Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center

Stan Can Design™ recently finished working on the rebrand of the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center. The work was commissioned by the Reno-Sparks Visitors and Convention Authority because the old mark was outdated and very difficult to reproduce.

“We created a design for the facility that is contemporary and very usable, but at the same time honoring its rich Western heritage.” said Stan Byers, owner of Stancan™ Design, of the new logo.

When researching the history of the center, we discovered it’s establishment date of 1887.  That gave us a credible claim for using visual references of wood type and hand-painted signage from that era. Otherwise, it would just be another kitschy logo.

“We are very pleased with the result, I just wish we had more things to put it on!” said Esther Isaac, Assistant Marketing Director of the RSCVA.

LogoLounge V7

The judging for LogoLounge Volume 7, has been completed with over 36,000 logos up for consideration. Judges included included, Louise Fili of Louise Fili Ltd, Paul Howalt of Tactix Creative, Gyula Nemeth of Gyula Nemeth, Tom Andries of Today, Regine Stefan of Venturethree, Ken Carbone of Carbone Smolan Agency,  James Strange of Bailey Lauerman, and Cesar Hirata of FutureBrand BC&H.

The identity we designed for DesignMatters was chosen to be published! Very cool.

LogoLounge Master Library series, Typography & Enclosures

Chosen from over 140,000 entries, three logos designed by Stancan™ Design have been selected to be featured in the fourth edition of the LogoLounge Master Library series, titled Typography & Enclosures. LogoLounge books are best sellers published by Rockport Publishing.

Look for the book to be released February 2012.

Content is King

Earlier in my career I developed a disdain for Art Directors that would ask me to imitate a style. First, I felt like I was stealing and secondly I suspected that the answer to the execution should be held in the content that was to be delivered. It is not to say that I am not influenced by style, I just don’t start there. One of our mantras here at Stancan™ is “Simple is not Easy, it represent clarity of thought.” If Stancan has a “style” it is the result of thinking, of solving problems.

Here is an excerpt from Milton Glaser’s “10 Things I Have Learned”

“STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvellous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way.

What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty. I must say that for old design professionals it is a problem because the field is driven by economic consideration more than anything else. Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often.

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ho, ho, ho.