CTC Branding: A History

If you've browsed our website recently, you've probably noticed that CTC has a new logo.

In light of this re-branding I've put together a short history of the CTC logo.

Version 1



This version was created in Photoshop 7 on a dinky little DELL laptop in CTC's inaugural headquarters in 2004. The fonts used are Georgia and Haettenschwieler. The symbol used to personify the 'collision' was pulled from the ranks of PS 7's default shapes. It served us well, but it was put to rest by:

Version 2




While I did not play a part in the second incarnation of CTC's logo, I can assert that it came to be in an effort to more accurately reflect the ethos of the company. We're young. We're hip. Our logo most definitely does not include a stuffy serif font. We also opted, in good judgment, to lose the classy emboss effect.

And the most recent version




The most recent version of the CTC logo was also brought about by the need to more honestly reflect the ethos of the company. As we change so too should the logo. This version is typographically based invoking a sense of directness and simplicity. The font used is Alte Haas Grotesk and draws on the strength of sans serif fonts like ever-popular Helvetica, but is a bit rougher around the edges - literally. The tilt was intended to give the logo a sense of movement inherent in the name of our company. So that's pretty much it.

Please share your thoughts with us on our new logo in the comments.

Prodigy?

I normally try to keep my random posts theatre related but I'm gonna go on an arts-related tangent to bring you this clip of a 3 year old finger artist.



This kid is sick with his phalanges! At age three I was still in diapers (which I explained to my friends by letting them know that "God made me to wear diapers until I was three and he made you not to wear diapers when you are three.") and this kid is producing brilliant TMNT portraiture!

I understand that most humans aren't showing any signs of brilliance by the age of three, in fact, most of us will never exhibit any Howser-like propensity toward accelerated learning. Still, it makes me wonder where a gift like this comes from. Did this kid just wake up one day with this great ability, was he born this way, was he taught to paint? Or is he some kind of mutant, the next shift in human evolution, one step away from walking though walls or cell regeneration? Whatever the case, he's special and I'm jealous.

...so maybe I was four when I stopped wearing diapers, so what!! I also spent many hours wholeheartedly trying to wrap my little brain around concepts of telekinesis, levitation and teleportation, I didn't have many any triumphs with those experiments, but it never hurts to try.

Enjoy your non-genetically-enlightened day!

Final Thoughts on Scab

We put Scab to rest this weekend. It was tough because I felt like the show was just getting legs. After a slow start were starting to fill our houses pretty regularly and I have to believe that if we had two or three more weekends left to run the show that we could have reached a lot more people.

This is one of the key problems with small storefront shows like ours: it takes a few weeks to really build any buzz and by the time word of mouth starts getting around the show needs to close. In our case, we don't have an enormous budget that enables us to rent out a theatre for 8 weeks so we have to deal with a shorter runs, usually 4 or 5 weeks. I would have loved to extend our run, but we couldn't, so we didn't and now I'm living with it.

On a more positive tip, the final weekend of shows was incredible; our closing on Saturday night was sold out to an incredile and emotional audience of friends and family and the whole experience has left me with incredibly fond memories of our wonderful cast and crew.

Someone in the cast (I can't recall who, maybe Casey?) was talking about how of all the shows they have been a part of that there are always those one or two people in every cast whose behavior, personality, acting style or stench makes you want to avoid them like the plague. They then opined that their experience with this cast was unique in that they didn't have those feelings about anyone, that everyone we assembled for our little production was perfectly pleasant; we all got on with one another and everyone's hygiene was impeccable. So, if nothing else, our company knows how to keep the weirdos out. Thank Thespis! (I'm copyrighting that phrase)

And that is what I learned from Scab...