Well, it’s the first step along the road to hosting the conference next year. I joked with my colleague about “getting the important things done first,” and while the logo isn’t the most important thing, it is something that needs doing early (so as to start advertising the conference and building up an image), and it needs doing reasonably well (so as not to look crap).
This is what I’m going with:
There’s also a colour variant:
Though I think I prefer the black and white one, as the neck is a bit clearer.
So, why does the logo look the way it does? Well, I wanted something that would be very Liverpool, whilst also relating to the subject of the conference – vertebrate palaeontology and comparative anatomy. I think I’ve managed to capture that, as the birds you see are Liver Birds.
These birds are associated with Liverpool, and can be seen on the top of the Liver Building down near the docks:
Or indeed on bins, libraries, and football team shirts.
The story goes that one bird looks out to sea, and the other looks back over the city, keeping an eye on the sailors wives/pubs depending on which version of the story you read.
And so they sit in the logo, facing outward either side of the word ‘Liverpool.’
To bring the VPCA side to the logo, the right bird has the head and neck in a traditional skeletal outline/silhouette, forming the ‘S’ in the title. I tried this a few ways – white skeleton on black bird, whole skeleton present, but in the end (and with guidance from the more artistic wife) settled on the current form.
Anyway, there it is. There’s an official facebook group setup, but that’s as far as the conference organization has officially got (stuff is ongoing on behind the scenes of course).
More to follow in the coming days/weeks/months
Dr Peter L. Falkingham 