Hebrew Translations of Latin Logos

Ed.’s Note

This post strays off the basic Brand New Classroom formula in a few ways: It shows the work of various students, it doesn’t include sketches or process, and it’s not a reinvention of a brand. But the results are quite fascinating and it’s really amazing to think that this is student work — the visual translations are delightfully accurate. Even if you don’t read Hebrew, it’s easy to appreciate the exercise. You can see Oded’s students in action (on other projects) here.

Opening image, Rotem Dayan for IBM.

Solution

Michal Shani.

Ziv Feldman.

Tamar Roth.

Dudi Braunstein.

Stav Axenfeld.

Daniela Aschenbach.

Orly Dekel.

Oded Ezer’s Website

Richie Sauls’s comment is:

Brilliant project, beautifully executed. What an excellent way to make graphic design a fascinating thing to learn and master.

On Apr.28.2010 at 07:37 AM

Christopher Campbell’s comment is:

Its difficult to comment on this, as I'm not familiar with Hebrew. From what I can gather it's been translated quite well and the uniqueness from each logo has been kept throughout. Good work :)

On Apr.28.2010 at 07:40 AM

aaron’s comment is:

These are great, they look just like their English counterparts, and they read very clearly, I never realized how strange it is to translate "New York".
My only problems would just be nitpicks, like for sega, the "ה" has an extra inline and the "ס" fills in it's negative space when the "A" in English doesn't. In Kylie, the two yuds in "קיילי"(second and third letter from the right) are different sizes, unless I'm reading it wrong.

On Apr.28.2010 at 08:59 AM

c jones’s comment is:

You could make a very fun and nerdy graphic desing quiz out of this. Could you recognize these famous brands/logos by their charateristics without reading them? If the american version was not placed next to them.

Very great stuff.

- c jones

On Apr.28.2010 at 10:20 AM

Yarden’s comment is:

מעולה!

GOOD

On Apr.28.2010 at 11:20 AM

Rivka Haot’s comment is:

Some of these are really great and some not so great. The "New York Times" is a stretch, in my opinion.

On Apr.28.2010 at 02:03 PM

Ron’s comment is:

Aaron - you're absolutely right. I didn't notice that on first sight, but the Sega logo does has some problems. About the Kylie, I guess the student wanted to get the appearance of the "li", hence the awkward result, but I think it looks appropriate anyway, looking at the latin version. My favourites are the Unilever, Hallmark and Carmel.

On Apr.28.2010 at 04:44 PM

ofer’s comment is:

Great Work. In the spirit of Dan Reisinger :)

On Apr.29.2010 at 02:45 AM

Kfir’s comment is:

In my opinion all of the works demanded tons of efforts so we should appreciate that. Those guys are just students and they did a nice job. With that said, I personally liked the Carmel and Uniliver logos and LOVED the Hallmark logo

On Apr.29.2010 at 07:16 AM

Fun Joel’s comment is:

Interesting project. A few are difficult to read in the Hebrew versions. To my eye, the best that both capture same spirit/feel as original, and also look good/are readable are Sega and Unilever.

But congrats to all who participated. Really interesting work! :-)

On Apr.29.2010 at 08:17 AM

Vitezslav Valka’s comment is:

Wow, there's nothing like that elsewhere. Good job!

On Apr.29.2010 at 03:09 PM

Carol Schiller’s comment is:

This work is fantastic. I love the way they preserved the essence of the original logo concept.

On Apr.29.2010 at 04:58 PM

Katie’s comment is:

I know almost nothing about Hebrew, so I can't judge readibility, but I am incredibly impressed with the preservation of the logos' styles and feelings.

On Apr.29.2010 at 11:54 PM

Risa’s comment is:

The New York Times is the most problematic. I remember as a child once being sent to buy the NYT at the candy store, paying and walking out when the seller ran after me because instead of the Times I had taken two Herald Tribunes (The Times was always a very heavy paper.) So, even in English its logo is maybe a bit unfriendly. Translating it into Hebrew is most difficult because of the direction and also because the thicker decorative part of the old fashioned letters are the horizontal parts which end in little points called crowns. This just doesn't translate graphically.

I guess my ignorance is showing, I don't know what kylie is, find the logo difficult to read in English and Hebrew as well. Hallmar, Carmel and Unilever are the best. The others are good as well.

On Apr.30.2010 at 07:29 AM

Fabian’s comment is:

Hallmark totally nailed it for me!

On May.02.2010 at 04:57 PM

Alex’s comment is:

These are really cool & creative. I'd like to see these someday in real life.
Maybe the folks at Leadel.Net can feature this artist; he seems dynamic enough for them!

On May.03.2010 at 07:38 AM

David B.’s comment is:

WOW.

I'd love to see more!!!

On May.04.2010 at 10:15 PM

medieval clothes’s comment is:

I always learn something new

On May.06.2010 at 10:24 AM

חננה’s comment is:

Some are very good, but others have small typographic errors...

On May.08.2010 at 02:31 PM

Marcelo S. Coelho’s comment is:

beautiful, stunning!

On May.08.2010 at 07:46 PM

maaaaatt’s comment is:

i am blown away by this project. amazing work.

my only problem is i don't read hebrew, but visually, this is some of the best work i've seen.

On May.20.2010 at 01:08 PM

Jerry Kuyper’s comment is:

Congratulations - fascinating work.

In one of his lectures in the 70s, Wolfgang Weingat documented the translation of Coca-Cola into Hebrew.

It inspired me to begin a collection of Coke bottles in a dozen or so different alphabet/writing systems - none came close to the success of the Hebrew version.

On May.25.2010 at 10:13 AM

jerry Kuyper’s comment is:

Make that Weingart!

On May.25.2010 at 10:16 AM

Ted Marcus’s comment is:

What a wonderful idea! The designs retain the essence of the original in distinctively stylized but very readable Hebrew.

The one exception here is the New York Times. I suspect the students may have had an impossible task, mainly because the original concept of blackletter/"Olde English" doesn't seem to translate literally into Hebrew as the other logos do. Maybe this is a case where it would be better to forgo the specific style and choose distinctively Hebrew letter forms that convey same feeling of "impeccably solid authority from of old." What comes to mind is the "crowned" script soferim use for religious texts and mezuzot, which might convey that message at the cost of offending religious people. But there probably are some medieval letter forms that might fill that bill without causing offense.

On May.28.2010 at 04:14 PM

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