The "Double-O" Ligature

[Frode Bo Helland]

Thanks for sharing the Olympic logo and Audi :) Gave me a good laugh.

[Florian Hardwig]

Re Dan – here’s one from my Flickr stream: CO, OO, LI & Co

[dan_reynolds]

Great! Thanks.

[Florian Hardwig]

And here’s a beautiful finding from Caren Litherland.

[Nick Job]

Moo. A moo ligature?

[James Arboghast]

@Frode: I think those look more like c+o, James.

To ensure that somebody would say that, I left them out of context. In context they function as OO units.

@Altaira: As per the “non-true ligature” attached to the first post, James, I don’t think it is so much about the unusual placement of the second “O” than because it is quite visible that the second O was scaled down in size.

Scaling down the second O in size is the best thing about it and to my way of designing using ratios and sizing for repeating letters is essential. It makes loads of sense to me, and so on, and such-like etcetera. I put lots of ratio and sized bowl elements into Pyke's Peak and have continued the theme and technique in Jabberwub.

Florian that's a great example of Caren's!

Great thread!

j a m e s

[refusenik]

Here's a whole identity scheme we designed a few years ago based around the rather tasty OO-Ligature in *gasp* Optima Nova:

http://cocoons.funkbuero.de/

http://funkbuero.de/projekte/casestudies/cocoons/ (German text)

The company is sadly defunct now, though I tend to think the ligature wasn't to blame.

[Glenn Kramer]

Thank you to everyone who posted a response to my question! I really appreciate all the great examples that you've found.

When I mentioned in my original posting that I didn't think St. Mary's used a true double-o ligature, I'm talking about an actual ligature; i.e, one single character, or glyph in the typeface. I think St. Mary's logotype was created by using two distinct letter o's.

The Audi and Olympic symbols are excellent examples of O's that intersect, but these are not true ligatures either. They are wonderful examples of how circles were used to form a distinct logo.

I love all the examples. Thank you again for all the logos you've found, including the font families that were mentioned.

Glenn

[litherland]

Chiming in a bit late here, but since you mentioned Bloomingdale's, Glenn, I thought I would also mention its younger neighbor: Bergdorf Goodman.

[dberlowgone]

∞ps!

[dezcom]

Not double o ad infinitum!

ChrisL

[mabcalig]

Hello,
Sorry about the shameless self promotion, but here a couple of double o's

[timd]

That is sweet as a nut.

Tim

[Glenn Kramer]

Hi Mark,

I love your Mark Books stamp, with the double-o ligature. I noticed the MB ligature in your avatar, too.... nice work!

[mabcalig]

Thanks Glenn (and Tim)
A few other bits and bobs on
http://flickr.com/photos/m-brooks
I love this forum - I'll get stuck in where I can. Glad there are some other weirdoes out there who worry about ligatures, spacing, and other such things. I'm not alone.

[Nick Job]

Some of the Peugeot range have a weird double-0 (not O) in their name (e.g. Peugeot 4007) but some versions (on the Peugeot website) don't seem to have this nuance.

[hrant]

Doubletree. The official lesbotel. Kidding. Sadly.

hhp

[Joostmarcellis]

i designed a logo for a magazine called MOOI (which means beatifull in Dutch) for which i designed a double O ligature. The magazine was suppose to be about fashion, glas an ceremics and juwelry and would come out once a year all long side an Artmagazine, But it never made it
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b175/joostmarcellis/Mooi.jpg

[kentlew]

Just noticed this amusing treatment in Klimax Plus by Ondrej Jób (typophile screen name = ugla):

Screenshot from here:
http://www.urtd.net/?id=type&browse=fonts&font=klimax&sub=styles&style=plus

[Joostmarcellis]

nice one!

[Si_Daniels]

And another...

http://i.gizmodo.com/5142553/hitachi-wooo-adds-another-dimension-to-cell...

WoooTF! ;-)

[hrant]

Audi's crash test department will sue them blind!

hhp

[Yehan]

Yikes..that looks REAL close.

[mjr]

This is a furniture store in my town that has been using a double-O ligature since it was founded in 1917.

And here is one of the store's ads from sometime in 1928, I believe:

[nina]

'scuse me for reviving this oldie – I spotted this on a friend's bike today: