more sidebar doodie

This time we've got two possible logos for Cathartidae, and one for Incestuous Amplification.

The two Vulture logos are:

and

I know Brian's an avid Bush-hater, so I thought the eye-pecking would appeal to him, but to be frank, I find the second vulture (which is from a sketch based on a photo) much cooler. Brian? Was denkst du? Que pienses? Oddokgae saeng-gak heyo? Qu'est-ce que tu en penses?

The Incestuous Amplification logo caused me no end of trouble, because the concept is abstract, rooted in language and communication. My first thought in crafting any logo is to keep dialogue out of it, if at all possible. So I racked my brains for days but couldn't come up with anything.

Eventually, I thought about skirting the issue entirely by drawing "bombtits," but those turned out gross: one sketch shows a woman with huge bombs hanging off her chest; in another draft, I've got falling bombs with nipples on them. Very Terry Gilliam. And in yet another draft, a woman with huge tits and a bomb wedged between them (somewhere on my hard drive is a picture of a real woman doing this with a can of Heineken... and NO, I did NOT go searching for this pic, dammit-- it was GIVEN to me as a GIFT!). All of my IA scenarios are overpoweringly sexy, of course, but I didn't want to hypnotize the masses with mammary allure. The object is to get people to click the logo, not stare longingly at it.

So my thoughts turned to compromise: how to portray "incestuous amplification" with just a little bit of dialogue. My very first idea in this vein was sheep doing a flash-mob thingie, all baaa-ing together. But the "sheep in a flash mob" image is kind of redundant; incestuous amplification makes more sense if you understand it as apparently different people who end up singing the same tune, each reinforcing the other, but baselessly and/or ironically (cf. the term's definition on Kevin's site). And so, finally, I decided to pair up a wolf and a sheep, each growling or bleating the same false meme: "One people!" Maybe if we all say it together enough, it'll become true.

Unless Kevin suggests otherwise (and I'll always entertain suggestions), I'm sticking with the following image:


(technically, it says "same people,"
not "one people," but I've heard
this expression, too)

The only real problem I foresee is that some nationalist Koreans might not take too kindly to this image. I'm a relaxed, pluralistic American and can deal with George Bush's eye being pecked out; many Koreans can't deal so maturely with symbols (I keep thinking of Carlin saying "I leave symbols for the symbol-minded").

One way or the other, I'm going to stick these on the sidebar for now. For Cathartidae, I plan on using the crueler-looking vulture, but if you think the Bush-eye-pluck pic is better, Brian, I'll switch to that one. Or maybe... just maybe... I can try to create my very first ANIMATED GIF and have these flash alternately. That won't happen until Wednesday, though, what with my new blogging schedule.

OK... enjoy.

_