Saturday, March 24, 2007

The MAC 07: How To Name A Restored Scope


Please forgive but I am posting one more short article about my restored microscope. After receiving my microscope I had everything in place with the exception of a name. No respectable restored scope should be without a name. I chose to name my scope the “MAC 07.” Ian’s last name is MacGregor and you see right away the origin of the name.

I will make an effort to explain from an artist’s perspective the selection of the colors, shape, etc for the logo. The placement of the logo was very simple. I chose the black because the knob is black and the black on the logo provided me with a pleasant repetition of value. The brass was pretty much standing alone and was isolated visually from the remainder of the unit I chose the gold because it is so close in texture, value and color to the brass. This helps to unify the stand-alone brass piece and ties it to the scope proper.

The scope is 40 years old so I did not want a highly contemporary font. I like the block font I chose for the “MAC” because of the “weight” and “strength” projected by the font. Next, I wanted a subtle transition to another font and chose the “circus” looking font for the “07” and immediately saw the two worked together beautifully.

The large area of black was a bit strong and I also needed just a bit of decorative quality. That is why and how I arrived at the black and gold configuration. A cursive would have been too much and I don’t think a serif would have worked. I will add here that this is not a long laborious task and that I pulled it off in a short period of time. I am attempting to illustrate that design decisions are not just arbitrary decisions. There a leap of the imagination involved whether it be a logo or a painting if it is an effective design.

I will show you a close up of the logo and I do hope this little peek into the mind of a designer means something. Please click on the URL and see a close up of the logo: http://tinyurl.com/2fyytk Thank you and God Bless.. Jerry..

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