As past speakers, attendees and all-around enthusiasts of TypeCon, the annual conference organized by the Society of Typographic Aficionados, UnderConsideration was particularly enthusiastic about designing the identity for its 2009 conference in Atlanta, GA taking place July 14 – 19. The theme: Rhythm.

From the outset we were adamant about the identity not falling in a tempting trap to make the conference look like a music festival and instead opt to capture the essence of what rhythm stands for. As we see it, rhythm is understood as the broad concept of arrangement and composition in repeating yet fluctuating patterns and in design and typography it is employed as a visual tool that establishes order yet allows for surprises. As the slideshow below demonstrates, we based the logo on the ubiquitous music staff.

The result is a logo that doesn’t feel static and allows for a variety of executions while maintaining its consistent visual language. We also created a smaller “R” badge that requires less real estate and can be used as a kind of official seal for all things rhythmic. And typographic. The supporting typeface is the indefatigable Benton Sans by Font Bureau.

Because much of the promotion for the conference happens online, through like-minded web sites, the logo had to work at small sizes. Simply shrinking the logo was unacceptable as it became hard to read and lost the pleasant rhythm of its concentric lines, so we drew an alternative set of logos using only three lines for small applications. The same concept applies for print-based logos that need to reproduced at small sizes.

As of this writing, we are working on the complete identity program for TypeCon 2009 and will add that work as soon as it is complete.