the supermodel.

Well, the lighting is better when you look that way. I think that is, I think you're right. That sounds great. Well, this, that sounds like a wonderful, insightful place to lead this. Well, Todd, I really loved, uh, really it's sort of a stroll down memory lane, but also, uh, at least for me it was a drive across town.

Yeah. And for me it was a good reminder that I need to go get some donuts. Oh, I could go for some donuts right now and gas. Oh, I already have that. All right, Elliot later. All right, man. Thanks so much.

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Episode 006:
“Unsung Logos”

Two Designers Walk Into A Bar

Episode 006: “Unsung Logos”

Released November 25, 2020
© 2020 Todd Coats and Elliot Strunk

Welcome to Two Designers Walk Into a Bar. A place where pop culture, loving creatives, discover design icons that make us tick. And we share a few cocktails in the process.

Today we shine the spotlight on some unsung heroes of the design world that are under appreciated. Logos we sleep near in hotel rooms, or the ones you seek out to fill your own gas tank or your own stomach and put a match to when you want to have a little bit of fun.

Yeah.

So, put that a little special something in your evening coffee or kickback with a local brew and join us as we walk back into the bar.

Todd do you like eighties, romcom movies?

Of course.

Okay. Do you know how in the movie, when there’s the popular girl and she goes to the dance and then there’s always sort of the nerdy girl with the glasses who goes to the dance and then she takes off her glasses and suddenly everyone realizes how beautiful she is, even though she…

She takes the glasses off in slow motion.

Okay, yes. Maybe shakes her head and her hair falls down.

Yeah. And the music changes.

Yeah. Boys turn around and are just all struck by her beauty.

Yeah. We’re not talking about movies today, right?

Well, we are talking about hidden gems. We’re talking about logos that may have been part of our lives hidden in plain sight. Maybe constantly overlooked by the Apples, the Targets, the Nikes, the Cokes…you know, the popular girls on campus.

Yeah. I love it.

Okay. So we’re going to dig deep into some things that we probably all have seen, or maybe some of us have seen. We may not have looked at it twice because it wasn’t a case study logo design.

And we’re going to look at how beautiful that is.

Yes, these aren’t Paul Rand beauties, but they’re beauties nonetheless. Well, beauties is beauties, right?

All right. Let’s get started.

Okay. So we each have a couple of examples to talk about today of hidden gems – under appreciated logos.

Yes. Give me your first one.

Okay. Well, my first one is from the animal kingdom. And my first one is also from…let’s see if we can drill down on this little bit. I’m going to give you three hints and you can tell me if you think you can figure out what it is.

Okay. Oh my God. That’s going to be hard. I mean, you’re talking about a bunch of logos out there, but okay. Let’s play along.

All right. I’ll give you a hint. The animal in the logo. He is the King of the jungle.

Okay. So it’s Snoop Dogg. Or, Snoop Lion.

Yes. Well, let’s just, let's just go with lion.

Okay.

And this lion really enjoys a beverage.

Okay. I need another hint.

Okay. He tends to enjoy his beverages when he is on the road, maybe at work or staying in a hotel.

Okay. Okay. So that’s a service…some kind of beverage…like a coffee service?

You’re getting warmer.

Okay. Uh, I’m getting closer to the lion. Oh! Royal Cup.

Yes. Royal Cup is a logo that I just adore. I don’t really remember where I first saw this logo. I don’t remember if I was saying in a hotel…

I see it on trucks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve definitely seen it on some trucks as well. So I started digging and I started to do a little research. We would cross paths every so often.

You and the king…

Well, no, it wasn’t Elvis. Focus on the lion.

Okay.

We’re talking about lion. Todd, I know you love Elvis, but let’s focus on the task at hand.

Yeah, I do love Elvis, but I do love a coffee-drinking lion too.

Both are high energy.

Okay. They both have beautiful manes, beautiful heads of hair, right?

They do. They do.

