Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Anyone Have a Hi-Rez Vintage Simplex Logo?

This is topic Anyone Have a Hi-Rez Vintage Simplex Logo? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 04-10-2008, 08:00 PM:

I need a hi-resolution, vintage Simplex logo in any picture format. I have a simplex pedestal that the logo is messed up on and needs replaced. If I can get a good photo I can print it on a clear piece of adhesive and cut it out to put on the pedestal. Please let me know if you have anything. Thanks.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-10-2008, 09:08 PM:

If it's possible to scan the existing logo at a fairly high resolution it can be accurately re-created in a scalable vector format and then saved in PDF.

Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 04-10-2008, 09:16 PM:

Josh,
I have a vinyl plotter if your looking for a rub on Simplex decal for your pedestal. I can make them as big as 6x10 inches if you need any.

Try Here All images are eps. or crd. files

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-11-2008, 12:47 AM:

Use the Brands of the World web site at your own risk.

Some of the logos posted there are of good quality. A lot of them are piss poor quality reproductions of logos and NOT authentic artwork.

That website may be fine for casual hobbyist use (if you don't mind less than proper results). But anyone using that site as a source of logos for any professional/paid graphics work needs to have his head examined.

Other alternatives exist for finding authentic corporate logos. Annual reports, brochures and other ad materials posted online in PDF can be a gold mine for logos. Just bring it into Illustrator and pull that logo out of there. Real handy if you have to throw something together real fast for a customer. In my day job I've rarely had any trouble getting authentic corporate artwork and brand use guidelines from the company's marketing department. Very often they're happy I called.

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 04-11-2008, 03:51 PM:

Thanks guys. The website link didn't yield any results but I did take Bobby's advice and contacted Strong. They sent me a logo in about an hour. Thanks Strong! [beer]

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-11-2008, 11:55 PM:

Did they send you a vector file or a raster image? All the stuff I get in corporate communications are jpegs. [Frown]

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-12-2008, 01:07 AM:

Some companies are very protective of their logos and other artwork and will only provide high quality vector art under certain circumstances.

Depending on the company, logos and other high quality artwork is deliberately degraded in various PDF-based newsletters, brochures and other kinds of reports. Vector-based logos are often rasterized into coarse bitmap form so they cannot be extracted and reused for other purposes (such as illegal merchandising and or unauthorized advertising). The logos are often rasterized at resolutions coarse enough to make the bitmap artwork useless as a guide for re-creating the logo in vector form.

Of course the approach of degrading the logo quality makes the PDF newsletter or whatever look like ass. But some companies choose to do that anyway since the password protect and encryption feature of Adobe PDF can be broken by other applications on the market, some of which are freely available. The only way password protection really works on PDF is by password protecting at the File>Open command. But if you password block the file from even opening then what's the point of posting the PDF online?

Sometimes I'll use the same rasterizing techniques on artwork if I'm sending PDF client sketches to customers I don't know and invested quite a bit of time on creating the artwork. I sure as hell don't want some rival shop grabbing any vectors out of the PDF, even when it has been password protected at the "open for editing" level.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 04-12-2008, 10:29 AM:

I wonder how many orignal Simplex documents Strong received when they bought the company...it had changed hands so many times and the logo changed as well.

I know Strong did recreate the old Simplex projector oil can decal but with some modern information. I thought it was a nice touch and it differentiated it from the Simplex Sound Head Oil can (or the Century Oil or the Ballantyne Oil...etc).

Steve

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-12-2008, 10:38 AM:

Oh, yes, I loved that oil can label recreation! It's way cool.

That's one thing I didn't get to do while I was at the plant in Omaha a few weeks ago. I really wanted to see the graphics dept.

[Frown]

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 04-12-2008, 10:45 AM:

What does the Simplex oil can look like now? I'm only familiar with the old yellow ones and the new(er) ones with the white labels and blue ink (and the modern "Simplex" typeface).

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-12-2008, 10:52 AM:

It's the same as the old yellow one, except it has information on it that today's packaging would contain like, "Do not pour on a fire, don't drink, don't bathe in this, don't use as cooking oil or intimate lubricant..." blah, blah, blah.

[Wink]

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 04-12-2008, 10:55 AM:

Nice!

Now they need to re-create "original formula" Century gear lube in the clear tube. "Proven best by actual test!" Oh, and Century damping fluid in the brown glass bottle.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 04-12-2008, 07:14 PM:

Scott,

The Century damping fluid was Castor Oil...In fact, if you lifed the Century label off that bottle, A Castor Oil label was beneith. Century's gear lube has taken various forms over the years, the one that looked like Vaseline...was...right down to the tube.

Steve

[ 04-12-2008, 09:29 PM: Message edited by: Steve Guttag ]

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 04-12-2008, 11:14 PM:

The image was a jpg and it was not exactly the same color as the logo on the base but it worked. The one on the base has gold outlining and the one they sent me was just plain black.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-13-2008, 07:18 AM:

Why not just have a silk screen made so it gets done the same way the original labeling was done. Screens don't cost that much. I used to have a screen that I had re-created to re- screen the door glass on XL's. I think it cost less than 50 bucks to have it made up.

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 04-13-2008, 01:37 PM:

Good idea Mark. I got the image for a friend that needed it and he said what I gave him worked fine. Thanks for all the help guys!