For the generative logo assignment, I wanted to choose a brand with a strong identity, but with enough different products to truly utilize a generative logo. Since I love tea and drink a lot of Twinings, I chose the Twinings brand. The one thing I didn’t realize when I made this decision is that their current logo is the oldest continuous use logo in the world, in use since 1787.

Suddenly the pressure was on to create something worthy of dethroning it. I mentioned the idea to Rune and he loved it so there was no backing out. Instead of brainstorming designs, I ended up spending many hours first reading about the history of the brand. Twinings was founded in 1706. Thomas Twining was the first person to introduce tea into a London coffee house. The company invented earl grey tea. They have had the royal warrant from every sovereign since Queen Victoria in 1837.  The more I learned, the more my intimidation grew.

After reading so much history, I spent a few days drawing endless versions of what it could be. The problem I found is that part of what makes the Twinings brand so strong is its history. Most generative logos look modern and are often for tech companies and media labs. To create a modern feeling logo would lose so much of the brand’s history and prestige. So I decided to go with the changing face of London. Although Big Ben and Tower Bridge are very famous historical landmarks, they are both younger than Twinings. And The Eye is even more modern. So I decided to use these three icons as the changing face of London. No matter how much the city changes, British Tea will always be Twinings.

The generative aspect is the spokes of The Eye and the color choice for the tea brands. Since even I know my tea by the color boxes from a distance, I didn’t want to change colors for their loyal customers so I matched each color choice to their current boxes. I do really like the logo. It feels both playful and modern and yet established and British. However, the one caveat I have, is this design doesn’t truly utilize Rune.js. The image could as easily be made in Illustrator as I did it in JavaScript. That said, after spending so much time on the company’s history, code be damned! I wanted to give the company the best logo I was able to conjure up during a one week assignment.