Monday, December 12, 2011

JP Paulus on The Chicago Neighborhoods project logo for Englewood...

JP Paulus edited my post from yesterday about The Chicago Neighborhoods project logo for Englewood so his edit has become its own separate post. Some contact information was posted below, but if any of you reading this blog have some graphic design skills perhaps you can come up with logos for your particular neighborhood. All the same JP & I would invite you to offer your own input because as stated earlier the contact info for The Chicago Neighborhoods are posted at the end of this post. JP's words are below!

JP edit:  Here's what they did with Englewood.


While this looks historic and nice, here's what the descriptrion of the photo is
The hotel at the corner of 63rd and Wallace in Englewood, designed by, built for, and owned by Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, was much more than just a place to lay your head during the years around the World's Columbian Exposition. Holmes' hotel, which later became known as the "Murder Castle," was also the final resting place for handfuls of unsuspecting victims.

Holmes, who was constantly hiring and firing work crews, was the only person to fully understand the design of the hotel. The first floor contained his drug store, while the second and third floors "contained his personal office and a maze of over one hundred windowless rooms with doorways opening to brick walls, oddly angled hallways, stairways to nowhere, doors that could only be opened from the outside, and a host of other strange and labyrinthine constructions," all put into place with murder in mind.

Holmes, who mainly preyed on females, tortured and killed his victims in various ways. He would lock them "in soundproof bedrooms fitted with gas lines that let him asphyxiate them at any time," or he would lock them "in a huge soundproof bank vault near his office where they were left to suffocate," among other horrific methods. Holmes would then drop dead the bodies down a secret chute to the basement where they "were meticulously dissected, stripped of flesh, crafted into skeleton models, and then sold to medical schools."

While the total number of his victims has never been confirmed (it could be more than 200), Holmes confessed to 27 murders during his time in Englewood.
R.A.G.E. (Resident Association of Englewood) would probably strongly disagree with the notion that "My vision might not match yours, but I hope that we can agree that a neighborhood with a logo is better than a neighborhood without."  (RAGE is trying to change the image of Englewood as being a neighborhood of murders.)  

Other neighborhoods also had much of at least the current character of the neighborhood missing, such as Uptown and Rogers Park, which showed no hint of the diversity of these neighborhoods.

Let's contact the artist so that we can get a more accurate view of Chatham, Greater Grand Crossing and Burnside.  

Here's his contact info:

4 comments:

  1. Mrs. Englewood has her comments to the logo in a tweet

    @mrs_englewood: @TheSixthWard "I checked it out...The logo is ok...Did a resident design it?"

    ReplyDelete
  2. The rendered Englewood Logo is attractive on the surface but is inappropriate to what many in the community remember and aspire to.

    The logo could have been a positive rendering of the community’s historic past and positives of the present.

    Located only 7 miles south of downtown Chicago Englewood started in the 1840’s. Englewood started as a station for the Michigan City stage road built on a ridge running SW from downtown, now known as Vincennes.

    Englewood's settlement name was Junction Grove. The area noted for its density of trees similar to Englewood, New Jersey. Junction Grove became Englewood in 1868 after a suggestion by early settler-realtor Henry B. Louis.


    A contrast of the historic and beautiful Chicago Teacher's College (CTC) Campus that included Parker Elementary and Parker High School with the new Kennedy King campus would have been nice. In 1868 CTC campus was developed as the Cook Normal School (http://histofneiu.tripod.com/Cook%20County_Normal.htm).

    The artist could have chosen the new home development near 65th and Harvard to contrast with some of the area’s GRAND frame homes, built in late 1800's early 1900's. Many of these older homes, with wrap around front porches are just a block south on 66th and Harvard.

    The artist could have also chosen to contrast the old 63rd and Halsted business strip with the new Kennedy King Junior College at 63rd and Halsted.

    Englewood's parks, the Hamilton and Ogden Parks, could have been highlighted.

    It is understood that prior to the Civil War there was a small black district near 67th and Racine (Once called the Alden Park). This area was once a part of the Underground Railroad that brought runaway slaves to safety prior to the Civil War per the Local Community Fact Book published by the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois, 1984.

    As a former Englewood resident, who still attends church in Englewood, I suggest the artist change the perspective of his logo.

    Author: Michael LaFargue, President of the West Chesterfield Community Association michael.lafargue@ziprealty.com (12/15/11)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Given the history of the building, including the H.H. Holmes murder castle in the Englewood is a truly bizarre and inappropriate choice. There are so many better options. I like Michael LaFargue's suggestions.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well I do like the lettering, but on the surface the H H Holmes building shocked me. There are plenty of other pictures from Englewood's early days that he could have used. Especially a picture of Englewood's "downtown" at 63rd & Halsted.

    ReplyDelete

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