Royal Cup is this family owned – believe it or not – beverage company started in 1896 in Birmingham, Alabama. They have a great website. We’ll post links to it. It tells all the history about Royal Cup. So it’s a wonderful logo. It’s this symmetrical male lion’s head, this beautiful flowing mane. He has a crown sitting on the top of his head and, he is sipping sort of a little tea cup of coffee, and he has his one arm. Coming into the logo, but what the designer did – and I have researched this, I’ve actually asked Royal Cup to get back in touch with me. I don’t know who the designer is. So if anyone out there did this or knows who did it, please, please, please email us, hit us up on social media.

Yeah, let us let us know, because this is an unsung hero as far as I’m concerned. Right?

So the lion, his arm is a knocked out negative piece of the main. But the designer was able to make it symmetrical and it totally works. So when you see Royal Cup, of course, you first see the lion, then you start to read the crown and then sort of the third level of information and it’s, “Oh, aha.” I get it. He’s drinking coffee. These guys sell coffee. I just love this logo.

So how funny is it that you have a lion. First of all drinking out of a little dainty tea cup, because of all the teas that I’ve been to, I've never seen a lion drinking, any tea or coffee for that matter.

Have you ever seen Mr. T?

I have seen Mr. T.

He does have quite a nice mane as well as a matter of fact.

This is really getting into kind of a meta space isn’t it.

Really is.

Okay. So that’s very cool and a really elegant take on a member of the animal kingdom. Of a feline member of the animal kingdom. I’ve got one that’s probably on the other end of the spectrum, although it's very appreciated, not quite as classy is that…

Todd, are we driving through the neighborhood of lowbrow culture again?

Elliot, you and I are taking a baseball bat to the mailboxes of the neighborhood of low brow culture. Let me give you a hint and see if you can pick it out. I’ve already given you a clue it’s part of the feline world, right?

Okay, so start guessing.

No, I’m just kidding. You probably need more than that. This company hasn’t been around as long as Royal Cup, but it has been around since the 1940s and of its type, it is the oldest registered company brand in the U.S.

Okay.

All right. Let me give you another, I mean, I’m still…that’s not very helpful. The name of the company is also a feline.

Hmmm, is it Bobcat?

Uh no, that’s a good one though. They make a lot of money off of their apparel and you’ve seen it. You see it around holidays, like the 4th of July or New Year’s Eve.

Oh boy. Could we say that maybe this company, they pack a punch.

They, uh, always, yeah.

They always end things with a bang.

Yeah. Big happy finish, man! Yes. We’re talking about Black Cat Fireworks.

I love it.

So they’ve been around a while…oldest fireworks company brand in the U.S. And the logo for those of you who haven’t seen it – and I’m sorry for your loss, you’ll get to see it on our website because it’s absolutely gorgeous – used in a variety of different ways because they’re like ‘Standards manuals? Who cares.’

It’s mostly the head of a black cat screeching against a yellow background. The cat has yellow eyes, a red nose and mouth and blue whiskers. And the word ‘Black’ appears above the head in red. The word ‘Cat’ appears below in yellow, and it appears like the cat is coming at us from between the type. So it is like whoever drew it and designed it said, ‘We’re using all the colors. We’re just going to use all the colors and it’s going to be as vibrant as possible.

It’s obviously hand drawn and it looks like an explosion of color, which is really cool to me. It could also be used with the black cat against a black background. So you just see eyes and mouth and whiskers, which I think is really cool.

If you’re buying apparel from them, of course black on black. And you know, I’m not so clear on what black cats have to do with fireworks, other than the screeching sound, maybe. But if you didn’t know, you could think that this logo probably could pass for a rat killer too. It looks just like that.

Well Todd, I would argue a black cat is a rat killer.

That’s true. This logo could be as great on fireworks and rat killer because it just looks like excitement. A little bit of scariness.

Well, yeah, I would say probably gunpowder is black too.

Well, okay. Maybe that’s where it comes from then.

Right. And gun powder has this explosive nature, like this angry cat does.

Yeah. And to your point a second ago, a cat screech – you know when a couple of alley cats are getting in a fight – they start caterwauling and they sound like screeching fireworks.

So yeah, I think it’s really perfect.

Do you happen to know who drew this logo?

I do not. I couldn’t find that. My guess is it probably has been around for a while, but if anyone out there knows, please do let us know, because I would love to talk to this master.

Okay. Speaking of the master, I am going to stick with the cat family.

