Logo #29: Die Tödliche Doris

An enigmatic emblem designed in 1980 by Die Tödliche Doris - or, The Deadly Doris, as she is sometimes known. This Berlin collective of multimedia and conceptual artists, led by Wolfgang Müller, in April 1983 released the proto-turntablist "Chöre & Soli (Choirs & Solos)," a work for records in laughing boxes. Among their many conceptual pieces is the recent "Gehörlose Musik" DVD, with all 13 tracks of their debut LP interpreted entirely as sign language live at the Berlin Volksbühne (about which they received word from German music publishers GEMA stating that there are no royalties for compositions based exclusively on sign language). About this logo, Müller recalls: "When we opened a bank account for our band in 1980, we noticed the logo of the Sparkasse Bank and decided to use it as a band logo, but inverted. We called this "Die Umkehrung der Werte" (The inversion of values / securities / assets). The original designer of the logo is Otl Aicher, who revived the Sparkassen logo in 1971. Aicher was responsible for the typical new (West) German design of the post-war era. He created logos for Lufthansa, the 1972 Münich Olympics, Dresdner Bank and many other famous logos. As a young boy, he refused to go to the HJ (Hitler Youth) and therefore didn't get his high school diploma. He hid for several months, from the beginning of 1945, because he didn't want to be a soldier fighting in Hitler's "Endkampf". After the war, Aicher was married to Inge Scholl, sister of the executed Sophie Scholl (who helped lead The White Rose, a German war resistance movement). We received a promotional postcard from Sparkasse showing an unknown rock trio (just a fake band, created probably just for the photo-shoot). So, we hid the original logo, painted the mirror-inverted Sparkassen symbol and put the letters "Die Tödliche Doris" on this card. This was our first autogramm (and was exhibited in Kunstraum Kreuzberg, 1999). The inversion of values and securities and assets relates to the German word "Werte" which means, in the German language, material and also immaterial values and securities and assets."

Logo #28: Sixth Comm

After Death In June founding member Patrick Leagas left in 1985 to start Sixth Comm, he designed this mask, later adopting a second, the kenaz rune, in 1991. Leagas: "I'm not really interested in talking about the meanings behind the logos, but anyone interested in symbolism, magic, paganism, etc. will be able to take a good guess. Every aspect about music, songs, artwork, lyrics seems to be dissected to an almost subatomic level these days. I think the world is more interesting because of its mysteries, not in spite of them." 'Nuff said!

Logo #27: Jawbreaker

Jawbreaker's logo was appropriated in 1989 from designer - and founding father of modern gymnastics - Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (August 11, 1778 – October 15, 1852), who created it circa 1846. Comprised of four F's, it's shorthand for the credo "Frisch, Fromm, Fröhlich, Frei" ("Hardy, Pious, Cheerful, Free") - although anyone who's gone through any amount of gymnastics training might imagine they had in fact been crucified by the end of the day. Jahn invented the balance beam, horizontal bar, parallel bars, and vaulting horse - the forms of which can be seen in this particular sigil. A pushy, stubborn loudmouth, Jahn was exiled from Berlin in 1825 and, not coincidentally, was a fit sumbitch. Jawbreaker broke up in 1996 after almost a decade of impassioned, literary hardcore punk rock. What was the last discipline you invented?

Logo #26: Devo

Devo's "energy dome" (or "flowerpot," as it's been re-purposed recently) is an emblematic piece of headgear designed collectively by Devo (Bob Casale, Gerald V. Casale, Bob Mothersbaugh, Mark Mothersbaugh, and "Oh That" Alan Myers) in 1980 and featured prominently on the cover of their "Freedom of Choice" LP. Just like the myriad varieties of Kryptonite, there are several colors of domes: green in 1981 for "Solid Gold"; white in 1982 during their spokesmanship for the then-new Diet Coke; silver chrome-domes for a few 2002 dates; and blue domes for Nike's 2004 "Run Hit Wonder" race and live action, coordinated with the event's overall color scheme. Gerald Casale explains, "(The Dome) was designed according to ancient ziggurat mound proportions used in votive worship. Like the mounds it collects energy and recirculates it. In this case the Dome collects energy that escapes from the crown of the human head and pushes it back into the medulla oblongata for increased mental energy." What Casale hasn't been able to explain is the existence of Devo 2.0, a particularly startling level of selling out that must have gone down quicker than a hand reaching for the Jergens on Valentine's Day.

