In the beginning, there was pulp.
We took this excess fiber from the communications industry and made it into something.
This is what our logo looked like in 2004 when the site launched and for many years thereafter. Thank you, Shawn Hartley.
In 2017, I hired a designer in Portland who had recently graduated from the University of Michigan to make a new logo for the site. I wanted a different look and feel, one with sharper edges that could convey a sense of noir and but with a ray of optimism.
This is the Sun/Saw logo that she made for us and that we have used for the last three years.
Now that it’s 2020 and Adpulp.com is about to turn 16, it’s time for another iteration and further upgrade of the site’s brand identity.
A New Page
Our new look and feel is the work of Adpulp’s new design intern, Yuhang Wang. Ms. Wang is a recent graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA (also my alma mater) and a new resident of Austin.
I asked Yuahng to evolve our mark. She transformed it, instead. We now have an “A” that is made of knives! An “A” that’s a pair of needle-nose pliers. A campfire. A helmet for an astronaut, or whatever else you want to see in it.
When Yuhang presented this sketch to me, she mentioned that it was drawing on Chinese characters that mean “facing one another.” I thanked her profusely for injecting her culture into her work. Yuhang, 22, is from China. She speaks Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English. She’s a set designer for theater productions (F&M is a well-known theater school), a collage artist, a musician, and her skills as a logo designer are fast becoming evident. Yuhang is a major talent, and she’s incredibly nice, proactive, mature, and respectful.
The goal of this internship is to help her land an incredible job with an ad agency, design firm, or creative company in the U.S. Are you interested in what she can do for your firm and your clients?
As part of our process, I’m advising Yuhang about “the work,” but also about how things work. There are plenty of places that would gladly overwork and underpay her. I will do all I can to help steer her towards the best solution for her, and the best people in the business.
Emerging Voices Include Emerging Design Voices
Yuhang’s internship is paid in part by our patrons on Patreon—the people who believe the most in what we’re doing and are willing to pay for it each month. #gratitude
UPDATE, 28 Sept. 2020: We now have a complimentary new logo for Ad Chatter too, Adpulp’s new podcast.
