Logo
Event
Bits en Femenino
My Role
Completed
The Story
Event's context
"Bits en feminine" (Bits en femenino in Spanish) aims to promote and publicize the role of women in Computer Engineering, and that both male and female students can learn first-hand how to work in different professional sectors with a view to their future
For 5 years the event ran through events, talks and workshops, all of them promoted by the University via social networks, posters and word of mouth, but never under a visual representation. As a firm colleague of initiatives of this kind and main designer at that time of the ACM UPV Chapter association that tightly collaborated with the Computer Science School, I was proposed to design a logo that would match the event's spirit and history.
The Designs
As this would be the first logo ever of the event, I had quite some flexibility in the ideation process, which is why I decided to go with rounds of different versions I found interesting for the cause, and presented them to the School's head for approval.
You will now mainly see 3 sections, each corresponding to a round.
1st round - B(its) (en) F(emenino)
As a first idea, I envisioned a logo where the main letters of the title could interact and build a single figure. There, an B (from "Bits") and a F (from "Femenino") join in a single shape. The line of the whole illustration is meant to form the B letter by drawing its outline. The space that remain have been carefully kept open so that they can symbolise two short horizontal lines and a longer vertical line, forming the F letter.
As a variation of the first sketch, the second sketch includes rounded shapes as an additional visual element that's highly related to the main title. They represent the 1's and 0's that form the binary code.
In contrast to the first sketch, the outline is much thinner, so it can incorporate the new elements.
2nd round - Flower
Previous versions of the event displayed a paper-made rose with a binary code printed on it. The whole thing was meant to embody the title of the event "Bits" printed on the paper + "en femenino" (in feminine) symbolised by the flower.
Taken the rose as a starting point, a new train of thoughts started out. If the flower is observed from above, one can see something similar to a 4-sides star shape. Each of the sides of this star shape has been illustrated by a diamond shape. Initially, 4 diamonds formed a 4th bigger diamond shape, which did not make the logo distinguishable.
In order to gain unicity, one of the side diamonds has been placed as the center of the flower. As a byproduct, the distance between the logo and the name of the project has also been reduced, since this new space (which harboured the 4th side diamond) allowed it.
But there were other ways to gain unicity. By placing the 4th side diamond in the center, it made it look like the core of the flower, which is the central idea of the next concept.
Since we have a core for the flower, we can now complete the rose by restoring its 4th leaf.
But how to make the look stand out a bit? By playing with the hues, and applying the same trick as with the first sketches (the B+F version): Adding the bits! The circle and the vertical rectangle below symbolise again the Bits of the title, completing again the full meaning of the event.
And why a fuchsia color this time? Well, this project was tightly coupled with our ACM-W UPV Student association, whose logo was fuchsia. Besides, the Computer Science School is represented by a pink color.
For the next version I will need a bit of your spatial thinking. Imagine all the leaves from the logo above are pulled together towards the center, as if the central diamond was attracting them while keeping them underneath itself. Well, that's exactly what happened to the next figure.
As a second distinctive addition, the vertical (upper and lower diamonds) have turned into hollow shapes, only keeping their stroke, while the horizontal ones (left and right) developed a pattern of tiny squares inside representing the binary encryption and, lost part of their opacity.
3rd round - Final version
As an evolution of all the previous versions, we finally get to the definitive result.
We could break down the logo in two sections, not coincidentally matching the previous two sections:
First, the central symbol condenses again the letters B and F. This time, both are being drawn using the same line, unlike the first version, which drew the B and the F was represented in the gaps the B left. About why the tip of the second horizontal line inherent to the F like it's blooming, I cannot really remember if it was a conscious choice or not, but it stayed not only for its good looks, but because it paired with the flower idea that comes next. Sometimes designs just come up through pure experimentation, I guess.
Now for the flower trend. In this version we find a more solid flat diamond acting as the background of the logo. It still contains the symbolism hidden in the printed flower while adding the contrast the main white body needs to stand out. The Magna Cum Laude fuchsia color #d50366 has been picked from the Computer Science school theme, as the event always took place at that location. In order to create some contrast, the Pansy Purple color #861d4f has been set as a background.
Together they constitute the final version of which will be the first logo of the event.
