Results of Signage Poll/Interview with Nicole Probst

     Two weeks ago we ran a post asking you what your favorite piece of signage in town was. We gave you a scant few choices and after whining about places we left out, about a third of you ended up voting for Denton’s newish breakfast spot, Loco Cafe (read our review here). You can view the results of our poll below:
 

   



We can surmise a couple of things from this vote. The primary thing being that Denton must now favor understatement. Sure, quite a few of you voted for Atomic Candy’s exciting rocket ship sign, but the majority of you favored Loco's simple sign, and our statistics say that those of you who did vote for the rocket ship were either children or people with adult onset ADHD. We could probably make the argument that Denton was once a town of bombast, however, we seem to have become quite a bit quieter since The Undoing of David Wright split up a few years ago. This brings us to the beautiful simplicity of Nicole Probst’s Loco Cafe sign. We had the chance to ask Probst a few questions about her design of the Loco Cafe logo and her views on design in general. Read on below...

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Interview with Nicole Probst

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you, how long have you lived in Denton, what do you do, etc...

I moved to Denton in 1994 to pursue a Dance Major at UNT, but did not graduate. I have worked for GreenHouse Restaurant since 1999 and am currently General Manager. My other favorite job in Denton was my second job at Rose Costumes for 2 years. It was there I met my husband and had the benefit of Judy Smith’s [the owner of Rose Costumes] confidence in my design abilities as well as Ken Currin’s support, which allowed me to go back to school. I traded my second job for classes at UNT as a Communication Design Major and graduated in 2010 receiving a BFA in Communication Design with a focus in Art Direction/Copywriting and a minor in Dance. I’ve been married to Nathan Probst for 5 years and we are expecting our first child in October.


What influenced you during the creation of the Loco Cafe logo?

The owner of GreenHouse Restaurant and Loco Cafe, Ken Currin, is always a big influence. When we work on projects like this he becomes the client I’m designing for so having him stand behind the design is the number one goal. It’s like the relationship between Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and Heinz. Classic diner and shop signs of the 50’s and a Bass Beer Tap handle influenced the shape of the sign itself. We were talking about round signs one day and I walked by the Bass Beer tap handle and there was a perfect example of the style of round sign we were looking for. The typeface for Loco and 603 is American Typewriter and was integrated to pay homage to Ken’s roots as a UNT Journalism major and lover of literature and reading.


How does the Loco Cafe logo represent the actual cafe, itself?

“Loco” represents our location on the corner of LOcust and COgress. The round shape is influenced by our friendly, neighborhood atmosphere and a dot on a map. 603 is our address and if there ever happens to be more than one Loco Cafe the 603 will change to the street number of that location.

Working on the Loco Cafe logotype was a new experience for me because we were in the process of creating the concept of Loco Cafe as we were working on the logotype. Usually the brand/concept of the business is established and there are a lot of available resources to inspire the logotype itself. A designer writes a creative brief for the design based on established information about the company and in this case the creative brief for the design was part of the influence we used to establish the brand of the company.


Have you designed any other things that we might see daily in Denton?

Inside Loco Cafe I designed all the menus, even the big one on the wall, as well as labels on tea and coffee urns. I also designed the map graphic you see on the Loco windows, t-shirts and mug. I redesigned the logoype for GreenHouse Restaurant in addition to creating a simplified logo, as well as the menu. I also designed websites for both Loco and GreenHouse.


How would you describe your personal design aesthetic?

In my degree you take both Graphic Design and Advertising Art Direction classes. Before your senior year you choose a focus and the obvious choice for me was Art Direction and Copywriting because Graphic Design was not my strong point. Therefore, I like clean and simple logos with a smart use of type, that way I’m not trying to draw anything. I’m not much of an artist.

 

What makes a good logo or visual brand in your opinion?

For small businesses, I feel that a logotype, a visual representation of your business that includes the name of the business, is the way to go. This gives the business a chance to get both a visual cue of their concept as well as getting their name out there. I think presenting the name of the business and then providing a complicated graphic logo alongside it is not as successful. Then when it comes time to print a business card, invoice or other collateral you’re left with a design that is only successful in a large format and in multiple colors. Simple and smart logos can translate to any size and make an impact in even one to two colors.

I prefer a smart logo that with one glance tells you what that business is all about or a logo with clean type that is organized and therefore easy to read.  Though the Loco Cafe logotype doesn’t scream “biscuits” at you, the feel of the logotype provides a sense of location and friendly atmosphere.

 


What’s your favorite font?

My favorites are versatile and have enough variations to complete a project with one typeface. I use Akzidenz Grotesk, Horley Old Style and PMN Cecelia a lot.


What’s your least favorite font?

Comic Sans, Curlz and Papyrus


What other signs (or design-related things) that we may have seen have you designed?

After winning Iron Bartender Denton in 2007, GreenHouse Restaurant hosted the next year and I created the logo, poster and t-shirt for that event. I have also designed wedding logos for couples to use in invitations, programs and other reception paraphernalia. Before I went to school for Communication Design I designed my first logo for Big Baby Boutique when they moved to their 288 location. My work can also be seen in Minnesota on the storefront of Forget Me Not Flower Farm.


What’s your favorite piece of signage in town? Why?

I think many of the local businesses on the square have successful signage that represent Denton well, like Atomic Candy, Mad Records, Denton Square Donuts and The Ghost Note. I’m happy to say that GreenHouse Restaurant and Loco Cafe bring that trend just a couple blocks North. I believe The Ghost Note has the best logotype because it’s simplicity lets you know immediately the business relates to drums.

Thanks, Nicole

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Below you can view a few more examples of work Nicole has completed that you might have seen around town.