I think I’m sensing a trend here.

I am actually going to take us overseas. And I’m going to take us to 101 years ago.

Oh, they had cats back then?

I think they’d just been invented.

Okay. Well, we’ll have to check on that.

We’ll have to. You know, Wikipedia will tell you.

Yeah, well that means you’ll check on it then.

For those of you who know me – I don’t think I’ve mentioned this actually in a podcast before – I have a brother a few years younger than me who happens to live overseas. He lives in Japan and my family several years ago went over to visit him in Tokyo. So we get off the plane at the airport, we get our bags and we walk out.

We meet him in the lobby of the airport. I look up and I see this amazing black and yellow logo. That is an abstraction of a mother cat holding a kitten. So if I were to show you that. What industry do you think that would be for?

Gosh Elliot, you know, it could be anything from parenting to uh…

Why would it be at an airport?

Oh, Oh the airport. Security of some kind.

Okay. Yeah.

Um, uh, luggage carry and stuff. Transport.

Yes, yes. Logistics. It is a logo for Yamato transport company, and I love this logo. Actually. I love this company. I’m a cat person…an unabashed cat person. And, Japan is an unabashed and shameless cat country. If you think about Lucky Cat…Beckoning Cat. Of course you think about Hello, Kitty. Cats are huge in Asia. Definitely huge in Japan. As I mentioned a minute ago, this logo is a yellow oval and it is a mother cat carrying a kitten in her mouth and that symbolizes the company’s promise that they will take care of your item or your cargo entrusted with them just as though this were a precious package in their own family. So it’s a mother cat taking care of a kitten. And as soon as my brother mentioned what this company is, I knew it. I immediately understood the logo and I love that. It wasn’t usual. It’s not a truck or a shield or something that has an arrow in the negative space.

(Gasp!)

Sorry, for those of you who haven’t figured that out yet with FedEx. There’s one person out there.

…And guess what? In the Sixth Sense, the guy’s dead.

Todd, I’ve been meaning to see the old movie. Hold on. Wait. Now I got to go change my Netflix queue. All right. All right.

Well, I have a very quick question. Yamato. Is that a person’s name or does that translate to something in Japanese?

So Yamato was an ancient name in Japan and a period in the country’s history. The founder was a gentleman named Yasuomi Ogura and he also is the guy who drew the logo.

Oh, that’s awesome.

Yeah. And in Japan, their trucks are all over the place and they even sell – you’ll love this, do a quick Google image search – They actually sell small boxes that are little cat play houses that are shaped, like their trucks and printed, like their trucks. It almost looks like a mystery machine from Scooby-Doo, but for your cat. The company in Japan is referred to as Kuro Neko, which means black cat in Japanese and it’s actually their URL. If you look at the Japanese URL it’s actually Black Cat Yamato. Isn’t that brilliant. And what I love about it being a transport company, it has to go overseas. Obviously it’s going between Asia and the U.S. and in that sense, I would argue this logo is actually far more brilliant than FedEx or UPS with apologies to now Landor and Future Brand. And the reason I say that is because there’s no language barrier. It’s this picture that once, you know what it is, it makes total sense.

And in fact, I won’t get into the deeper story, but one time I was at a design conference and I was wearing a shirt that had nothing, but this logo on it and a guy appeared out of the shadows and pointed at my shirt and said, “Hey man, isn’t that some kind of, uh, Japanese shipping company?” And this is an American guy.

And I said, yeah, yeah, it is Yamato. And he's like, ah, I thought so. And then. He, uh, vanished and just sort of disappeared. Got some kind of hipster, dude, you're at no, this was at a hotel lobby and I think he was kind of like a, like a design goblin or something. I think he just kind of, you know, appeared some kind of magical creature, uh, anointed my shirt and then just poof in a puffy green smoke, he was gone as goblins are tending to do.

