Various formats and alternate versions of the GV Radio branding.
Greetings Comrades! Jeremy the Tech Director here. Now that our community radio station is up and running we need to finalize it's name and branding so we can promote it properly. I've been working with Rising Voices director Eddie Avila, who's been working with a team on the GV Radio project, to create visuals to go with our two main name choices, which as the title of this post implies are pretty similar to each other.
Global Voices Radio v. Radio Global Voices
Internally we've been referring to the radio stream as “GV Radio” which is nice and short and we all understand it, but it's not ideal for the public who probably don't know what “GV” refers to. For the main branding we want to include the “GlobalVoices” letterform, giving us two obvious name choices: “Radio” before GlobalVoices, or after it.
To me “Radio Global Voices” has a fun, “radical” kind of feeling to it, while “Global Voices Radio” is simpler and more natural.
As you can see from the contact sheet above, the artwork works pretty well either way, so we're curious if anyone has opinions on which name is better.
So far we are leaning towards keeping it simple with “Global Voices Radio”, since that's what we've called it so far and it's the most natural “long form” of “GV Radio”.
But what do you think? Answer the poll below!
About the radio tower logo
GV Radio tower icon based on Radio Tower by Rohith M S from the Noun Project
We chose to use a tower as the icon for our radio station because we feel it captures the essence of broadcast audio in an internet age. Some of the other ideas we considered for the artwork were microphones and headphones, which are natural objects to represent sound, but don't really differentiate between “radio” and podcasts or other types of audio. Unlike podcasts our station is always broadcasting and as a result offers serendipity (finding things you didn't know you wanted) rather than the control we often expect from modern media. Hopefully the radio tower icon will convey the product (streaming audio) without straying too far outside the existing Global Voices branding.
The icon is based on Radio Tower by Rohith M S from the Noun Project, where there are tons of Creative Commons licensed vector icons representing just about anything you'd need. I chose this one because of it's strong, simple lines (important for small versions of the logo) and because it integrated well with our Adinkra icon. Check out the icon's profile to see how many other “radio tower” themed icons they have available.
Let us know what you think!
See any problems with this new branding for Global Voices Radio/Radio Global Voices? Which color options do you like best? Think we're crazy? Leave a comment :)
8 comments
Thank you all, this is so exciting!! I don’t see major problems with the branding, I like the tower radio (I’m an old radio lover…) and I like the idea to keep the name simple. Just one comment: I voted for “Radio Global Voices” because even if it doesn’t sound very natural in English, it still works, and at the same time it sounds very natural for other latin language speakers like Spaniards, which give us a more global flavour.
That’s all on my side, have a great day!
Violeta
What a great point! This sways me enough to change my own vote!
The logos are beautiful! I’m torn between Radio Global Voices and Global Voices Radio and could honestly go either way. Radio Global Voices kind of evokes Radio Free Europe for me a bit and does have a leg in other non-English languages, like Violeta pointed out. But Global Voices Radio sounds good too. :)
-Lauren
Love the logos! “Global Voices Radio” rolls better off my tongue, but— like Violeta and Lauren above—acknowledge that not all tongues in GV speak the same language/s.
I’d be happier with the former, but could live with the latter.
I love the radio tower! I think it’s a great logo.
Visually, Global Voices Radio looks more balanced. :)
I am so excited to see GV-Radio project rolling. Congrats Eddie, Manuel and everyone else. I am in love with Rohit’s radio tower and it fits so well with the GV logo. I voted for “Radio Global Voices” but as Georgia mentioned “Global Voices Radio” rolls well off my tongue too.
Amazing artwork Jeremy! Love the towers too! wow :)
Thanks Annie (you and everyone is part of it!)
About the name GV Radio – Global Voices Radio is my vote! (though in Portuguese we say Radio Vozes Globais, but the english it’s so embedded in our Portuguese lives – actually it’s globally embedded – that we tend to use anglicisms all the time!).
I like and have voted for “Radio Global Voices”. More than the linguistics aspects it feels nice to my ears. But “Global Voices Radio” also matches with the other GV vertical “GV Advox” and is nice. :) Thanks Jer for the great work!