(music playing) Today Spectrum will introduce you to logos, the international language.

Once used in cattle brands, royal insignias and club charters, logos today are symbols of a product, a company or a service.

Spectrum will find out what a logo is and why they are such a challenge to a designer.

Then Spectrum takes a bite out of our local candy culture.

The crack seed store.

Where mangoes, plums, lemons, apricots, ginger and peach are the local delight and a lifelong habitual snack.

But first Spectrum travels to the Friendly Isle of Molokaʻi.

Amid silent sunshine and shady trees, grazing horses and flowers of a brilliant hue, we'll discover a traditional form of lei making.

What is commonly known as the haku lei actually goes by a different name.

As we discover the difference we will see twigs wrapped around banana bark with fresh and dried flowers employed to produce a natural hatband or even a crown.

A precious gift among royalty and kūpunas.

This type of lei brought distinction to the giver, while conferring praise and honor to the receiver.

An artistic sense of color and quiet patience combined to reward the lei maker with a splendid creation.

Here is lei maker Sylvia Adams.

The lei that I'm making today is called a wili lei.

The flowers that we use, some of them are wildflowers collected from the mountains.

The others are garden varieties.

And I'm using the gomphrena or what we call bolo heads or bozus.

The yellow kolomona, and blood leaf.

These are found either in our yard or along the road or highway.

I'm using banana bark and taking a very thin strip of it.

Then it's the banana bark is soaked in water.

It absorbs the water and keeps your flowers fresh.

Take the banana bark that has been soaked in water and place your flowers or leaves on the bark.

And with a piece of raffia you wind around banana bark and your leaf or your plant material.

You continue doing this all the way down until your lei is finished.

But it should be done with the raffia passed from one hand to the other.

The haku lei is in this really a misnomer.

In the old days, they refer to the lei maker as a haku lei and so therefore, everybody kept saying I'm doing a haku lei.

But the method that most people are using today is the wili method.

The haku method is taking one plant fiber, braiding it and inserting flowers and other leaves into it.

The significance of the haku lei depended upon the use.

It was used in hula dancing.

It was used in music and poetry.

It was used by the kāhunas.

It was used by the farmer to present a kupuna to the god Lono.

In the old days the Hawaiians made a lei for whatever occasion that came about.

If there was a birth of a child, they went out and picked a special type of flower, or a special type of leaf or fern.

Many different types of flowers and leaves can use in this wili method, such as this lei here, which is made of kukui leaves with white kukui flowers and palapalai fern on the back.

Now we've seen a lei made with kolomona, gomphrena and blood leaf.

These flowers here are the different varieties of lehua.

The young liko lehua, another liko lehua, the ʻōhiʻa lehua in different stages.

The lehua flower pods, the lehua when it's blooming, the lehua when it's falling off and fading and the dried pods after all the blossoms have fallen off.

Also here is pukiawe, moa and palapalai.

All of these flowers here are found in the Hawaiian Islands and the Pacific basin.

Now would you like to see what the finished product looks like?

And on a woman's hat.

I hope someone will make a wili lei for you someday.

Leaving Molokaʻi let's visit the Honolulu offices of graphic designers Clarence Lee and Bruce Hopper.

They are specialists in the creation of logos, those memorable symbols which you see every day.

Here to explain the challenge of logo design is Clarence Lee.

Trademarks and are an international language or symbolic language.

They were created and used centuries ago because merchants wanted their product protected from imitators.

It also served as the merchant signature identifying the product as uniquely his own.

Trademarks are sometimes known as logo types, word marks.

They can be used to identify services as well as products.

Logos are now used to graphically depict an entire company to make a public impression.

In the old days, artisans and craftsmen performed this service.

Today, it is the graphic designer.

Elsa not so good.

We have some slight adjustments, we have to make the client like some, but they couldn't agree on any of these, so we have to go back to the drawing board on these.

When a design has been rejected, I go over the clients objections with the artists and with the staff.

I search through my initial sketches to see the germ of an idea to see where we can pick up from.

Finding the correct logo for a company is a challenging task.

I think of it as problem solving.

The solution is rarely discovered on the first attempt, although it has happened.

The goal of a successful logo is that it has to be memorable, that it is a good vehicle that can be applied to a range of things from stationary to wallpaper to science.

It has to become a strong identifying symbol that's, that becomes a silent salesman for a company.

Well, now that other symbols were rejected, we had to start all over again and the thing I think we're at now is the letter C. And I think the thing I really need to look for is a sense of a bank which is a box or some kind of safekeeping concept that they like security.

And if there's some way I can get the letter C which is the first letter Central Pacific bank, and find some feeling of security in terms of safety box or some enclosure system, I think perhaps I will get closer to what the client's view as a good solution.

