"Reader" LOGO: Green Bee
In 1995, "Reader" magazine published a solicitation notice for paid publication logos. In just over three months after the announcement, more than 30,000 works were received from all over the country. In the imagination of many candidates, "Reader" is like an open book, or an eye observing the world. Some readers compared the magazine to a rose, a symbol of love. There are also quite a few people who design "Reader" magazine as a Tai Chi diagram, which symbolizes Chinese culture; but most of the works are mainly images of insects and plants.
More than 30,000 submissions made the editorial department feel a kind of affectionate pressure. Most of the people who pay attention to a magazine's publications are ordinary readers, and the proportion of professionals is pitifully small. At this time, Gao Haijun had been appointed deputy editor-in-chief of Gansu Fine Arts Publishing House, and the fine arts editor was succeeded by Ren Wei, who graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts. He was responsible for handling the preliminary selection of works. They selected more than 30 works from the submissions and invited many experts from across the country to conduct internal selection. Hu Yaquan admired one of the Chinese dragon patterns, which was very meaningful. However, Hu's proposal was not recognized by the judges. They believed that the painting lacked a meaning that was consistent with the "Reader" magazine as a whole, and was not suitable for the bookish style they advocated.
The selection of journal emblems was temporarily "on hold". Gansu People's Publishing House held a special meeting to discuss and believed that collection should be conducted at the professional level. They decided to conduct a second call for submissions internally. This time it was narrowed down to the expert level. Ren Wei went to Beijing on behalf of the magazine and held a symposium on the logo design of "Reader" at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts. He also brought more than a dozen shortlisted works to Beijing. Everyone worked with them in Lanzhou The views were consistent during the discussion. The dragon's temperament does not fit with "The Reader". Using a dragon as a magazine's slogan "The hat is too big."
Professor Chen Hanmin, then director of the Decoration Department of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, put forward a point of view: As for "Reader" magazine, soliciting for publication emblems is to find "a hat", and this hat may not necessarily look good. But when others look at it, they must think that you are most suitable to wear this hat. He suggested: "Reader" is an abstract magazine, just like a bee, collecting honey for readers. Can a bee be used as a label? But his opinion was not recognized by everyone. Many people thought that using a bee to express a magazine was a bit vulgar. The final result of the discussion was that everyone would draw one piece, and the work would be evaluated after it came out.
Professor Chen Hanmin has participated in the design of the four major banks such as China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, People's Bank of China, and Agricultural Bank of China, as well as the World Conference on Women, the return of Hong Kong to the motherland in 1997, and the Five One Project. It is a symbol of China. Influential experts in the industry. He displayed astonishing confidence in his own judgment. He still insisted on drawing the little bee in his imagination.
After several designed works were brought back to Lanzhou, the names of the authors were withheld and experts were asked to comment. Hu Yaquan and Ren Wei's opinions are in favor of the little bee. They believe that using a little bee as a metaphor for "Reader" symbolizes the magazine's collection of manuscripts from various newspapers and periodicals, accurately expressing the image and social function of "Reader", and this green bee The scientific name of the little bee is Apis cerana.
Finally, this little green bee was chosen as the emblem of Reader magazine.
The background color of the little bee is apple green, which is full of strong vitality. Its symbolic meaning has actually been integrated with the overall temperament of the magazine. The logo colors of this "little bee" and CI combined with the magazine title have four basic colors: red, black, gray and white. They are the basic logo colors of "Reader" magazine.
"Reader" magazine also uses more than a dozen selected icons as the logo of the column, and also implements an icon-based design on the column. These logos have also become an important part of the overall image of "Reader" magazine. In July 1995, "Reader" magazine officially announced the "little bee" as its emblem.
In order to prevent this logo from being infringed by others, they registered "READERS", the Chinese pinyin "DUZHE", and the calligraphy "readers" written by Zhao Puchu as a complete set of images, and finally registered them all success. This is the first time that "Reader" has carried out comprehensive trademark registration and protection for its own image. The remuneration they paid for the Little Bee trademark was 30,000 yuan at the time. What is the value of this image now?