EALA Logo

Co-designing the EALA logo for EALA project by Bingrui Sui CC-BY-2.0 at Flickr

I was very happy when I knew that the shape of the EALA logo I was going to design was to be a swan. In the year or so that I have lived in Ayr, the wildlife I have seen often, and found most memorable, are the swans on the river. They are free to feed and play in the river in groups every day. In creating a graphic for the EALA project – with the name EALA the word for swan in Scottish Gaelic – I was inspired by the birds on the Ayr River, taking time to watch them and to sketch and model the creation of some ideas for an image. In terms of my developing of the initial design by EALA project lead for a swan shape logo, the first thing that came to my mind is the classic version of Swarovski swan logo image. In this logo, the swan wings are made of a bunch of dots, which makes the whole logo very elegant. But I wanted to design the image of the swan as a little more closer to life, and most especially I wanted to reflect the lively and flexible aspect of the swan’s movement. As for the final presentation form of this EALA logo, I choose to use strong lines for the outline. Because the simpler the shape, the easier it is for the viewer to remember. The lines created a sharp yet elegant feeling. In the design of the swan’s body shape, I gave the swan a rich and ‘full’ outline as observing the swans in the Ayr River impressed upon me this sense of fulllness, that they were ‘fat’. Fat is not a bad word, it reflects the swans’ freedom, unfettered, and that their living environment is good. The silhouette of the swan’s tail and wings is the highlight of the logo and the ‘punchline’ of the whole design. When I sourced various logo cases of swans online I found that most of the swan logos are dedicated to showing the posture of swans when they open their wings, depicting the wings of swans straight and high, just like the brilliance of a peacock. I found that swans spread their wings when bathing, fighting, and mating and I was drawn to this and learned much more about the nature of these birds. Working with the EALA lead (Kathryn A. Burnett) in Scotland we spoke about the design concept of our EALA logo and the idea of cultural links and partnership. The two swans being mirrored in the graphic logo represent Scotland and Finland respectively and how we are producing content about both Scotland and the Arctic under the commons of friendly cooperation. I chose the pose of a swan with its wings slightly spread. I like the upward tail of swans very much. The upward tail makes the overall flow shape of swans very smooth, and matches well with the long neck of swans, reflecting the graceful posture of swans. In terms of colour choice, I spoke to Kathryn and we explored both the colours of both Finland and Scotland’s flag. Both have a wonderful blue colour but in the end as I decided to use the blue from the Scottish flag as the outline colour of the swan as I personally now love the blue of the Scottish flag; it is very bright and vibrant. And for the swan’s beak I used orange to style the beak but it also works quite well to distinguish it from the blue, and the swan graphic looks more vivid, and with a more distinctive look.

By Bingrui Su, MA Creative Media Practice, University of the West of Scotland

Author: Dr Kathryn A. Burnett

With a background in social anthropology, sociology and cultural studies, Kathryn’s research interests include the mediatization and representation of remote and island spaces; identity, ecologies and place narratives of Scotland’s rural communities, coasts and islands; cultural work, precarity and creative enterprise; Scottish cultural heritage and arts contexts including Gaelic and Scots for applied creative practice; sustainable communities, resilience, development, entrepreneurship, cultural policy and the commons in small island, remote, peripheral and rural contexts. Current external activity includes UWS representative on the Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design Network (ASAD); and Kathryn is an organising group member for UK wide MSIG in Participatory and Collaborative Methods. Contact: kathryn.burnett@uws.ac.uk View all posts by Dr Kathryn A. Burnett