Forge Media is currently working with the Cambridge Technology Cooperative in Cambridge, Massachusetts to help them develop a new company brand guideline and a front-end interface for their new website.  The Cambridge Tech Co-Op is a collective of technology professionals in the Boston area that work together on a wide variety 0f web, software and application projects.  More on that later when their new website launches in a few weeks.

Even before the website rolls out, the CTC is already using their new logo and identity designed by Forge Media.  The organization wanted a logo that featured the John W. Weeks Bridge, a landmark on the Charles River in Boston.  The pedestrian only bridge was opened in 1927 and remains one of the iconic features on the Charles.  The CTC felt this specific bridge would represent both the geography of the Boston area and the collaborative spirit of the organization.  The challenge in incorporating the Weeks Bridge into a logo design is that since it is a pedestrian bridge, it is both long and narrow and the scale of the architectural features are designed for a pedestrian scale.

In the final design version shown here, the bridge is viewes at a water level perspective, allowing for a foreshortening that limits the visual length of the bridge.  It also creates the opportunity to include a compelling reflection off of the surface of the water.  The design was finished in two colors with shades of grey (shown here in the black and white version).  The logo is not a ‘logo’ in the true sense of the word – it is really more of a vignette.   But the needs of the CTC called for their identity to be primarily viewed in web and new media environments, so it afforded us at Forge an opportunity to stretch our design legs a bit and really capitalize on the delicate features of the Weeks Bridge.