The Story of my College Logo

The story is split into 4 posts, as I can't post more than 5 images per post. Please read all the four posts too know the full Story.

I'm posting this to make you people know about the past and present of my college's logo, or emblem as they say. In 2010, I joined SSCP, an esteemed institute providing bachelors and masters degree in Pharmacy at my place. It had an emblem that didn't look much impressive. I first looked at this logo on the envelope that was sent to me, approving my admission at the college.
It looked something like this.

I could derive the etymology of this as follows. The logo had a Lighthouse like thing on a Hill shielded in the center. Something similar to Snakes around a Staff, a classic representation of Medicine on the left, a thing similar to Lighted Lamp on the right and a set of Mortar-Pestle on a Book below. The ring around had the text (College name and the Place) and inset had "SSES" meaning Sree Siddaganga Education Society.
This thing seemed un-impressive to me, I wanted to know how and why are those elements used there. When the classes began, I witnessed a Circular on the notice board that was for the first years. It said the aprons (lab coats) and the practical records can be obtained from the store. But this notice had a different logo in B&W, like this.

It was way too small to know what were the elements, but I could clearly make out this was not the same as that of what I saw on the envelope. The snakes were different and the lamp was dancing in this logo! I then made my way into the store and purchased the apron and practical records. To my surprise, both these had the college logo on them, both different.
The logo on the apron looked like this.

And that on the practical record looked like this.

Now that made the worm in my mind grow! Different emblems wherever I see! What the hell is wrong here!? I started to ask myself. After thinking so much and consulting some people who knew about the college and the emblem, I could alter my derivation of the depictions. Now, the Snakes and the Staff were the part of initial logo but the Lamp was never there. It was to be a Plant. A plant with roots, to depict involvement of Nature in our field. To support my recent derivations, I won a prize in some contest at my college and the trophy I received had this logo.


(CONTINUED)

 

I then went to the computer administrator of my college asking for a soft version of the logo and I got this.

This was the same as that I saw on circulars on notice boards of my college. With a detailed image like this, I started to work on a new logo for my college. I was a hobbyist at designing graphical stuff. I took the elements - The Mortar & Pestle, The Snake and The Plant to give a whole new feel to the logo. I produced something like this.

and this.
I showed them to the Principal of my college. He liked my skill but never agreed with this new logo. He wanted the middle-shield to be highlighted. It depicted Sree Siddaganga Mutt, the holy place where our Education Society was based. He instead said me to retouch the current logo of the college. I started to build upon the soft logo I obtained from computer administrator. After few days, I came up with these. I loved 3D! so, there was a 3D version too!



(CONTINUED)

 

This was liked by everybody in my college and soon, it could be seen everywhere in my college. The notices, the posters, the advertisements and everything. After an year, when I was in 2nd Year, in 2011, I started thinking this logo was low-standard one. I worked for few more days and gave attention to details, crisped and clarified few elements to produce these.

Again, some months later I started to give low importance to 3D and redesigned this logo with more defined and aptly coloured elements with a view that everyone could clearly get the intention of the logo and its elements. The rework produced two versions, as follows.

I liked both the versions, went to the Principal to have his choice. With his and many of my college's staffs' choice, I finalized and retouched this version.

 

After a while, this became the official emblem of my college and is in use currently. I made a 3D version of the logo in 2012. It looks like this.

So that was about the Past and Present of my college logo. I still don't know about the Future! Pour in your thoughts on this. I'm eagerly waiting.

Also, you can read the complete etymology of the logo below.
The emblem of Sree Siddaganga College of Pharmacy portrays a connection of traditional medicine and modern medicine. The Mortar and Pestle, being a universal symbol of Pharmacy has been incorporated in the emblem. The Book below it represents Knowledge and tributes the Pharmacopoeias. The Torch entwined by two snakes is a classical representation of western medicine depicting involvement of Physiology, Pharmacology, Medicinal Chemistry and other branches. The Plant depicts the coordination of allied subjects in pharmacy including Pharmacognosy, Phytochemistry and others. The plant is also a representation of the primary source of drugs, a base of pharmaceutical evolution. It also tributes the oldest Indian system of medicine, The Ayurveda. The central inset illustrates the Siddaganga Mutt and the four beams of enlightenment with S S E S that stands for Sree Siddaganga Education Society which is a parent body of the Institute. The script in Kannada, “Vidyeyinda Viveka Shramadinda Samruddhi” translates to Wisdom comes from Education, Prosperity comes from Hardwork is the motto of SSES


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Thanks for reading!
-Akshay

(also note that I'm a freelance logo designer, you're free to contact me on this)

 

Wow, this post is so inspiring. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I wish I had the chance to design a logo for my school too but back then I was focused on different things - graffiti mostly

 

Great achievement. This is really very acknowledgeable deed. I am extremely inspired.

 

The latest logo that you made came a very very long way from the original logo of your college. It looks very professional without looking out-dated. I like how you used different colors and the redesign of the illustrations altogether. Good Job there.