The Work Itself

This assignment asked to merge two business logos together to create one. I chose the “Fedex” and “Exxon” logos. These two logos mesh well they share common letters. The difficulty level of this assignment is 3.5 stars.

The Process, Narrated

I googled a “Fedex” and “Exxon” logo. I then pasted both photos into Microsoft “Pages”. I deleted “ex” part of “Fedex”. I cropped the images so they were touching each other, thus eliminating any white space between the two logos. Then, I took a screenshot, saved it, and pasted it directly onto my blog post. It was a very simple process. It merely was just erasing part of “Fedex” and then cropping and positioning the logos together.

The Story Behind the Story

Fedex and Exxon recently decided to merge together to survive and thrive in this tough economy. The fact that these two companies would merge may seem strange given that Exxon is a American multinational oil and gas corporation, and Fedex is a global courier delivery services. However since gas and oil is a necessity, the CEO of Fedex reached out to Exxon introducing the possibility of shipping and mailing gas and oil. This possibility became a reality.  The merge of both companies saved employees and families from financial disaster. Their move has incited other companies to merge all across the globe.

Nike x YouTube Collaboration, I present “Just YouTube It”. I chose these two because they both play a huge part in my life. I’m on YouTube everyday and I can’t seem to get enough of Nike’s shoes! Enjoy

At first glance, this image looks exactly like the typical Panda Express logo. But look again; notice anything different about the Panda? It doesn’t belong to Panda Express, but to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). One of my digital assignments this week, worth 4.5 stars, was to create a logo for a business merger.

“Businesses merger together all the time (at least that’s what Mad Men has taught me). For this assignment create a logo in which you combine to famous logos. Humor is encouraged.”

I decided to merge the logos for Panda Express and WWF because a real life collaboration between these two companies could be a potential gold mine for fundraising. Panda Express is a well known chain Chinese food restaurant whose signature image also happens to be their namesake. The WWF, founded in 1961, is a major conservatory groups and works to reduce human’s impact on the environment. While a collaboration is not necessarily a ‘merger,’ I think that if the two were to pair up to raise funds for the organization, a re-designed logo would be in order.

I tried to keep in mind what Vignelli talked about in his design guidelines and create a logo that had purpose. Replacing the Panda Express Panda (pictured below) with the WWF Panda is a subtle, yet meaningful, change. It demonstrates the partnership between the two companies clearly and without significantly altering either logo, which are both well known and recognizable.

To create the new logo, I used Windows paint to combine the images. After pasting in the original Panda Express logo, I used to free form select tool to outline their panda. From there, I cut out the image and pasted in the WWF panda. I then used the paint dropper tool to match the red background in Panda Express’s logo and used the bucket/pencil feature to fill in the white space around the new panda. I also went over the black of the panda with the pencil tool in order to fix some of the warping that happened when I adjusted the size of the image (the original was too large and covered portions of the text).

Overall I’m really happy with how the logo turned out. The panda looks like he belongs there but is still noticeably different from the original. I may not have had the humor that was encouraged in the assignment’s directions, but I think that merging these two companies makes sense!