Logograms and professionalism

Logograms and professionalism

From Kompas

The fact that there is now much talk about problems related to logogram designing competitions is evidence of graphic designers' concern of their role as service providers in the creation of a corporate identity. One problem is the misjudgment of a graphic designer's work, especially in the final selection when the subjectivity of the company's top management is the final word.

I have designed several logograms for, among others, AN-teve, Bank BNI and the state pawnshop company. All these constitute design processes which have to be studied for a long time to ensure the final logo design is objective, especially concerning the application of corporate philosophy, corporate forward projection, self-assessment of identity and the competitors' view of the corporate profile.

In my opinion, the guidelines a company sets out for the design of its logogram through competition is still too general and does not get down to specific details. Therefore, if what the guideline says is translated outright into a design work, the result is still wide off the mark in terms of the logogram's essence. This explains why there is ample room for the subjectivity of a decision maker.

Inasmuch as graphics is a relatively new discipline in Indonesia, the process of "educating" service users in this respect is still the responsibility of graphic designers. Therefore, apart from "selling" their service, a graphic designer must also describe the process that the design of a logogram should go through to ensure that the logogram will become an objective work which can be accounted for commercially, academically and aesthetically.

Our appeal to service users in this regard is that things will be much better if graphic designers are directly involved by allowing them to have preliminary discussions with decision makers. This can be done with only a limited number of graphic designers.

AGOES JOESOEF

Graphic designer

Jakarta