Centennial American Properties – What's the concept?
A look at the concept behind Steve Rousso's 1985 logo for American Centennial Properties.
What’s the concept?
Centennial American Properties was established by David W. Glenn in 1976. By the mid-1980s it had successfully developed over 7 million square feet of commercial space. To better reflect its success and continued growth the company commissioned designer Steve Rousso to develop a new logo.
Rousso’s logo for Centennial American Properties integrates the stripes of the American flag with the structure of a high rise commercial building in the style of the time. These references represented two aspects of the company, its proud American heritage and the material structure of its buildings. The logo employs three techniques; dimensionality, negative space and compounding (the bringing together of two or more motifs, here, a flag and a building). PMS 202 then adds a warm reddish brown to the logo, again, alluding to the flag but also brick.
The company continues to operate today, albeit without Rousso’s logo which was later replaced.
Rotation Logos
Rotation logos that feature a rotating or spiral component introduce a sense of motion to a static form. These logos typically rotate around a singular point, combining separate elements, offset or displaced at different angles to create momentum. Logos like this have lent themselves well to businesses such as manufacturing (continual production), learning (continued growth) and more obviously shipping (propellers). Basically, anything to do with activity and movement.
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