2011 – A year for change.
This year is the time for a new look and feel for our website and worldwide presence.. We worked with Josh Korwin of three steps ahead (www.threestepsahead.com) on our new look and felt that my first blog post should be how we developed the new logo.
The challenge for me initially was the company name. – Lunar Lounge. when I first started the business, I was greatly inspired by design from the 60′s and 70′s – Aarnio and the Kartell era. Since then I have found myself being drawn further back to the mid 40′s and 50-60 American and Danish design and felt that the name was perhaps no longer suiting to the direction my designs were going. Josh and I spoke about this in great detail about this and even considered a name change at one point. The idea that I wanted Josh to focus on when designing the logo and site were “architecture meets atomic”.
When Josh and I were discussing the idea of being inspired by a more “atomic,” mid-century feel with the higher-brow feel of architectural design, the first thing that popped into Josh’s head was the “Atomium”:
It was built to represent the crystalline structure of iron, with each of the “nodes” representing individual atoms. We both think it’s just awesome and probably the most appropriate fusion of the “atomic” and “architectural” as one could imagine.
He also shared an image of a poster he acquired last year from the 1958 Expo – it was designed by Dan Reisinger for the world fair. “I just adore this stuff.” Josh said, “I love the colors, the composition, the use of
circles and polygons,and the crisp, clean, but undoubtedly mid-century modern typography.”
With these pieces in mind, Josh went ahead and designed a concept that is evocative of all of these feelings. The”badge” shape, and the semicircles at top and bottom, I was specifically inspired by the shapes created by the silhouette of the Atomium. And the typography was inspired by the Dan Reisinger poster. It’s also flexible in terms of color schemes.
I felt strongly towards the red and black combination, being greatly inspired by the early Herman Miller furniture tags and ad’s from the 50′s- bold, simple and classic. 
Josh felt that the new logo would also be flexible in that it would feel equally appropriate with a ’60s inspired piece as it would with a piece inspired by the ’40s or ’50s; “it feels mid-century, but classic”. He then increased the “atomic” feel of the design when he paired with a harmonograph. It completes the imagery of “Lunar” without being obvious. -PERFECT!