From this as you can see, we went and we struggled with a lot of different ideas on C's in terms of its relationship to the enclosure idea.

We thought we saw something in the letter C that way, and feeling that money being deposited or safe keeping and enclosure idea.

We tried some with a thin line and it looked a little weak to us.

Go some with a stronger line, it started to hold together a little bit, the letter C, and the idea of an enclosed cube or box that symbolizes safekeeping.

We finally got to something like this, which we thought had most of the elements we were after.

It had the strength it had the security idea.

And with some refinements on this, we were close to another concept that we could then present back to the client as a good solution for the bank symbol.

They approved the logo, we did a final art on the logo and from here, we went through the application of the symbol which is very important.

How it's applied to a whole range of things to create a total visual linking of all the pieces.

Here we have the basic business stationery, we pick the color ink, PMS 292, which is standard ink color, which will be used from now on and all the corporate literature when we need a blue.

This blue was based on an earlier blue color that the bank had, but we change it to 292.

The paper is an ivory paper which is using all business stationery.

Now on the executives stationery we went to 100% rag stock, which is a much nicer stock.

And we embossed the symbol which created a nice tactile feeling which was a little bit more elegant, a little bit more prestige, which was in keeping with the officers at the bank.

The business cards we came up with one basic system of layouts and the names just kept changing, but the format was the same for all members of the bank.

So again, we have a continual visual link to consistency in the use of the symbol on business cards.

Went so far as to do it on giveaway items at the opening of the bank.

Items like key tags where the symbol was used in black.

We created a rainbow effect pencil and again you can see the application of the symbol on the, on pencils.

Here are some other design applications.

As we see different logos, different applications different uses, these here are some applications for a insurance company.

Symbol idea here was flame of life with hands guarding it the same concept as an insurance company guarding your life.

Here's another example of its application we die cut for the annual report which is a see through and on the inside is an actual photograph of a series of hands, the father's hands and the child's hands.

So, we continue that symbol idea onto a photograph in this case.

The Maui Marriott Hotel on island of Maui we developed a symbol for them.

Here we had a dual problem saying we thought the Maui rose was a good concept.

And we also thought the idea of having the petals of the rose formed by a form which is a silhouette of the nēnē goose which is the state bird was a nice consistent use of two images to form one image.

In the case on the side of a building here we created a resin cast symbol.

And again it just works nicely with, with a symbol like this is just one element that's repeated six times.

We, all we had to do is make one casting and cast it six times and we created a total symbol for the Maui Marriott Hotel.

Punahou Cliffs was a completely different situation.

The symbol was not modern it was they wanted a nice old kamaʻāina, warm, residential quality to their symbol.

So as you can see here, we did a symbol using the banyan tree which is the one tree that was going to be salvaged right at the entrance to the property.

The tree and a culvert and the stream going through and that was the basis for this symbol.

Hawaii Loa Ridge, the idea of the ridge line and entering, having a hill and a ridge on both sides was the basis for this symbol.

We here put it on an entrance wall, it glows at night, and it creates a certain landmark for the entrance to Hawaii Loa Ridge.

Puu Alii meant the hill of the chiefs.

So you can see that the use of the hill on both sides and the water as the lower half, also, hopefully it has a strong design on its design elements one element repeated four times, and that formed the total configuration for Puu Alii.

Here Wailuna, Wailuna means view of the ocean.

And we use as a basis, the idea of the ocean, the horizon and the sun setting over the ocean as a symbol.

In one case it's used in corian and here it's an oak in the sales office.

But again, the symbol - a sunset and, and the water for Wailuna.

These are just a few samples of some symbols we've done.

There are other designers in town doing very good symbol work.

The development of a trademark or logo is to try to express in as simple a manner as possible the character, personality of the company or product that you're designing.

And the approach to developing a mark is as varied as the marks themselves.

For example, just a quick glance at these two pages out of a design magazine of, published on the work I've done.

This is an assignment I was given to develop a mark for a Japanese golf club.

The original mark was a little fussy, and not very effective.

What I developed came out of staring at the golf ball under light, and I could see the formation of Mount Fuji.

And obviously, the golf ball is there.

So it locked together effectively and clients are very happy.

A successful design is one that you feel good about, because it expresses the character of the company in as clean and simple away as possible.

It is visually strong and memorable.

And it's a great satisfaction to know that you've contributed to the growth of this company.

And it's fun to see the mark around and especially if you're proud of it.

Well, I think the identifying factors of my approach to design are to again to distill the elements of the character and personality of the company and product I'm working with, into its simplest and most easily identifiable form.

Geometry obviously is, is employed in the design of marks, but I think there are other marks which have a looser, friendlier character.