That's amazing. Okay, Todd, uh, what is your second logo? Right. So I'm sticking with the animal kingdom, but I'm finally getting away from the family of felines. Um, have you heard of Muncie Mware, Elliot? I have, yeah. Yeah. Like golf shirts and things like that. Right. And before that they made underwear. Or as we, as it's pronounced here in the South drawls,

nowhere and military garments, they're based in Minneapolis. So they introduced a line that I love. I actually, I love the clothing line and they introduced it in 1955. The original penguin you familiar? Yes. Yes. I love the line of clothing. It's retro. It's cool. And the logo doesn't look like it's changed from 1955, either.

As I said, Monsignor was known for something called union suits. Have you ever heard that term? Isn't that the good old, long underwear with a trap door in the back? It is. It is. I never knew that, but yet union suits is just code words for long underwear. Well, Todd, you got to keep in mind. The state I grew up in was part of the union.

Oh, okay. Well, we could not have called it that. And I said, yes, you called it a Yankee soup. We got it. Yankees are all right. All right. So, and they're also Monsignor is credited for creating the classic golf shirt, which we now call polo shirts. Right. Um, but let me tell you about this logo. The original penguin.

It's hand drawn. It's a hand drawn penguin. It's decked out with a collar and a tie because you know how fly penguins are women? Well, they're always, they're always wearing a tuxedo. Oh yeah. That hand drawn penguin is complimented by a hand-drawn logo type, which reads penguin. With the words and original above it, all of that looks hand done.

Like even today, when you go to the website, click on that link on our website, you'll see, you'll go right there. And it looks like it's hand drawn, which I'm sure someone has scanned it from, you know, 150 years ago when it was first created, but it's still looks hand drawn and imperfect. And rough and the penguin looks like it has duck lips, which I think is spectacular, but it's just beautiful in its originality.

And it's a uniqueness. What I love about this is they have not really appeared to change from the 1950s. So. I'm sure. You know, I can't man. I bet Elliott I being in Minneapolis and being sort of hipster where I bet they've had a long line of designers lining up, approaching them to redo the logo, you know, to make it like I'm doing air quotes relevant for today to bring it more up into the social space and you know, all that bullshit that we designers tell clients when we're trying to redo something.

But Nope, they have stuck with it. And it was even bought by Perry Ellis some time ago that, uh, from months anywhere. So still not changed. They're sticking with the roughness of the, the Oop, the original pink one. And, uh, in your research, did you find who. Pull that original Mark together. Nope. I can only assume it was done by, um, a staff designer at Munson where at the time, but no names associated with it.

Yeah. Unsung logos, unsung heroes. I love that. What a great title for this episode?

All right. Yeah. So last but not least, I'm going hyper-local. With my third logo. Okay. And again, remind people your hyper-local is Winston Salem, North Carolina? Yes. Not your hyper-local year. My hyper-local is about two hours in the car for you. I'm still like your sunshine gets there a little bit later than it does here.

That's true. It's pumped in there, but yes, you're hyper-local Winston Salem, North Carolina. Great city. Yes. Okay. Now I'm going to allow you to try to figure out yet again what this logo might be all about. Okay. Oh, man, please. I don't know that much about some of the, okay. All right, let's go for it. All right.

Okay. I am going to give you two hints. Okay. And the first hint is like you deviated away from cats. I am finally following your lead and I'm going to be doing the same thing. So this is not a cat. Okay. So that's not, that's not one of the hints. Well, I guess it ends it up. Thank you. I guess it is a hint.

Yeah, but there's one animal I would argue too. If we're counting a lie in that you can go ahead and cross off your list. Okay. So it's an insect. Okay. All right. But it is also for a local gas station. Okay. Um, okay. So it's not a tiger. So that's a female in a dinosaur. It's not Sinclair. Um, Karen, um, I'll give you, I'll give you a hint.

It's a pun. Okay. Upon on, uh, cars, a on gas, gas, gas. Gas holes, maybe a, those are the people with the gas guzzlers who go there too often. I don't, I don't know, but I like that that might be a great name for a gas station. I'm going to pitch that to them. Okay. All right. So it's something to, okay. All right.

So you agree some kind of pun with gas, um, gas, stop gas. Okay. Insect gas, gas, gas. Okay. Yeah. Gas hopper. Yes. Gas. Oh, good. Guess ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you win a free gallon of unleaded gas. You just have to drive to gas hopper. Well, drive here first. I'll give you $3. Then you can drive to gas hopper and get your gas.

