Toronto Star August 23rd 1987

 The SkyDome doesn't open until April, 1989, but already it has a shiny new logo.

In the corporate order of things, an identity - a "mark" as graphic designers call it - is a top priority, even more important in some respects than the product itself. Indeed, in some instances, the identity is the product.

That's not true in the Dome's case. "It's more important to have good teams," says David Garrick, SkyDome marketing vice-president. Nevertheless, the selling of the $255 million stadium will be aided in large part by its logo - or so officials hope.

"Until now," says Stuart Ash, senior partner of Gottschalk ash International, the Toronto firm that designed the "name-mark" and logo, "SkyDome has been only a name. Now, it will mean something positive."

To accomplish this, Ash came up with a logo consisting of the word "SkyDome" spelled out in dark blue capital letters with the "D" left open at the top and filled with four yellow slashes, representative, of course, of the sun's rays. "We tried to symbolize the idea of the roof opening and the sun coming in," Ash explains. "That's what makes this building unique."

In addition, Gottschalk ash, which was involved in the name- selection process, designed the signage throughout the Dome and a variety of "sky symbols" - clouds, lightning bolts, stars - that will appear on a huge range of merchandise ranging from T-shirts to coffee mugs. As envisaged by Ash, the stadium's seats will be painted different shades of blue - again, symbolising the sky - with the darker shades at ground level, lighter tones at the top. Interior walk ways and hand rails will be finished in "spectrum colors," says Ash, "to reinforce the airy atmosphere."

"We're trying to create images, moods and an identity. This means a common vocabulary in graphics, signage, interior design, advertising and marketing."

How well the scheme will work remains to be seen. It takes years for a logo to become familiar. But already, SkyDome's, like the name itself, has drawn criticism. The graphic design community, which in Toronto is competitive to the point of outright nastiness, has served notice it isn't impressed.

Chris Yaneff, who's responsible for such well-known logos as Canada Trust, the CNE and Conklin Shows, calls the SkyDome logo, "old-fashioned." The important thing, he explains, "is to make a trademark that's simplifed, simplifed, simplified.

"If you can't explain it one statement, you've failed. I don't agree with those who give you pages of the philosophy behind a mark." The impact must be instant, and under all conditions. "A logo must be reproduceable in small scale in black and white."

Burton Kramer, another of Canada's most respected graphic designers, also is doubtful. "Why the hell shouldn't it be wonderful instead of just adequate?," he asks. No stranger to criticism himself, Kramer's best-known design is the controversial CBC logo. When unveiled in 1974, it was dismissed as an "exploding cabbage." There's some truth to that, just as there is in Yaneff's complaint that it's too busy, but on a whole, Kramer's vibrating C ranks as one of the best network logos in North America. Certainly, none of the others better communicate the way television images come right out of the screen to envelop the viewer. It is also well-suited to animation, which considerably enhances its on-air appeal.

According to Yaneff, there are only two approaches to designing logos - either illustrate the product or the name. For example, there's no way to picture the insurance or banking businesses, so they tend to go for "word marks."

On the other hand, a railroad can be visualized. Which brings us the most famous and celebrated logo ever designed in Canada, the "CN" used by Canadian National.

Created in 1960 by the legendary Allan Fleming, who died in 1977, the stylized monogram put Canadian graphic design on the international map and made Fleming a reluctant star. Why? Simply because it used so little to say so much. By joining the two letters and rounding off the sharp angles, he managed brilliantly to get across the idea of railway tracks as well as movement and transportation. With its smoothed-off corners, it also looks streamlined and modern.

There was some outcry when CN dropped its old logo, a maple leaf containing the letters "CNR," but Fleming's inspired design has soon gained widespread approval and recognition.

"The clincher," says Lorne Perry, an assistant vice-president in CN's public affairs department, "was the enormously positive internal response." After the company adopted it, the logo began to appear on individual employees' tool boxes, lunch boxes and the like.

Last year marked the logo's 25th anniversary and it still looks as fresh and contemporary as ever. The only change is that it is reproduced smaller. Originally 13 feet long when applied to locomotives, it now measures five feet. On CN stationary, it has been reduced from three inches to one. Judged by Yaneff's criteria, Fleming's logo clearly succeeds.

And as Perry observes, "People pick up meaning from it."

Will people pick up meaning from SkyDome's logo? Undoubtedly. The significance of the open "D" filled with rays is obvious. Where the design is less successful is in its actual appearance. It's a little too contrived. It doesn't look natural, organic, the way the CN logo does. Perhaps it's those four golden rays.

However, the single "D," which will appear on mugs, wine glasses and variety of souvenir items, packs much greater punch. That's because it works as a graphic image - a symbol - but not as typography. Freed from having to function as a letter within a word spelled out in conventional typeface, the Big D is perceived pictorially rather than as fancified script.

It's not that there's anything wrong with script; look at Coca- Cola, which owns one of the world's most venerable trademarks. Then there's the marvellous and dignified Toronto Transit Commission logo, a flying keystone containing the three letters, "TTC." It has been modified slightly since 1954 when it was introduced - the top "T" has been moved from right to left and the colors changed from red and yellow to red and white - but it has lost none of its integrity.

The ornate, 19th-century lettering in which Coca-Cola is written out has also been altered - and simplified - over the decades, but it, too, remains a powerful image of pop culture.

So much in fact that Coke recently began marketing a line of casual clothing and accessories that all sport the trademark. The move indicates the value of a logo and how its associations are transferable from one product to another. Given that there are unlimited soft drinks and sweat shirts, what is Coca-Cola really selling but its trademark? Take that away and the clothing line, like the drink itself, suddenly becomes the same as any other.