Skip to content

Social Media University, Global (SMUG)

Suus Non Ut Difficile • Home of the SMUGgles

Tag: Logo

Ruth LaGue, Associate Professor of Graphic Arts – SMUG

In July and August we held a contest, inviting SMUGgles to create a new official seal for SMUG, and then asking the “student body” to select the winner. In addition to the undying gratitude of SMUGgles everywhere (and there are now more than 800 of us representing every continent except Antarctica), I said the winner would be designated an Associate Professor of Graphic Arts. Today, I’m glad to introduce you to that new professor, Ruth LaGue. Here’s her bio:

Ruth LaGue – Creative Consultant/ Art Director

Ruth is an Internet marketing consultant with 20 years of design experience. She excels at translating brands into visually engaging, integrated online experiences.

Ruth formerly worked as a senior art director at AGENCY.com: Boston. During that time, she was the creative lead on CIGNA.com, a multi-million dollar Web site that translated CIGNA’s brand online. She also was one of the creative leads working on projects for Liberty Mutual’s South American operations.

Her interactive career began at THINK New Ideas, where she was a senior designer and then an art director, creating Web sites and CD-ROM projects. Her clients included Fidelity, Evergreen and Progress.com.

Ruth’s graphic design career started at WHDH-TV, Boston ‘s NBC affiliate. As assistant art director, she developed branding and visual solutions for local programming, news and public affairs campaigns.

Her awards include a Gold award from Broadcast Designers Association, a Bronze award from Broadcast Designers Association and a MIMC award.

Ruth received a bachelor’s degree from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MBA from Simmons College School of Management.

Contact Ruth on Twitter at @RuthLague, or see her portfolio.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in the SMUG seal contest, whether it was in submitting candidate seals or helping to select the finalists and eventual winner.

Author Lee AasePosted on January 4, 2010January 3, 2010Categories SMUGTags Contest, Design, Graphic Arts, Logo, Ruth LaGue, Seal, Seal Contest, SMUG, SMUGgles1 Comment on Ruth LaGue, Associate Professor of Graphic Arts – SMUG

SMUG Seal Finals

The response to the contest to choose an official seal for SMUG was tremendous, with lots of votes, comments and #smugseal tweets. Given my personal lack of graphic artistry, I appreciate so much the entries from those who took time and thought to capture the essence of SMUG. They took different approaches, from old-school ivy-covered #3 to the global longitude/latitude look of #2 (with lots of mini-logos from social media sites) to a pair from Ruth LaGue that both polled strong, one with a circular motif and the other with a shield and our Latin motto.

Entry 4 was the clear winner in the semifinal, and now advances to be considered along with another strong entry (which had been in the works in response to the previous call for entries but had not been submitted.)

So here are your finalists (click each image to view enlarged versions):

Finalist #1
Finalist #1
Finalist #2
Finalist #2

Cast your votes in the poll in the sidebar, or vote via Twitter using the #smugseal hashtag (which will help spread the word about the contest and about SMUG).

Feel free also to add your comments below, if you have suggestions on how either version might be tweaked or suggestions for logo merchandise you’d like to see.

Thanks again to Amy Kapinus and Reed Smith for their contributions, and to Ruth LaGue and Fatima Mekkaoui for their finalist entries.

Voting runs through 11:59 p.m. CDT on Saturday, August 8.

Cast your vote now!



Author Lee AasePosted on August 3, 2009August 1, 2009Categories SMUGTags Lee Aase, Logo, SMUG, SMUG Seal, Social Media, socialmedia21 Comments on SMUG Seal Finals

Choosing a SMUG Seal

The response to my request for help in developing an official seal for SMUG has been gratifying. We have four excellent submissions to consider as semifinalists, so I’m asking your help in narrowing the field. Here are the entries:

Entry 1
Entry 1
Entry 2
Entry 2
Entry 3
Entry 3
Entry 4
Entry 4

Please vote for your favorites (refer to the entry number) in the poll in the sidebar, and share any thoughts about what you see as the pros and cons of each design in the comments below. If seeing these entries gets your creative juices flowing and makes you want to submit an entry of your own, we would consider those creating another pool of semifinalists and then bringing the top vote-getter from that pool forward against the one judged the strongest from this first pool.

Update: You also can vote through Twitter, using the hashtag #smugseal. Just copy the text below and paste into Twitter, and replace “N” with the number of your preference:

I’m voting for Entry N in the #smugseal contest. http://bit.ly/dbFJQ What do you think?

Voting on the semifinalists runs through the end of July.

HUGE thanks to Amy Kapinus, Ruth LaGue and Reed Smith for their creativity and efforts in submitting these semifinalists. I think they all look really great, and they are such a tremendous improvement over our current word mark.

Author Lee AasePosted on July 24, 2009July 25, 2009Categories SMUGTags Logo, Seal, SMUG, Social Media University30 Comments on Choosing a SMUG Seal

Wanted: Professor of Graphic Arts

Update 6/13/09: Please read all the way through for the update at the bottom of this post.

As we approach the four-month anniversary of the founding of Social Media University, Global, your Chancellor is still looking for a creative logo to replace this wordmark:

I’m thinking something that resembles a coat of arms or a crest, like all of those “real” universities…such as:

Harvard

Yale

Or maybe something round, like these:

Stanford

Carleton College

Or some blending of the two, like this one from the University of St. Thomas:

 

Given that many college seals are in a circular shape, and that part of our school’s name is “Global” it would seem to make sense to have a representation of the Earth as part of the SMUG seal’s framework.

If you wanted to include Latin in your design, maybe you could use fragments of the “Lorem ipsum” text traditionally used for placeholders in mock-ups. Or if anyone can translate our University motto — It’s Not That Hard —  into Latin, that would be even better. The year of our founding, 2008, should be included in the seal, too.

My artistic skills are limited to drawing word pictures, so I would appreciate it if students who are more graphically talented would contribute their artistry to good ol’ SMUG U. Please let me know if you’re interested in working on this.

Speaking of word pictures, one project I will be working on myself is a school song. It’ll be coming soon. But to do a really cool recruitment music video, we need a better logo.

Whoever submits the best logo will of course be compensated in links and salutations, and will earn tenured professorship in the SMUG Department of Fine Art.

Update 6/13/09: I’m working on a project for which it would be really great to have a new SMUG seal. And an official seal would be a nice addition to my presentations. As you can see from the banner at the top of this page (and the comments below) we’ve got our school motto translated as Suus Non Ut Difficile, which ideally would be incorporated into the seal design. If you’re up for the challenge (or know someone who might be able to help) please get in touch with me by email (see the contact form) or by Twitter @LeeAase. I’m open to providing financial remuneration if necessary in addition to the fame and glory referenced above.

Author Lee AasePosted on May 14, 2008June 13, 2009Categories SMUGTags Art, Branding, Logo, Seal, SMUG, Social Media, socialmedia11 Comments on Wanted: Professor of Graphic Arts

Archives

Pages

  • #BodyBabySteps
  • 35 Social Media Theses
  • A New Clinic
  • About Me
  • Health Sherpas
  • My Career Journey
  • My Faith Journey
  • My Health Journey
  • SMUG

Subscribe to SMUG

Social Media University, Global (SMUG) Proudly powered by WordPress