Cool. Take it. Yeah. A takeaway you can get, man. So tell me about it. Yeah. So this gas station, I will freely admit I do not know the history of it. Yeah. I've been in Winston Salem for over 20 years. This gas station has been there the whole time. Uh, it's a couple miles from my house. And I just love this logo.

Of course, it'll be on our website. So folks can go and look at it. If they don't live around gas hopper, and I'm going to deliver a piece of bad news. Even if you do live around the gas hopper, they are currently in the process of upfitting and redoing the station. And I fear this logo is going to go away forever.

So I will tell you though, What about the name? Are they going to keep gas, opera, or they're going to keep the name, but I also have an additional reward that might be worth the drive to gas hopper. And I'll explain in a moment. Um, so basically this is a word Mark. It's the word gas hopper painted in green.

And whoever at whatever sign company or whatever local genius did this translated the word Mark and added a few flourishes so that it looks like a grasshopper. It is a wonderful, wonderful logo. Whenever I drove by this gas station. I just thought it was the greatest thing. And I always felt that the folks coming and going, you know, getting gas, getting snacks, whatever, just really had no appreciation for this thing.

And, um, but as it turns out, there is a microbrewery in Winston Salem called hoots, and it is literally a block away. It's a, Stone's throw away from this gas station and they have an IPA. Called gas hopper. And what we will do, we will post a picture of the can on our website done by, um, a great firm, uh, here in town at Winston Salem, friends of mine, uh, called airtight.

So they did this identity for hoots. They subsequently did this canned for gas hopper, and it is just absolutely great. So it celebrates the neighborhood, celebrates the gas station and I just love, love, love the visual. Pun that comes from the execution of this. Okay. So it's the word gas hopper. And it's made to look like a grasshopper.

Yes. All right. Can you say a little bit more about that? Absolutely. Well, it's got, this guy has got some legs. Yeah. Has the G the counter form of the G is, um, an eye. It's the grasshoppers eye. It's this red eye. Then the bottom of the G the descender of the G it's all lowercase, the descender of the G forms, the jaw, you know, the mandible or whatever of the grasshopper.

It's just, it's a wonderful, wonderful Mark. Right, man. That sounds awesome. Did they know, know how cool that that Mark is at DAS hopper? Yes, hopper HQ. Boy, I really wish they did. One other thing I want to bring up real quick as well, is that the G also has a couple antenna coming off of it. And so it's like truly, uh, you know, truly the Grasshopper's head.

And then the PS, whoever put this together, the peas are kind of bouncing a little bit. The lowercase peas and the descenders on the peas turned in the haunches of the grasshopper. So it's as powerful rear legs. Because it's a lowercase G in the front, he's also smiling. You know, he kind of looks like he's about to say something.

I just, I adore this logo and I'm really, really sad that, uh, there's a good chance that it's going away. And by the time people hear this, it might actually be, Oh man. Oh man, do they sell apparel? And things like that with this, luckily the brewery does. Oh, great. Yeah. So it's not the actual logo, but it's reasonably.

Close. Um, again, I don't know who did this. I swung by the gas hopper and asked them, and they just, they had no idea. And I'm really disappointed because it's the station's getting redone. They have a big led sign that it's, it's on a corner of two streets, a busy corner. And so there's this led sign, but it just has this sort of corporate sterile G H monogram with some kind of swoop or swish going through it.

And no one. Coming there is going to know what the hell G H stands for. You know, it was brilliant because it was the gas hopper, you know, and, and just this idea of like, you hop in, you get what you need and you hop out like, it just worked on so many levels. I love

man, man, that is hyper-local. Okay. I've got one more. That began as hyper-local has certainly spread a little bit and. I'm going to take a major departure and this is not going to be an animal at all. So hold on to your panties, Elliot, I'm going to give you a little couple of clues here too. Okay. Well, let me put on my belt and let me tighten my suspenders and snap snap snap.

My union sued back up, up, up. You're gonna say first, let me put on my panties. This is not local to me here in North Carolina. I had, uh, I had heard about this place on the West coast. I had clients in, uh, uh, Portland, Oregon, uh, it being on the West coast and, um, immediately went and checked this place out.

