08 June 2009

Oregon Media Forum: A Logo With Wit

2068.The recently-opened Oregon Media Forum, in its current form a message forum devoted to those of us who really are having a hard time living without the abruptly-retired and rather-beloved Oregon Media Insiders, has it going on in the logo department.

LynnS's logo for that monumental work was nice, playful, and I enjoyed it much:



Radio, TV, Print. Great retro images (though in my opinion, the pencil is a timeless thing – I love drawing in pencil. Infinitely forgiving).

The pseudonymous founder of the Oregon Media Forum, "oregonmedia", brought the cleverness with a similarly-collage-like logo which takes the idea to the level of straight-faced satire:



The newspaper logo (s)he's riffing on is obvious, the two TV station logos, maybe not so much (though I parsed it straight away).

The phrase "straight-faced satire" might come off a bit awkward but it's actually meant as a compliment. An independent message board that welcomes anonymous comments branding itself using the visual grammar of prominent members of the community it critiques is actually quite visually fun if it comes off well, as it has here. And now that I'm taking a good deep look at it I like the subtle supporting touches: the gradients, the drop shadows, are all done just right. The beveling on the top of the F is a little stroke (so to speak) of genius, seriously.

If I was the type who had enough pull to give out Portland Logo of the Year awards, this would be up on that list. It's nifty!

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

1 comment:

oregonmedia said...

Hey, thanks a lot! I was frankly surprised it came out as well as it did.