Monday, August 15, 2016

Anatomy of a Logo: X-Force


I met with Marvel editor, Bob Harras, at 12:30, October 22, 1990, to discuss the X-Force logo. I don’t remember the details of the meeting. Usually there’s a general description of the title and characters. Sometimes the editor has an idea or suggestion for the logo. I believe Bob told me to do whatever I wanted. As it turned out, this assignment had a long deadline. 


Back at my studio after the meeting, I did some thumbnail designs. On the sheet below, you can see a few of my sketches for the Hellraiser/Nightbreed Jihad title.




On November 18, 1990, I developed and refined two logo designs.









My appointment book said Bob called me on November 26. I don’t recall details of the conversation but the logo was put on hold. About four-and-a-half month’s later, Bob called on April 5, 1991 and gave me the green light to do more logo designs. Below are my thumbnail sketches.







Two days later I produced tight renderings of the designs.






On April 9, I faxed four designs, some with variations, to Bob, who chose design 4-C.





On Sunday, April 14, I started work on the final art.




The final art was ink on LetraMax paper. Corrections were made by scratching off the ink and peeling away a layer of paper. I delivered the art on April 15. This version appeared in the first issue.


On June 18, 1991, Bob called and said he wanted a bolder version of the logo. On the 23rd I created a bold version which required adjusting the spacing between all the letters.



On Monday, the next day, I faxed the design with alternate versions of the counters for the O and R. Bob approved the logo with the alternates. On the revision I adjusted the letterspacing again.



On June 25, I made a tight rendering of the logo. A few minor changes were indicated in red. Then I proceeded to make the final art, which was delivered the next day.




August 1991

August 1991

August 1991

August 1991

September 1991

October 1991

November 1991

December 1991

1992

November 1992

1994

October 2004; Logo variation with a different X design

December 2010

December 2010

September 2014; Deadpool logo by Todd Klein

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