So it started in Portland, Oregon. And I'll tell you that it is a doughnut shop. Okay. You know what? I I'm going to go. I am somewhat of a donut connoisseur, and I have not personally ever been to Portland. I've been all up and down the West coast, but the rest of my family has been to Portland. My wife has been to Portland many times.

And if you're saying Portland and you're saying donut, I think I might be able to triangulate in on this very quickly, but I'm going to need one, one more answer. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Would this happen to be a donut shop that made the maple bacon donut famous? Uh, yes. You know what I'm talking about?

It's almost, it's almost scary. Famous is home is how famous it is. Yes. It's wickedly famous. Yeah. I would almost say the place is magical. It is magical. Like a dark force of donuts. We're talking about voodoo donuts. Yes. Yes. Yeah. If you haven't been there in a couple States now, Very small, still number of shops, but very local.

It began in Portland, two friends. They shared this entrepreneurial spirit and a flair for the business of show as it were. Um, So show business. Yeah. Well, you can say it that way if you want, but sorry. I'm in why you want to rain on my parade, but well, you know, Hey, there's no business like the donut business.

That's right. What's great about this is these two guys that started the business voodoo donut. Wait, are those, were those their names of do and donut? No. No, no. Um, they have names. I don't have them here. We will post a link on a website. So for our purposes though, as we're recording this, we'll just say their voodoo and donut.

Okay. We'll say mr. Voodoo and mr. Donut. So they had this neighborhood area and. They had located a little storefront shop. And what they decided with some research was that the neighborhood needed a donut place. There were no donut shops. So what they did is they added their flair to it. This donut shop is anything but conventional.

Let me tell you about some of the flavors Ellie. He said you've never been there. No, they're not big places by the way. They're like. People lined out the door here to get these donuts. One flavor known as old, dirty bastard, crumbled up Oreo cookies and chocolate. Um, another flavor, one of my personal favorites is captain my captain, which is sprinkled with captain crunch.

Oh, I thought it tasted like old poetry and salt.

Okay. The end, the end, the flop, sweat of the prep school student

and the most popular. And my favorite is the voodoo doll, which is a person shaped donut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel steak stuck right in the middle. And on a good day, when you get these voodoo doll donuts. The raspberry jellies kind of use an out from the stab wound.

Oh, this, you know, this reminds me, I have an item on my to do list. Um, The next time we're together. Uh, can I get a lock of your hair please? Donut? Don't ask, don't ask. Don't ask. Okay. Uh, yeah, sure, sure. All right. I'm getting back into my part of the story here then. Um, they use several marks for the shop and everything kind of has this hand done, do it yourself flavor, which is great.

It really fits them. The main Mark is a person with these hollow eyes wearing a top hat popping from the hole of a donut. Uh, his arms are outstretched and he has a Sceptre in his left hand. And, uh, on top of the Sceptre is another donut because, you know, you can, he's got a giant donut that he's kind of living in.

Right. And then he has a Sceptre of a donut donut magic. Yeah, of course, uh, the words voodoo circle, the top of the donut around the guy's head. And, uh, they're set in this font that appears like it was built out of like wood parts. Yeah. Like a clubhouse sorta situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really. Yeah. Again, like very hand done.

And then another symbol that they use is kind of a mr. Blobby character. Do you know who mr. Blobby is? Okay. This children's show creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy. Mr. Blobby, look it up is kind of like just as bulbous character. Anyway, this donut looks like that kind of rounded arms stretching out wide mouth and eyes open, like really wide open and a graphic swirl on the tummy, which is where you would stab with the pretzel stick.

Um, I'm looking at this guy right now. He sort of looks like ghost of Twinkie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's sort of like if Twinkie were Twinkie meets the Exorcist, right. If you eat enough Twinkies, you will also meet the Exorcist. That's right. And, um, another visual that they use quite a lot too is on the box itself.

The colors they use are Pepto-Bismol pink and this dark, almost black color printing on the box has this hand drawn word, voodoo. The words actually voodoo and donut are hand drawn, but the V of voodoo is actually Naik looking off towards the left and then the body and tail of the snake sort of form a top part.

