A group of City College graphic design students are hard at work currently designing the new logo for the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Blackfin, based in Santa Barbara.
The Coast Guard asked the introductory graphic design class to create a new image for their cutter, which patrols from Dana Point to San Simian, after they were forced to remove the old one a month ago.
The controversial logo removed from the cutter depicted a blonde 40’s style poster-girl in a mesh mermaid suit straddling a missile with her mouth agape.
Complaints about the logo from various individuals got back to Coast Guard headquarters in Washington D.C. “It also got in Coast Guard newsletters,” said Petty Officer William Weaver.
The students said that the coast guard did not have any specific requests for the logo design. The Cutter got its logo from a retired navy submarine that had shared its same name, Blackfin.
The submarine was decommissioned in September of 1972. It was originally launched in 1944 and was sunk in 1973 off the coast of Monterey as part of a training exercise.
In May of 2002 members of the crew presented the Coast Guard with the battle flag, the ship’s patch, a Policeman of the Pacific ship’s plaque, a rendering of three hull configurations, and historical information on the Blackfin.
The memorabilia now lives in the Coast Guard office with the framed battle flag mounted on the wall. The crew is also no longer allowed to wear shirts with the old logo while on duty.
“We can honor the sub somehow in a classier manner,” Weaver said.
The graphic design students shared their work last week in class. Each student shared three of the 30 designs they were required to create for the logo in order to provide each other with constructive criticism.
Mark Nunez, a graphic design major in the class, used an all-black fish. “I thought the sailors would like that bad boy look,” he said. The image was softened by the inclusion of the rainbow structure “Chromatic Gate,” by Herbert Bayer, located at Cabrillo Park. Nunez said the structure is part of an old Chumash Indian legend, and it represents Santa Barbara in the logo he designed.
Marco Sunseri, also a graphic design major, used the .50-caliber machine guns mounted on the ship to give his logo, which used white space to convey the large patrol area, a harder edge. The students will use suggestions given in class as well as input from the Coast Guard to revise their designs and present them next week.
Despite the large number of beautiful designs only five or six of the strongest logos will be presented to the Coast Guard next week.
The class agreed that the project is overwhelming. The course instructor, Elizabeth Russotti, reminded students that should the Coast Guard use one of their logos, it would not only appear on the ship but be used for things like T-shirts and letterhead.
However the value is not only in having the Coast Guard use a student’s logo. “The process of creating is as important if not more important than the end result,” Russotti said.