Designer behind Amazon smile creates new logo for Dorset villages
The designer behind Amazon’s smile logo has dreamt up a new creation – for a tiny village in Dorset.
Bruce Duckworth, 60, was among the villagers who gathered to form a symbol for the 1,000th anniversary of Portesham and Abbotsbury, near Weymouth.
Unbeknown to most other locals present, he created the online retail giant’s logo in 1998 while living in San Francisco, before the internet boom made it one of the most recognisable emblems in the world.
Luckily for them, one resident knew who he was and told the meeting about his CV.
Mr Duckworth duly went away and came up with a “brilliant” idea that shows the year 1024 on top of 2024 and above the words Portesham and Abbotsbury, with the digit “2” intertwined to bring the communities -- home to him and just over 1,000 other residents -- together.
It has now been printed on flags and bunting, mugs, pens, hats and T-shirts to raise funds for the village’s celebratory events.
Big Commission
Mr Duckworth, who has also worked with Coca Cola and Samsung, quipped that the Portesham and Abbotsbury brief was “one of the biggest commissions I have ever had”.
“The logo ties the disparate events together and its objective is to bring this community together and everybody can use it as they want for nothing,” he said.
“We’ve seen it used as bunting, flags, cups, pens, T-shirts - Karen has even been involved in putting the logo on the grass bank as you enter the village.”
Recalling working on the Amazon logo, he said: “They wanted to tell everybody they were selling everything. We did the logo where the A connected to the Z, which meant everything, and then you took it off and it was a smile.
“Jeff Bezos apparently said, ‘If you don’t like this, you don’t like puppies’.”
‘Brilliant’ designs
Karen Hodgson, of the Portesham Volunteer Group, said: “Someone said it would be a good idea to have a logo” for the millennium events at the meeting.
“Bruce was there and one person in the room knew of his background and it was suggested if he would be interested and he agreed,” she said.
“I wasn’t aware of him at the time. He went away and did it and came back with several designs for us to have a look at.
“They were brilliant. Much like the Amazon logo, they were elegantly simple, but they got the message across.”
In 1024, the neighbouring villages of Portesham and Abbotsbury were granted as manors by King Canute to his servant Orc and many of the original boundaries remain the same today.
Villagers plan to host a Saxon camp and a concert by the Dorset Police Male Voice Choir to celebrate.