So it's like they took the Van's logo and made it evil and creepy and wonderful. And Andrew, it. So basically a donut shop that is fun for the whole family. Yes. And, uh, You know, it might be worth coming back from the dead for yeah. And the donuts are good by the way, too. Oh, Oh, well, that's an even just marketing.

Well, this sounds delicious. Um, I think this is a great way to, uh, to end our little collection of logos, so let's circle back around. So yeah, that was my. Oblique doughnut reference. You see what I did there? Yeah. That was a bleak. Yeah. Yeah. Well, most donuts aren't totally circular, so I'd have to be ugly.

Okay. Yeah. There's enough with the geometry humor. Yeah. Yeah. Let me, let me put on my union suit and uh, circle back around with it. Yeah. Well open the trap door union suit because, uh, you know, anything can happen as we jumped back into this. Thinking about this collection of logos, I would say of all of them.

I won't say that a majority of them are unprofessional because I don't feel that's fair. I think we're celebrating them all because they all work. Get the end of the day, the vernacular that they have and the audience that they serve get all just works. I would say the Royal cup is the one that was very, obviously.

Done by a professional individual or firm. It's very clean, very thoughtful, very well done. Again, a number of visual puns. Like I mentioned, you know, you look at it at first glance, it's a lion. You go back and you look at it and you're like, Oh, he's wearing a crown. You go back and you look at it again. Oh, he's drinking tea or drinking coffee.

And it's just so poetic in its simplicity. And I just absolutely love it. As I've said, then you go to Yamato, which was drawn by the founder over a hundred years ago, which reminds me. Voodoo donut, you know, for all we know mr. Voodoo and mr. Donut could have been the two guys who drew this. Right. And then gas hopper.

Somebody probably just went to sign shopper. They were opening their gas station up and someone said, Hey, would it be all right if. We made this, what a fun name, maybe for all. I know the sign company came up with the name. I mean, you know, anyone's guess, but somebody really took the ball and ran with it and that's what makes it so great.

I agree with you. And what I love is that, uh, as you started off by saying, these are sorta of in the neighborhood of low brow, you know, probably with. Let's I'm going to exclude Royal cup. That certainly is a different swing at what we're talking about, but they all are kind of a take on representing the brands that they represent.

They're interesting marks. Um, they're showing us that everything doesn't have to be built around the golden ratio and it doesn't have to be smooth and perfect. That it can deliver character and it can deliver interests and it can create this wonderful brand vibe just by being what it is. Yeah. And, and again, it's authentic to what it is.

It's true to what it is, the culture of those companies. And a lot of these guys, as you mentioned, they just kind of threw the rule book out the window. If you go back and look at the voodoo donuts, there is. Some consistency, but a lot of inconsistency, you know, you think about, um, logo design based around best practices with how people read from left to right.

The snake in voodoo donut. He's looking in the wrong direction. He's looking at the left, the cat, carrying the kitten and Yamato. It's carrying the kitten in the wrong direction. Right. Um, although in Japanese, you know, it's, it's actually a different visual syntax when you read. Nevertheless, it's perfect.

Like the end of the black cat fireworks the kitty. If I remember correctly, he's looking to the left as he shrieking. Right. He's not looking to the right. So he's fighting the way the words are going to, so all of these things, I, and maybe I think in some way, that's what adds to the joy of all of these.

Um, yeah. Everything except, uh, the lie and, you know, the gas hopper, the G and the gas hopper. You can't flip that. It doesn't make any sense. So, um, you know, it all just breaks the rules and breaking the rules is really what makes it work. Yeah. It's the, the librarian taking the glasses off and now she's a supermodel shaking the hair and, uh, looking to the left, all of a sudden the supermodel.

Well, the lighting is better when you look that way. I think that is, I think you're right. That sounds great. Well, this, that sounds like a wonderful, insightful place to lead this. Well, Todd, I really loved, uh, really it's sort of a stroll down memory lane, but also, uh, at least for me it was a drive across town.

Yeah. And for me it was a good reminder that I need to go get some donuts. Oh, I could go for some donuts right now and gas. Oh, I already have that. All right, Elliot later. All right, man. Thanks so much.

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