okie doke

Along with the surprising architecture in Oklahoma City, I was also surprised to see some nice graphic design in Oklahoma as well. The biggest surprise was the Oklahoma Centennial logo. Myron and I both commented to each other our surprise regarding it. We would have expected logos more like the Virginia (my home state) 400th Anniversary logo, or the other Oklahoma logos (these are real) in the next-to-last pic above. You can only imagine the committee by design that created these: "Make sure it has the state shape...and an oil well...and an indian symbol...and some festive stuff...and be sure to top it off with some pretty type" Eek. Oklahoma's Centennial logo manages to be festive without being cheesy or overly literal, its clean and bold, works well at all sizes and on all kinds of applications, and still manages to reference the shape of the state in there. It isn't groundbreaking, but its a good solid piece of design. I contacted the Centennial committee to find out who was responsible, but could not get any answers. Similarly, the logo for the Chesapeake Boat House (praised below for its architecture) is also a nice non-literal representation of the spirit and motion of rowing and the festivity involved in competition, with some nice typography to boot. Nice job.