Logo #25: Dead Milkmen

I realize that it may be a tad soon after the Inspiral Carpets cow to include another cow, but it's my birthday and I'm feeling generous. Why couldn't they be best-friend cows? Designed by Dead Milkmen drummer Dean "Dean Clean" Sabatino, it first appeared in 1983. Funny and simple, it suggests a simpler time, during which America was gripped by "The Far Side" fever, and any gag with a cow or a dinosaur was immediately brilliant. When Dave Blood (born Dave Schulthise, September 16, 1956 - March 10, 2004) died, after living an entirely different life in Serbia until the '99 NATO bombing, it was pretty much over for a punk rock band that created about a half-dozen truly great pop songs and made a lot of weird people really happy for over twenty years. Who could ask for anything more? Apart from the thing about Dave Blood still being alive, I mean.

Logo #24: Articles of Faith

Vic Bondi, guitarist / vocalist for Chicago hardcore band Articles of Faith, writes, "Like everything in those days, we designed it ourselves. All the other bands had logos, and we wanted one. We thought about an upside-down cross, or a cross like the cross of a rifle sight - but those were too close to other bands such as Die Kreuzen. So we ended up with the off-center cross. Kind of strange in a way: we and most of the other bands in those days were relentlessly anti-corporate, and yet we all quickly made "corporate-lite" logos. Our drummer Bill "Virus X" Richman probably did the bulk of the thinking, and certainly laid out the design. We probably did it in late 1981." Beautifully stark and completely effective in eye-catching, the placement of the cross-hairs (i.e. do you take the shot?) implies doubt and deviation, two things incessantly plaguing punk as a catalyst for lasting change. Punk's logical conclusion brings up a dilemma that can be summed up in just two words: "Now what?" "No future" was easy - everything just stops and that's that. "If they treat you like crap then act like manure" is a terrible slogan because it's too long - but it's a process that ultimately works purely through sheer Zen pragmatism. At one point, Bondi worked at Microsoft, editing entries for their Encarta encyclopedia. The fount of all knowledge. Irony of ironies.

Logo #23: Inspiral Carpets

To mark the endlessly depressing death of Tony Wilson (20 February 1950 - 10 August 2007), Factory Records founder and herald of all interesting music to come from Manchester - an endlessly encouraging pile - here is the 1986 "Cool As F*ck" bovine logo for "Madchester" band Inspiral Carpets. From their website: "It's with great sadness that we hear of the passing away of Tony Wilson. Tony was a massive supporter of Inspiral Carpets, giving us our first break on TV with his "Other Side of Midnight" programme and he was instrumental in us setting up our own record label, Cow Records. His maverick style and acerbic wit will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with all his family and friends. " Worth digging out of the record pit: Facd325, a.k.a. "Martin: The Work of Record Producer Martin Hannett," released 1991 as a benefit for the family of then-recently departed Martin Hannett. This compilation contains the Howard Devoto-era Buzzcocks; the brilliant paean to capital punishment, "Suspended Sentence", by John Cooper Clarke, who dated Nico at the end of her life and whose "Evidently Chickentown" appeared in the closing credits of the first episode of the final season of "The Sopranos." Also: "Do the Du" by A Certain Ratio, a band that Wilson tried and tried to break huge but for some strange reason the magic never quite took with the predictably slow listening public; "11 O'Clock Tick Tock", one of about a half-dozen U2 songs that are even worth half a damn; the 1978 "Jilted John" single by British humorist Graham Fellows working under the Jilted John moniker, a sad story that would six years later be picked up by British hardcore band Animal Farm and continued as the B-side of their "Model Soldier" 7"; and the breathlessly affecting OMD single, "Almost," which features one of the best of all possible synth melodies of the 1980s (OMD distressingly tends to play it about half a measure too fast in concert). Of course there's also Joy Division and Happy Mondays and New Order and as Franco Battiato's record label use to say, "bla bla." And yet it's not as if Tony hasn't already met God - it was in the movie. As with more than a few things Tony Wilson championed (the extortionately underrated Durutti Column, for example), one need only know where to look - and for how long.