Design Notes for DLIST Logo Design

It is difficult to find satisfying visual metaphors for a digital archive. A paper-based archive is characterized by linear feet of boxes of documents and objects organized by finding aids, cataloging and/or metadata, but a digital archive is more nebulous.

In this design I have chosen aspects of a paper-based archive that also work as metaphors for digital information.

• The yellow boxes are a visual metaphor for both sheets of paper and digital packets of data.
• The fonts also reflect this duality: a digital-looking "d" and the "L-I-S-T" in a typeface that resembles old-fashioned typewriter fonts.
• The horizontal rule symbolizes the database that organizes and delivers the documents.
• Yellow was chosen to represent sunny Arizona as well as this project's constructive energy.

Technical Specifications

Created in Fireworks 4.0
Border-size: 4 px; type: pencil, 1px hard
Fill: ffcc00
Fonts: Westminster and Rockwell
Overall size of each letter's box: 32 x 41 px

Mutabilis Web Design

Mutabilis Web Design is owned and operated by Lisa Waite Bunker, a Librarian who also specializes in instructional web design. "mutabilis" means "changeable" in Latin and is also the name of a delightful species rose from China. mutabilis web design is based in Tucson, Arizona.

e-mail: lisa@mutabilisdesign.com
webpage: http://www.mutabilisdesign.com/