Trademarks also aren't necessarily just symbols, for example, the way that you treat lettering can express the company in this case, the Aquarium Restaurant made it look the letters look as though they're underwater, or for a photographer, just the image of the black and white negative positive aspect of treating the lettering.

And of course, we're all familiar with The Bus and the way the letters were combined into one phrase.

I enjoy inserting a sense of humor into marks occasionally, this is for a construction company where you take the eye and turn it into a nail with the hammer is driving.

And I did a mark also for a dentist who is, cares a lot about what his patients eat.

So, this was the solution for that symbol.

One of the most difficult decisions the designer has to make is when a client insists on using one of the early studies that has not been well resolved and is not as good as the final solution.

And I remember one instance where that occurred and I had to really struggle hard to convince the client that that he should not use that one.

I enjoy the opportunity of having varied products and companies to work for because you can then bring out various aspects of your personality into the design of a mark.

Wit and authority and cleverness and distinction, all of those aspects enter into the designing process.

From international symbols, we turn to a trademark of local culture - the crack seed store.

Here's Joe Konno of Hawaiʻi Public Television to talk about the good old days.

When I was a little boy on Maui, one of the biggest treat for me was to go to the Saturday matinee at Kahului Theater.

But before the movie, I would go next door and buy a bag of Chinese seed.

I can still remember how good and sticky that seed tasted.

Mrs. Akiu Dang Chock was the lady who ran the seed store, next to the theater and sold me seeds for the show.

She and I sat down one day and talked about seeds in those days.

Do you remember me when I went into your store to buy crack seed when I went to the movies?

Yes, I think I do.

It was in about the 1930s.

You used to come to the matinees, matinees when they used to play Mickey Mouse shows and Tarzan then you would come in a store to buy your seeds probably crack seed, baby seed, cherry seeds, red ginger, football seeds, whichever you prefer, at that moment.

So, off you go to the show house.

When they have the intermission, you'll be back again.

Looking for some something else besides the football seeds, then probably it's crack seed this time.

What kind of seed sold the most?

I think crack seed, football seeds.

We sold mostly what the people want.

There was about probably 10-15 varieties that we were selling.

But today there's more than that.

What was the price on the seed at that time?

Well, the price is very cheap.

Probably could get a half a bag of seeds like crack seed for about 10 cents, 15 cents.

It's always was cheap at the time.

What did you put the seeds inside?

Paper bags, brown paper bags.

Which you don't find it so many so much today in the markets, especially small ones.

Because today they use the cellophane bags.

I know I used to like crack seed and it was so juicy, you used to soak in that paper bag.

Do you remember?

Yeah.

After you finish eating all the whole, the big seeds you suck on their bags.

Yeah, I used to chew on those bags.

I think that tastes better.

Right?

All the kids used to do that in the theater.

How is the seed different today than when you used to sell it in the 30s?

Well, I think they're much, the taste is much better.

And today probably they add a little more sugar or salt to make it the you know, to, because they pick their seeds now, the fruits probably it's green and then that we use more salt to salt it.

So, the tastes and from today and before was a little different.

The original you get original taste.

Where your seed used to come from then?

Well, it comes from China then there's some wholesalers from Honolulu that we buy it through like Wing Sing Wo.

At that time they that was a big outfit.

So, we usually order through them and every week we get a shipment coming in from Honolulu to Maui.

At that time we had these interisland boats.

That's how they ship them over.

During the war, the ships stopped coming in.

What did you do then with your store?

Well, I had my parents go out to buy all the prunes that they can find in the market.

Come home and put it in a big pan, put salt, lemon juice and sugar, mix it up and age it for a couple of days.

And then we sell it that way as seeds and the people liked it.

I noticed during the war that's what we used to have crack seed but it was prune.

Prune seeds or apricots.

You could die it, dried apricots you could do that too.

So, when people found out how to do it, they went out and do it themselves, you know, preserve themselves.

But then prunes were scarce right after that.

Well, they have plenty of fruit to make seeds these days.

Although they don't pack a seed in small brown paper bags anymore and a half of a bag of seed costs a lot more than 10 cents.

But still, everyone has his favorite seeds like me.

My favorite is crack seed.

My favorite is crack seed and it's so good.

I just eat anything that she eats.

Oh, my favorite seeds are sweet-sour whole seed.

Real good!

My favorite is sweet mango seed.

My favorite is lemon peel.

Well, my favorite is li hing mui.

My favorite seed is li hing mui and mango seed.

This is real good and delicious, would you like some?

Whether we learn about the natural lei making of Molokaʻi, the intricate simplicity of logo creation in Honolulu, or just dashing into our crack seed store for a tasty snack, we are engaged in the culture and arts of Hawaiʻi.

They exist to please us, to inform us, to embellish us, and to remind us that every place has a style of its own.

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