My criteria for logos are as follows. They must be:

Appropriate - They must embody and convey a feeling that represents the nature of the industry at large. Logos for a ballet company, a bank, and a produce distributor should look dramatically different.
Distinctive - They must distinguish and separate the individual company from the competition. An appropriate look that does not draw attention to the unique qualities of the business it represents only serves to support the industry as a whole, and will most likely draw business toward the leader in the field.
Attracting/Attractive - In general, pleasing aesthetics serve any business well. However, the qualities that attract the target consumer may not always overlap with conventional standards of attractiveness, and so “attracting” may occasionally take precedence over "attractive."
Readable/Understandable - Obviously, if letters and words are involved, the consumer must be able to decipher them. But the same is true for pictorial, symbolic, and abstract images. The image must not only portray what the designer and client intended, but every effort must be made to not convey any unintended ideas as well. A word of caution: the more abstract a logo is, the more it is like a Rorschach test. And it's very hard to predict what every viewer will see.
Functional - A logo must perform with equal strength and effectiveness in each of the numerous places it will be used. It must work on the side of the company truck and the business card. It must retain its integrity in crowded environments of competing graphics and colorful distractions. It must work in one color printing and on low-definition TV and computer monitors. These extreme and varied demands usually call for simplicity in design.

This project did not call for a creative concept. It required a sensitivity to the history of a revered medical institution and its traditional identity. The new logo presents a contemporary corporate look that honors the Board's significant place in American medical history.

Client: Aquarius Advisers, a marketing and communications consulting firm

www.aquariusadvisers.com

Hand-drawn formal script.

Client: Armstrong Typography, Philadelphia, Pa.

Logo for my rep, Ken Leyden. The project was a deck of cards, each card featuring the artwork of one of Ken's artists. The pack was a promotion for CrownVantage, a paper manufacturer.

Client: Ken Leyden/Crown Vantage

Developed for extra-curricular
entertainment projects.

Client: Hodgson Design

Intended as contemporary version of Chinese “chop.” Literal reading: CO CO line.

Client: Cocoline Chocolate Company
Agency: Cavanaugh Communications
Art Director: Gerry Cavanaugh

Stylized column, representing the institution's dependability integrated with capital letter C.

Client: Commonwealth Bank
Agency: JRA Marketing
Art Director: Richard Weiss

Pen represents both the signing of the Constitution and the bank customer's signature. Design rejected by client.

Client: Constitution Bank
Agency: JRA Marketing
Art Director: Richard Weiss

Client: Denbigh School
Agency: JRA Marketing
Art Director: Art Dietrich

Client: Frank Duca Press
Agency: Langdon & Petrick
Art Director: John Langdon, Bob Petrick

The Eclipse was a last ditch product innovation intended to save a dying keyboard/synthesizer company. Intended as a quantum leap forward, the product eclipsed all previous models. But it cost too much, didn't sell, and the company went down.

Client: Oberheim
Project: Eclipse
Art Director: Sixtus Oeschle/ Cindy Hodgson

Client: Edwards Enterprises
Agency: Cavanaugh Communications
Art Director: Gerry Cavanaugh

Web Site Development Company

Client: Halfbyte, Inc.

One of a series of magazine department headings.

Client: Cycle Guide Publications
Project: Interview
Art Director: Joe Kelleher

Logo for my daughter's new bicycle

Client: Jessica Taft Langdon

A housing development in Kent, England. Client had said no logos with crowns in them. Design was rejected.

Client: Willard Rouse and Partners
Project: Kings Hill
Agency: Sandi Pierantozzi

Client: Paul Skavland, a clinical hypnotherapist and life coach

Logo to promote The Paradise Paradigm by G.D. Allport.

Client: E. Dianne Publishing
Art Director: Karen Allport

www.paradise-paradigm.net

Title for magazine article. Gold Award, Philadelphia Art Directors Club Annual Show.

Project: Motorcycle Mania
Client: Realites Magazine
Agency: Intermed Publications
Art Director: John Isely

Created for competition sponsored by Gloria Vanderbilt/Murjani. Didn't win.

Project: New York Fashion Industry

Client: Rehabilitation Hospitals of America
Agency: JRA Marketing
Art Director: Richard Weiss

Private club logo. Needed to have both the dynamic nature of the name and the quiet elegance of the art deco decor.

Project:Starfire
Client: Sands Hotel and Casino

Client was phasing in the new more concise and streamlined name Trans-Net. Note the subliminal S representing the disappearing term “Suburban.”

Client: Suburban Transportation Network
Agency: Concept 3
Art Director: Sandy Stewart

www.suburbantransit.org

Client: The Secret Network

Client requested “something a little different.” She got the first of what I would call sophisticated ambigrams— where traditional principles of lettering were in effect.

Client: Vicki Maloney

Logo and animation created for the Art and Science Electronic Journal of ISIS-Symmetry:

Client: ISIS-Symmetry

members.tripod.com/vismath/

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My design career began in the photo-lettering department of a type shop in 1970. My design education consisted of my obsessive study of design annuals. So my most significant influences were the great corporate designers of the day: Lou Dorfsman, Tom Geismar, and Herb Lubalin topped the list; and great lettering artists Ed Benguiat, Tom Carnase, Tony diSpigna and Gerard Huerta inspired me as well.

Although the poetic conciseness of symbolic, abstract and pictorial logos held great appeal for me, my focus was already trained on words and letterforms. While a great graphic image can leave a strong impression, it may only lead the consumer in a general direction, rather than to a specific company. Obviously, this is much less likely to be the case when the name or initials of the company are an integral part of the design. It is my belief that a visual image closely intertwined with a name creates the most memorable logo. Most of my logos bear out that philosophy.

The logos on this page are from among the hundreds I have designed; the oldest one in this group was designed in 1972, the newest, this year.