Union Jam
The client had an existing logo in need of a refresh. The original logo has merit but also several problems. Both the script font and the fleuron have legibility issues at smaller sizes and the layout within the medallion creates strange negative spaces in the lower half. I began by changing “Union Jam Co. San Francisco” to read “Union Jam Company of San Francisco” so that it flowed as a unified phrase and reducing the number of fonts from 3 to 2.
The original logo employed a fleuron as a decorative element to great effect but the highly ornate and detailed image became muddy at most of the sizes in which the logo was to be presented. I went through several attempts to keep the level of detail but modify the shape to increase legibility; in the end I drew an all new version with a cleaner, simplified feel appropriate to a logo. I also changed the word UNION from all uppercase to all lowercase. The word is extremely well suited to lowercase with a quasi-symmetry across the simple vertical “i” in the center.
The logo was previously rendered exclusively as a medallion but the company was moving to a new hexagonal jar with rectangular faces so I also began exploring rectangular versions of the mark. The ingredients are natural, traditional, recognizable, and pronounceable. And there are only a handful of ingredients in each jam. This is a quality worth emphasizing. I changed “Ingredients:” to read simply “Inside”. The word union is repeated on the back label followed by a period, suggesting a statement.
