Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Well Done vs Poor Design



Gestalt is a term meaning "unified whole."  This concept surely does a bit of justice to the well designed insignia/brand logo for The Ledges Golf Club in St. George, UT.  I feel that this logo identifies with the five main Gestalt principles beautifully.  First, the similarity in the label can be seen with the eyes right off the bat.  The contours of each arch are all lined the same, giving the eye a chance to move around the individual arches and see the "unified whole" that makes up the label.

It is also an extremely simple design, with the contrast being immaculate here.  The six arches create a hexagon, and that is the major makeup of the brand.  What makes the proximity seem like glue are the three colors that were chosen.  They are laying on top of one another and each outside edge of the arches has the same tan color; this in turn makes the piece look as though there is a hidden star of some sort.  The colors playing off one another also represents the area of the golf course, as it is located near Snow Canyon, which have the tans, oranges, reds, and so forth.  This type of relationship brings the 'identity' aspect to the conversation.  The continuity of the shapes in place together brings closure, and when looked at long enough, is pleasing to the casual onlooker.


The poor design, to me, is the logo for Southgate Golf Club, also located in St. George, UT.  There are a few arguments that can be made on behalf of this logo to explain and give reason as to why this design is very well done, yet that can be the case for many, many designs out in the visual world.  To me, however, this design doesn't quite measure up.  

Simplistic? Of course.  But other than that it is left barren and unfamiliar.  There isn't much of an identity here, either.  I mean, you can see that the designers tried to bring in the 'red' theme like everything else in the St. George area, but how it is placed onto a mountain peak just doesn't fit right. This leads me into the next point (pun intended).  How the black and red mountain peaks are aligned give me the feeling of looking at an insurance company's logo, not a leisure sport's home.  The closure, or lack thereof, is leaving any onlooker to search for more.  Are they mountain peaks, or the grim reaper's collection of scythes?  





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