Swansea University Geological Society Logo

In the summer term of the 2018/19 academic year, with the support of some course-mates, I decided to restart the geology society of Swansea University after it's collapse a number of years ago. I re-branded it Swansea University Geological Society and part of setting it up was the logo design. 

In terms of creating a logo, there were a number of challenges. Number 1 was being able to juggle a number of themes: geology, Swansea University and the Welsh identity. 

I drew up one or two plans with along various lines, settling on the final idea: to combine the university logo (below) and a trilobite as the shield of the logo resembles it's anatomy. With the top half representing the cephalon and the bottom representing the pygidium. I also wanted to put my own spin on it so the trilobite species I chose was a trilobite from the Ordovician Drygill Shales, local to me. 

I used the contemporary logo of the university as well as the traditional colours to create the below logo:

With text added the logo looked as below:

However, this logo was made at the beginning of setting up the society, and was somewhat of a rushed job. After the initial setup I went about a redesign. The first change I wanted to make was the species of trilobite. I planned to change it to the species of trilobite native to Clement's quarry at Oystermouth. Along with the coral (Amplexizaphrentis oystermouthensis) and the brachiopod (Spirifer oystermouthensis) there is a rather unique fossil assemblage of the black lias. One issue with this plan is that I couldn't find any reference, photo or illustration of this species.

When walking back from a trip to Clement's Quarry, however, I came via the Wallace Building, formerly the Natural Sciences Building. A feature of the building is the alternating sandstone panels of trilobites, daffodils, wild boar and a globe. This band (below) surrounds the building, and is to me a crucial part of the University's identity, hence the trilobite panel is a perfect basis for the logo.

The trilobite panel on the Wallace Building.

After some development, I came up with a logo, in a similar vein to the previous design, that I was pleased with.

As well as the standard logo design, the design allows for customisation, such as LGBTQ+ month (below) and possibilities for Welsh varsity support, Six Nations and St David's Day.

A LGBTQ+ variation.