In an earlier entry, I detailed successful uses of negative space to paint a sort of inner image to catch your audience’s eye. This skill can be deceptively tricky, however and requires experience, prowess and different ways of thinking. Most logos are glossed over by the viewing public, quite frankly. Often appreciated, but rarely understood, many of today’s popular logos aren’t just eye catching for what they show, but also for what they don’t show.

Keeping the focus on negative space and its uses, I’m presenting (along with elaborations) some of my personal favorite uses of negative and positive space interactions.

The NBC Peacock

The timeless NBC “peacock” is an assemblance of colors and consistent patterns that regularly graces the lower corner of our TV screens, but how often do we think about what it really portrays? The original NBC “peacock” of the 1960’s was a much more blatant representation, showing an actual cartoon bird with 11 different colors. During the 1960’s, a big boom of color television programming hit the airwaves, and NBC wanted to demonstrate their “hipness” through use of the multi paletted bird.

The current NBC logo (pictured above) was re-designed in the 1980’s and is much simpler, while still giving the appearance of a peacock. The sharp lines infiltrating the colored swatches are what really draw me to it. The logo designer saw no use for strokes or other bolding gimmicks (although the logo has been regularly modified for different events) to draw your attention to the shape. The very slight obtrusion from the center of the image (denoting the bird’s beak) is sometimes missed, but remains the logo’s most key element.

Federal Express Logo

The recognizable FedEx logo is utilitarian as they come. It spells the abbreviation out for the standardized shipping system we’ve all come to know and love, but perhaps it’s more than a simple gathering of letter forms. The E and X are connected in such a way to give the illusion of an arrow piercing through the white space. This message effectively “delivers” it’s point through employing this mechanic.

Formula 1 Racing

This Formula 1 Racing logo is both energetic and simplistic and it gets the job done. An array of red dash marks draws your attention to this red and black logo, but also serves as a wall of matter to contain the “not so subtly” hidden “1”. The F is cleverly contoured to allow the shape of the 1 to conform better into this “speedy” logo design.

Milwaukee Brewers Retro Logo

Too many sports logos these days rely on using “interlocking letters” to represent an abbreviation of a city and team name. In the case of this old Milwaukee Brewers logo, the concept is modified cleverly. The M and B are juxtaposed perfectly to create the image of a glove receiving a baseball, carved out in space using a stroke of gold. While the logo takes a good few seconds to adjust your eyes to (to ascertain the meaning), the glove symbol is particularly striking, and it’s a shame the Brewers have gone to a more predictable and bland logo-type in recent years.

SEGA Logo

SEGA’s logo is as big and bold as the gaming company once was. The thick blue letters would be unreadable without the traces of white (or negative space) running through them. The ‘S’ in particular emulates a roadway which would be quite indicative of the racing, sports and Sonic the hedgehog games the company would become known for producing.

Maroon 5 Logo

This last logo is a more contemporary one, from a musical band founded in 2002. The Maroon 5 logo uses a very clean font-type (Futura to be exact) and the iconic ‘M’ has become their insignia since their formation. While every other letter in the word “Maroon” remains unchanged, the M has been cut-through with a strike down the center. This divides the letter form into an M and a V. This V can also be perceived as the roman numeral for 5.

In general, sometimes the simplest logos, are the best.