St Alphonsus Ethos Pathos Logo Analysis

Design a Logo for St. Alphonsus from Scratch

15 February 2017

Logo Association (What makes a hospital logo?)

First of all, we must take a look at what trends, tropes and styles surround typical hospital logo designs. Here are some off the top of my head:

The Blocky “H”

We see this on street signs everywhere (which are all designed with Helvetica’s thick and simple approach to letters in mind) to describe hospitals. Merely seeing a letter H on a street sign (especially in blue) will signify to drivers that there is a hospital near.

The “Cross”

The cross is a visual element that is shared by nearly every hospital logo. Not only is it visually interesting, but it also has roots in religious sacrifice (crucifixion). However, the Cross is typically

Al’s)

St. Alphonsus is not a specialized hospital in any way, and cannot look like a specific type of hospital (such as specialized hospitals, clinics, or practices)… They include services (literally) from A-Z. Therefore, their logo MUST be intentionally vague.

Brainstorming

There’s plenty of interplay to be had with the Blocky H and the Cross. They technically fit directly inside each other, and I believe that there’s something to be discovered with the two jigsaw pieces. I also want to take a spin going for a more “celtic” and intertwined approach, probably keeping it restricted to the cross shape. I also want to try something with the letter “A”, just for fun.

Round 1

For Round 1, I’ll be exploring several different directions, but I won’t be exploring color. I want to keep things very “corporate-y” and flexible. I’m not the type of person who will fill my logos with artificial meaning by talking about them as if I deliberately designed them with specific meanings, especially with something so vague as a hospital logo.

“The Generic Hospital” This logo is an attempt at interplay with the Blocky H and the Cross. As a general shape, it resembles a hospital building. There’s not much more to say about this one, other than that it feels a little visually imbalanced due to the thin lines on the

Take any PR crap direction that you want with that one ;) Anyways, this one feels a little more religious, as the flared cross is found in a lot of catholic symbolism.

“The Medical Syringa” This was created in a really strange way, using overlapping variable width shapes (the next logo is created using the same resulting shapes as this one). I ended up spending a lot of time making sure to remove a great deal of visual noise.

“The Star… Cross… Thing” I really don’t have anything to say about this one, other than that it it looks kind of like a star :) It kind of looks like a quilt pattern, so maybe this isn’t the best fit for a hospital logo…. Though you could say that about a couple of the hospital logos I found floating out there!

“The St. Al’s A” This one takes a bit more of a modern/ material/ flat approach to hospital logo design and retains that pill shape that I associated so closely with hospitals. I think this would be a good fit, and is a little more “unique” to St. Alphonsus. Because of that, it really doesn’t look like a hospital logo, though. I also have a tendency to make logos that seem like I’ve already seen them. I’m getting that vibe from this one… Have you seen this A floating around