Giving LCHS a New Look

Have you noticed the new LCHS lamp that adorned our most recent newsletter and other printed materials?  In today's post, our Museum Aide and graphic designer shares some of her thoughts on the updated logo.

Original LCHS logo, created in 1978.

"The design that is part of the masthead at the top of this page is the Society's new logo, which was planned by a committee composed of Marion Featherstone, Tom Berg, and Sam Schrager. The lamp was selected as symbolic of early times, knowledge, and the home. Photography by Phil Schofield. You will be seeing the logo on Society stationary, brochures, and other publications."   -- LCHS Quarterly Bulletin, Vol 7, No 3, July 1978

Redesign of LCHS logo, created in 2014.

After thirty years with the same logo, the staff at LCHS thought it was time for an updated identity. I am a professional graphic designer when I'm not putting in hours as the museum aide, but I was a little nervous when I was entrusted with reworking our logo.  The LCHS lamp has acquired integrity as a logo after decades of representing our organization. We wished to retain the recognizable form of the lamp, but years of photocopying duplicate images had left us with a logo that, when scanned, was fuzzy and less than attractive.  This redesign allowed us to create a digital image that can be easily shared and reproduced.

The new logo is modeled on one of the lamps in our collection. One problem that became apparent with the original logo, is that when it was used at a smaller size, the text arching over the lamp became difficult to read. Another issue is that the base of the old lamp was mostly transparent, and this also didn't read well at a smaller size. I attempted to solve this problem by creating a series of logos that can be used interchangeably.

The new lamp has a solid black base to help make the logo easily readable from a distance. The new version of the logo also uses a different font that is more readable at smaller sizes. Our series of logos offers a variety of different configurations for the layout of the text and the lamp so that we have more flexibility with how the logo can be applied. We did not make any of these changes lightly. I discussed the direction of the redesign several times with staff and volunteers, as wells as friends and family. The new logo has been in use now for a couple of months. We would love to hear what you think of the redesign, because we truly value your feedback.

Hannah Crawford
Museum Aide

Hannah Crawford spends the other half of her time running Mouse Trap Studio. If you'd like to see more of her work, visit www.mousetrapstudiohc.com.