Anatomy of a Logo: Mezz Galactic Tour 2493

In the second week of November 1992, Dark Horse editor, Anina Bennett, called and offered two logos to me: Hammer of God (shown last week) and Mezz. (They were followed by Will to Power and Barb Wire.) I said I was interested and waited for her package.

Anina’s package included photocopies of a few finished pages, some penciled pages. Her cover letter, dated November 16, 1992, described the book’s concept.

Thumbnail sketches

Thumbnail designs

Preparing to develop the top design

Refining the design and adding effects

Photocopy enlargement of thumbnail design
and preparation to develop it

Tracing paper overlay

Refining the design

Various effects

Photocopy enlargement of design

and preparation to develop it

A single letterform for M and E. Optically, 

the M looks shorter than the E and Z.

Subtitle in a square grid

Various effects and alternate arrangement of subtitle

Anina selected sketch 1A.

Spacing adjusted between letters and words of subtitle

A same-size photostat was made of the original art for my
files. Below is a scan of the stitched-together photostat.

Mezz, scheduled for 1993, takes place 500 years in the future. Mezz was delayed a year, so someone at Dark Horse adjusted the subtitle’s year to 2494. The comic book cover had a May 1994 date.

(Next post on Monday: Transportation Building)

Anatomy of a Logo: Hammer of God

In the second week of November 1992, Dark Horse editor, Anina Bennett, called and offered two logos to me: Hammer of God and Mezz. My first job for them. (They were followed by Will to Power and Barb Wire.) I said I was interested and waited for her package.

Anina’s package included photocopies of a few finished pages, some penciled pages and the covers published by First. Her cover letter, dated November 16, 1992, described the characters and shared her thoughts on the logo.

First, 1991

I made a number of sketches in a sketchbook and enlarged them on a photocopier. I chose to emphasize GOD by making it larger than the other words. The raised fist was treated as ornaments in some designs. It was an easy decision to use the raised fist emblem in place of the O in GOD. Guidelines were drawn over the sketches.

The G and D designed to be mirror images of each other.

Tracing paper was placed over the photocopies
to make the first refinements.

Second refinements were made and faxed on November 30.

Anina selected the third design. I drew guidelines

on the photocopy then placed tracing paper over it.

Some of the letters were modified and the spacing adjusted.
The raised fist was moved inside the O.

The revised logo was photocopied and faxed to Anina.

Anina approved the design. I enlarged it about one-and-a-half times and drew guidelines for the arc, the weight of the outline, the shape of the letters, shadows, and raised fist, which was tilted slightly. The photocopy was positioned on a light box, then a sheet of LetraMax was placed over it. The inking was done with Rapidograph pens and an assortment of ellipse templates, an adjustable triangle and a flexible French curve.

A same-size photostat was made of the original art for my files.

The comic books were published in 1994. 
Pentathlon designed by Dark Horse.

Butch and the fists designed by Dark Horse.

(Next post on Monday: Mezz Galactic Tour 2493)

Anatomy of a Logo: Barb Wire

The Barb Wire logo was for Dark Horse editor, Marliee Hord. At the time I was working on the Agents of Law logo, and earlier I had done the Will to Power logo for her. The editors were allowed to use freelance designers if the in-house designs did not meet their expectations. On October 13, 1994, Marilee offered Bare Wire to me and said I was free to pursue any design.

In the original logo, the letters in Barb are stacked vertically to the left of Wire.

In my initial sketches, I saw the possibility of a single letterform acting as three letters: B, W and E.

On another page of sketches, I stacked the name and created a diagonal link with the Rs. I enlarged it and worked on refining it.

As it turned out, the letters in Barb were the same height. The W in Wire extended below the baseline. The serifs were spiky, somewhat like barbwire. I wanted to make both names somewhat equal in size and more legible.

Further refinements were made to the Bs, although they still didn’t match. The small negative spaces below the A and R, and in the W are distracting and probably would have been eliminated. The A isn't quite right; it needed a different slant to increase the space between it and the B, and decrease the space with the R. But this design was faxed to Marilee and she liked it.

I started exploring a symmetrical design in this sketch, which was done on October 22. 

Marilee called and said to hold off on any more work on Barb Wire. On November 18, she called and said two things: a memo had been issued to the editors stating that all logos had to be produced in-house; and that Barb Wire had been optioned for a movie, so, no changes could be made to the logo. (As it turned out, the movie logo used Wire, while Barb was redesigned and made the same height.) After the conversation, I sent in my invoice for the kill fee and never heard from Dark Horse again.

(Next post on Monday: The Cactus 1929)