- [Presenter] It was November 1974, and Jack Lusher,
the PR officer for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation,
had a handwritten mandate on his calendar.
New Logo by Christmas.
The project had been assigned to a designer
who'd moved to Toronto from New York at the age of 33
to put his mark on Expo 67.
Burton Kramer, the soon-to-become
legendary graphic design pioneer,
had crafted an icon so bold
it left upper management terrified
until CBC President, Laurent Picard, gave it his blessing.
What ultimately became known as the gemstone,
or less reverently as the exploding pizza,
was introduced on air to ring out 1974
with this now classic kaleidoscopic animation.
Though updated and iterated over the years,
the husk of the original design remains with a red circle
radiating in a faceted geometry.
Burton's creation would have a dramatic impact on design,
but it's doubtful he understood just how much of an impact
this mark would leave on the broad international population
that was being vaulted into a new era of design aesthetics.
And though the CBC logo was not the first nor the last
to adopt a burst effect, it certainly is to this day
the most visible and now impacting on a generation
of designers absent at its birth.
It's the active array of diminishing fragments,
projecting out from a core that serves as the signature
of this motif.
Each splice expanding out, yet visibly dissipating
like ripples from a pebble tossed in a pond.
Proliferation, multiplication, and reach
all come to mind with this concept
that looks like mitosis incarnate.
Look at how Sony Music Publishing rifts on this look
perfectly to represent the reverb of sound
and the distribution and delivery of a digital product.
In this new generation, there's a mix of the fragments
being either connected or free floating from the host,
but both demonstrate the concept beautifully.
And despite the original CBC mark,
using a sunny pallet of colors stepped in sequence,
the majority of these trending marks
have embraced a single tone,
understanding that the graphics convey change enough
and that stepped colors are not an imperative.
And there you have it.
Three really diverse methods of dealing with the content
of information in a logo.
Trends that each allow for a dramatic
range of interpretation.
And I truly believe each of these are still in an active
evolutionary cycle, and have room for you as a designer
to explore their aesthetics forward.
Put these into your kit of tools
and pull them out when the project is right.
I know from experience, it's easy to become enamored
with a particular method or style.
Be wise of mind, and always make sure to use the right tool
for the right project.
I love this bit of wisdom from Burton Kramer himself.
He said, "Before you start designing,
figure out what you are doing and whom you are doing it to.
Most designers start doing it first, and if it looks good,
they feel they have solved the problem.
In fact, they have only made themselves feel good".
Before you start designing, you and your client
should mutually agree to your objectives.
Then, sure enough, the results of the work you create
will make everyone feel good.