 

 

 

 


 

A Guide To The East McKinney Taco Corridor (EMTC)

Most Texans treat taquerias like bad lawns. We avoid them. We sometimes even chastize them. Heck, oftentimes we don’t even notice them. They blend into the scenery like a Texaco. Our ignorance of one of our most-precious natural resources is unforgiveable. We should be treating them like flipping bluebonnets; taking pictures of our children inside of them and stopping every so often to sit down beside one and smell it. Denton has our fair share of local, wonderful taquerias that each have their own specialities and share one thing in common: they’re all severely under-appreciated. More specifically, McKinney Avenue in Denton is the Champs-Élysées of taco shops. Within a half-mile, there are upwards of ten taco and taco-related dining facilities. We have dubbed this area the Taco Trail. The Taco Trail We’ve highlighted a bit of what is available down below. And while we highly encourage you to bike/walk/skate down the Taco Trail and follow our suggestions, we also hope that you take the time to be a bit adventurous. Try something that you can’t pronounce correctly. Dine on some beef tongue. Spend the rest of the day sick. We promise it’s worth it. You might even want to engage in an evening of progressive dining with a group. Make sure to have cash on hand and, if possible a Spanish-English dictionary. We’ll help you with the rest below:
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Denton Signage

We'll be the first to admit it, if a new store opens up with a plastic or wood sign with vinyl letters covering the front of it (even worse -- a vinyl banner sign), it probably isn't going to be on our list of places to visit anytime soon. Thankfully, in this town we don't have that problem too often. With the addition of the new drum shop, Ghost Note, to the square, Denton has gained another beautiful piece of signage to an already impressive list. With some notable exceptions, (Morrison's - figured we'd give others a fighting chance), we gathered a few photographs of other signs we like in town (some old and some new). Look through them below and vote on which sign you think is the best in town in the poll below. 

 The Ghost Note

Denton Square Donuts

 The Campus Theatre

Bookish Coffee Mural 

 Atomic Candy

 Loco Cafe

 Amitea

 Denton Donuts

 Black Box

 SoHo Salon

 Now tell us! Vote in the poll below and let us know which sign is your favorite in town: 

[VOTING FOR THIS HAS ENDED. RESULTS WILL BE DISPLAYED SOON]

The above photographs by no means represent the high number of beautiful signs in town. If we left out your fav, let us know in the poll or comments.

John Eckerd

Here's the first post in our (hopefully) ongoing literary column, Denton Dwellers, Story Tellers. If you have a piece of poetry, fiction, non-fiction (or even fan-fiction involving Midlake), email it to us at will@wedentondoit.com and once a month, we'll post what we feel like posting. 

Our first submission comes from John Eckerd. John is a recent graduate of UNT's English department and currently teaches high school nearby. You might find him at Cool Beans, More Fun Comics, The Abbey Underground/BASSment, and/or Art 6. If you like John's non-fiction submission below, contact him about his four currently unpublished novels or his hip-hop project, ZombieVision, or better yet, go to his blog and read more of his work. 

 

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Overview of 2012 Denton Annual Citizen Report

Saturday saw many mailboxes stuffed with the City of Denton s annual citizen update, Denton Moving Forward. In this neat little ~6 x 12 fold-out, lots of interesting information about city-related milestones that occurred in 2011 (as well as a few things that are set to happen in the years to come) was compiled together. As far as we know, this pamphlet went out to every City of Denton Utilities member. For those of you who either didn t receive a copy or accidentally threw it out along with your Bed Bath and Beyond mailer, we ve compiled a list of the eight things that stood out to us as interesting. Read below and if we missed something that you found interesting, let us know in the comments.


1. Remember when Rayzor Ranch was going to be a Southlake Town Center-style shopping center and be comprised of all sorts of interesting shops and maybe a movie theatre or something? Well guess what. We re moving even further away from the initial vision and installing another big box store next to the Wal-Mart and Sam s Club that have been sitting there for a while. That s right, folks, soon, you ll be able to buy boring clothing and housewares from...Kohl s on University.

2. The City of Denton has a Youtube channel featuring videos with DPL s Library Larry and newsbreaks from Denton TV. It s bested only by the ex-pat Eli Gemini s Youtube channel.

3. Denton is going to be making quite a few bike-friendly changes in the immediate future. The cover of Denton Moving Forward is even covered in sharrows. You can read the newly adopted Bike Plan here. There you can see how Denton plans on reducing traffic accidents, creating more cycling-related facilities such as Querencia and gradually turning Denton into a bike sports destination over the next ten years.

4. The Denia Recreation Center in South Denton has a 35 black-light mural in their gymnasium that you need 3D glasses to see. Yes, this is for real. We ve never really thought of Pink Floyd s The Wall as good workout music, but when you ve got a black light 3D mural near you, what other choice do you have?

5. The grand re-opening for the Golden Triangle Mall is actually expected to happen in 2012. Apparently construction has already begun, but we re unsure as to what exactly has been changed at this point.

6. Thanks to a grant from Think Green Waste Management, Keep Denton Beautiful will be installing solar-powered trash and recycling receptacles around Fry Street. They should be perfect receptacles for that post-Lou s-binger vomit.

7. In addition to the awesome selection of ebooks that the Denton Public Library has already added to their selection, the DPL is also making a move towards RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology for checking books back in and out in an extremely-timely fashion.

8. North Lakes Park is making a move to be more friendly to the blind and other visually impaired by adding in things such as tactile bricks.

Notable Absences from the pamphlet:

DCTA changes made in the past year. (A-Train anybody?)
Construction on Fry St. (when the heck is that supposed to be finished and what type of retail will we see there?)
Business moving in a north-eastern direction from the square (NV Cupcakes, Oak Street Drafthouse)