A custom drawn wordmark based on something similar to Univers 65. It uses very small leading making the bolder ‘Coventry’ and light ‘University’ very snug. The dot off the lower letter i’s are missing and the descender off the y intrudes into the lower y.

According to the wikipedia entry on the University, the phoenix was Chosen to represent the rising of the city after the heavy bombing it suffered during World War II.

The way the Phoenix has been drawn initially reminded me of the banking industry, but the combination of that with modern feel of the sans serif typeface diminishes that association. The detailed and modulated calligraphy obviously loses some of it’s effect when used at smaller sizes, but is so successful larger that crops of it are suggested as design elements in the corporate guidelines.

The variation of weights in both the type and the design make for a pleasing balance to this logo, managing to reconcile the ornate and the functional.

Tagged : English , Sans-serif , Million + , West Midlands , Blue , University Alliance , Animal

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