OUGD403 - Study Task 02 - Yorkshire Sculpture Park Symbol

We were set a three day brief to redesign a symbol for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, with the idea that it would work alongside their existing logotype. Drawing inspiration from the research visit to the park I focused particularly on Ai Weiwei's 'Iron Tree' sculpture. Being a fan of his work already, and having seen his wooden 'Tree' in Berlin last summer, I felt that this series of his work represented well what I had envisioned for my logo design - the tree is a permanent addition to the park, and Ai Weiwei is an internationally recognised artist, making this sculpture in particular more accessible to a wider audience. 

The tree itself (stylised, above) is representative of both the famous artists and the individual sculptures within the park, but is also a symbol of nature. This is well suited to YSP as many visitors come for the nature alone, and I felt it was important to emphasise this in my design. I created two versions of the tree, both taken from the original Ai Weiwei piece - one had a smooth trunk, as per a normal tree (left) and one had a more angular trunk, which is true to the original sculpture (right).

After initial feedback most people seemed to connect more to the image that was accurate to the sculpture, so I decided to move forward with this one. However it became cleat that the tree alone, when conjoined with the existing logotype, does not immediately convey the 'sculpture' element of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and could easily be mistaken for a nature park (below)

I took this feedback into account and decided to rework the image, adding a 'plinth' at the base of the tree to make it more obviously 'sculptural'. This made the intentions and the message of the symbol clearer to viewers (below).

When combined with the original logotype the tree symbol worked effectively. I had initially thought that the more intricate tree branches would be lost at a smaller scale but much of the detail is maintained, meaning it would be recognisable and accessible across a range of media platforms.

During the final critique the reaction was mostly positive, with a general agreement that the symbol was an accurate representation of the park as a whole, and all agreed that it did work effectively across a range of scales. The only further suggestion was an experimentation with colour, which would be my next step in the continuation of this symbol design.