A little history on the Chase Design company logo.
The Chase Design logo was created in a logo and branding class taught by the logo and typography legend Mr. Doyald Young. Doyald was teaching the class at Y6, an annual design conference organized by AIGA San Diego, when Chris Chase, Creative Director and Principal of Chase Design, was studying graphic design at San Diego State University.
Chris went to Doyald’s class, but it was full, so Chris decided to sit on the floor, in the hopes that he could stay and learn from Doyald.
After Chris sat down, Doyald walked over and said, “Young man, what are you doing on the floor?”
Chris replied, “I really want to be in your class and I’m willing to sit on the floor in order to be here.”
Doyald was so impressed by that response that he ended up giving Chris a seat at the front of the class.
One of the exercises during the class was to create your own company logo. At the end of the class Chris had 10 logo marks created. Doyald looked at them and said he wanted to take them home to refine the one that he thought worked best. One month later the Chase Design logo showed up in the mail with a letter signed by Doyald. It stated that the logo that Chris had created worked well and that Doyald decided to clean it up a bit to make it mathematically correct.
Chris says this story alone makes the logo very special to him, since Doyald ended up being a great mentor over the years.
The moral of the story – if you want something, you have to show up and sometimes ask for it.
About Doyald Young
From his Wikipedia page:
Work
The typefaces designed by Doyald Young include Young Baroque, ITC Éclat, Home Run, and the formal script Young Gallant.
Commissions for logotypes and trademarks include the industrial design firm of Henry Dreyfuss Associates, California Institute of Technology, University of California at Los Angeles, exhibition catalogs for UCLA’s Clark Memorial Library, The Music Center of Los Angeles County, Mattel Toys, Max Factor, Vidal Sassoon and Prudential Insurance. With Don Bartels, designed the font for General Electric Company’s corporate identity program. His life story and working method is profiled in the Lynda.com “Creative Inspirations” video Doyald Young: Logotype Designer.
His entertainment credits include: Liza Minnelli and Frank Sinatra specials, Disney’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, Harry Connick Jr., k.d. lang, Bette Midler, Prince, The Grand Reopening of Carnegie Hall, The Grammy Awards, The Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, The Golden Globe Awards, and The Tony Awards, and most recently, the Art Directors Guild logo.
Teaching
Young was a teacher at Art Center College of Design, where he taught lettering, logo design, and typographic basics from 1955 to 1978, and again from 1998 until his death in 2011.
Honors
His book Fonts and Logos was awarded a Silver Medal by the Western Art Directors Club, November 2000. In 2001 Art Center College of Design named him Inaugural Master of the School for teaching and his contribution to the field of art and design. In 2009 AIGA awarded him the prestigious AIGA Medal for his contributions to the field of graphic design. On December 18, 2010 Art Center College of Design bestowed on him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.