Logotypes

When I read this section, my first thought was if there was much difference between a logotype (business oriented) and the fancy, stylized initials some artists use to sign their paintings or otherwise classify their paintings. I seem to recall the artistic initials being termed a “cartouche”—and some of them are surrounded by a border, such as the “PRB” for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood—but that does not fit for artists such as James McNeill Whistler, whose used a “monogram” of his initials J and W formed into a butterfly (this was, in part, so it blended into his art better). I always found signing my name to art distracting, so I switched to a monogram or logotype of my own This solved the problem of my name being distracting, especially since my works tend to be miniatures (8 x 10 or smaller). Any way, I almost put Ralph Lauren’s logotype on my cultural map since I like his style of clothing, well, I like anything tweedy, and it is probably the only logotype I voluntarily and consciously display (I am looking around my office for other examples of logotypes and other than on the computer and phone, I am not finding much. “NCTE” on some of my books is something of a logotype (I just checked the Trademark office and it is a “dead” mark). Anyway, since I have a background in intellectual property (trademarks, service marks and copyright, but NOT patents—my brain would explode if I had to prosecute a patent) that unfortunately I never got to use as much as I would have liked to, I find logotypes rather fascinating. Incidentally, I also note that Ralph Lauren’s logotype uses a serif font.

The one really noticeable use of non-logotype fonts in my office is my Pieter Krøyer poster—the city in Norway where the exhibition was (Blaafarvevæket) is an font similar, if not identical, to Kunstler Script (darn--Blaafarvevæket in Kunstler Script on my draft and it did not transfer!) and the rest of the exhibit information is in a font like Palatino or Garamond.