Logo #152: Autechre

Sean Booth and Rob Brown of Autechre checked in recently about the origins of this rather iconic slice of simplicity. Booth: "The logo was a simple splice of the "a" and "e" from "avant-garde", which we were using when we did the "lp5" sleeve. I'm not sure it even counts as a logo 'cos it's just type; there's no work there apart from kerning." Brown: "From what I can remember - if that one's sourced from "Gantz Graf" material (it looks as if it is), it was Alex Rutterford responsible for that kind of example used on "Gantz Graf" artwork. But Sean & I did the the original joined-up "ae" that started in the "lp5" promo postcards / stickers. Alex based his version on those earlier logos and I think he modified the font." Booth: "Also, it's probably worth mentioning what Rob said is right: there are many variations 'cos every time we re-used it or another designer employed it, we just specified the font; we left the spacing and sizing up to them. There are slight differences between each one. It's also worth mentioning that for now we are using a new ae logo designed by Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic; he also did the sleeve for the new album "Quaristice"."

Squarepusher: Logo #2

Designed by Alexander Rutterford in late 2001, this emblem for the "Do You Know Squarepusher" LP also briefly appeared on a t-shirt and a press release - both of which are rather rare now. "It's not really used any more," say the good folk at Warp, a record label co-founded by Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell that began life as an acronym for Weird And Radical Projects. It's a shame because there again is the simplicity of the unifying circle, and then there's the square. Pushed. All hail the underrated rebus. Rutterford, who worked with filmmaker Chris Cunningham on the Aphex Twin's "Rubber Johnny" and Björk's "All Is Full of Love" videos, latterly works for Joyrider, making odd films and apparently having a reasonably good time.