Many people have asked me about the LebaneseForces.com logo and what it means and who it was designed by. I usually reply telling them that if they joined the 3 dots they would get the delta, a quick and simple explanation. But there has also been a lot of misconception on the logo and really no documented case online about it. So I decided I would post the whole story on the LF.com logo right from the very begining.

Back in late 2000 while I was studying at LAU Byblos, my best friend was assigned the job of creating a car sticker for the Lebanese Student Front who were the LF students at university. My friend wasn’t a designer and was doing a really terrible job with the sticker. It was looking really crap so I figured if I could do a better job maybe then I would be given some attention by the LF at campus. The only time any LF representative came and spoke to me in university was if they wanted me to vote in the elections. So I decided to design a sticker myself, something that would be simple, straight to the point, easy to produce and look good on the cars. No one wants to stick something on their car if it meant it would ruin the look. Another thing I had to take into consideration is at that time the LF party was banned and any LF logos on the cars would cause problems for the students, so my logo had to represent the LF but not really relate to the LF directly.

With that in mind I started sketching some ideas in my sketch book. A few days later I had to travel to Turkey for a graphic design workshop and while I was there I got an idea for the logo. I was sitting doodling in my sketchbook when I remembered what my teacher once told me about taking an object and simplifying it down to its basic form. I started thinking of LF elements like the LF cross and the delta and I then started to simplify them down to their basic elements, down to just dots.

I started to experiment more and realized that dots by themselves wouldn’t show when stuck on cars. So I decided to use circles and started playing with the thickness of the lines until I was comfortable with it. Finally I decided to drop the logo that represented the cross and go with the one that represented the delta. I showed it to my design teacher who was from Becharri and he suggested that I separate the dots from the circles with an outline. I tried it and didn’t like it so I stuck with my design and the main reason was because my version looked like 3 people holding hands, a strong sign of unity. That day I went down to Jounieh to a store that did vinyl stickers for store windows and asked him to cut me 20 logos. I had a handful of colors to choose from but I decided to stick with silver since it would go well with all the car colors. I took the stickers, left the place and then handed them to a friend with contacts to the LF at campus and waited for the feedback.

Next morning I get a phone call around 10AM in the morning, it was my friend whom I had given the 20 stickers to. He asked me how soon can I get more stickers? Still half asleep I was like why did they like it? He replied telling me they loved it and they wanted 100 more stickers. So I ditched my classes and went and printed 100 more stickers. Two days later they wanted another 100 and then it became 500 and then 1000. The stickers started spreading across all universities like a wild bush fire. Everyone wanted one and the logo started appearing on many cars. For me it was an unreal experience to drive along the highway and spot another car with my designed sticker on it. Even until this day it gives me great pleasure seeing my sticker on cars.

The logo grew out of LAU campus, it didn’t just represent the Lebanese Student Front at LAU anymore, the sticker represented the LF students. Even though it was never supported officially the logo was adapted by a very large number of students. Once I started LebaneseForces.com I decided to give even a greater support for the logo and use it for my site. Today I no longer know how the strong a presence my logo has in Lebanon. Even if its presence is no longer as strong as it was it doesn’t matter. I will not forget the experience and watching it grow from just 20 stickers for some LF members at university to thousands of stickers representing a much greater cause. This is the story of the LF logo that I never gave a name to…