I don't have a photo of it, but there's a floor covering place near where I live that uses the overlapping O.

I don't know of any other logos that use a dubble O ligature. The Bloomingdale's logo isn't well known outside the United States, and I happen to dwell in Australia.

Someone sent me the logo for a retirement home that makes use off two intersecting “o’s” but I don’t think it is a true ligature.

Why not? What disqualifies the overlapping structure from being a ligature? I think what you're getting at is the departure from normal or accepted structure for a ligature. Saying it's "not a true ligature" is an exclusionist and conservative view. If that's true, then you should be able to define "true ligature".

And you know, the moment somebody defines "true ligature" I will be along to demolish all such notions.

I would like to use the double-O ligature in the title of a publication, but feedback from someone said that overlapping O’s reminded her of unity, or gender symbols (male and female). While that’s true, I wouldn’t normally think of that when seeing it in text.

Oh dear, one whole person says it reminds her of unity or gender symbols, so that's it man, it's no good ;^) I think your friend isn't seeing this in context, and as you know context counts for a lot.

I think the double-o ligature looks classy in certain circumstances.

So do I. What do you make of these dubble O ligatures I designed for my Pyke's Peake font?

j a m e s

I think those look more like c+o, James. Coop, a norwegian food chain used to have such a ligature in their old logo. Here's the new one, and at the bottom, a members card with the old one. http://logo.coop.no/coop_logo/elementer/index.htm

I believe the IOC uses a OOOOO ligature, as does the Greek national airline.

It is a symbol for marriage. It also appears at Harvard's bookstore.

Here you go, I got one for you. It's "Mrs. Eaves" from Zuzana Licko. (Emigre) It also has a really cool looking "OG" ligature too.

Weng

"Coop, a norwegian food chain used to have such a ligature in their old logo. Here’s the new one"

Frode, this is crazy, we have a supermarket chain in Switzerland that's also called Coop and has almost exactly the same (new, very ligatured) logo as yours. I wonder if they're connected somehow, or if they aren't, who stole whose logo? ;)

As per the "non-true ligature" attached to the first post, James, I don't think it is so much about the unusual placement of the second "O" than because it is quite visible that the second O was scaled down in size. FWIW, the differring weight makes it hard for me to see it as a ligature that was originally designed like this, as one glyph.

This logo uses a moebius loop (infinity symbol) as a double o ligature, it is probably even more of a wedding symbol though. Esta has a double O ligature that I had wanted to use/develop for a logotype, however due to other considerations it didn’t work out.

I would accept your description of the Mary’s Woods one as not a true ligature, it doesn’t seem that the second O has had enough consideration of differences in weights through scaling and the triangle device appears to be included for consistency with the A but hanging out off centre (frankly I would doubt it is very user-friendly for the inhabitants). In my opinion for a ligature to be a true ligature it doesn't have to join or overlap but to be designed with consideration of the pair (or more) of characters and with consideration to possible surrounding characters.

Tim

Well, Coop Norway don't use yellow and orange, nevertheless it might be an international supermarket chain.

Selection of Coop logos
http://www.eurocoop.org/members/fr/member/default.asp

British readers may remember the four leaf clover logo
http://www.dhiverse.org.uk/_im/_logo-COOP.gif

Tim

EDIT: Not a chain but a community of local Co-operative Societies, originally set up to compete with mill and factory owner’s high priced shops run on a voluntary basis to bring economies of scale.

Selection of Coop logos
Interesting! Thanks :)

I believe the IOC uses a OOOOO ligature, as does the Greek national airline.

LOL. However, Olympic Airlines use a crazy OOOOOO (six!) ligature with lots of different colours. Never got to the bottom of why the colours are the way they are though.

Chris L, am I right in thinking Froggy has an oo lig?

PriceWaterhouseCoopers

There's another logo that has a double O that looks like an incomplete infinity symbol but I cannot think what it is...?

a href="http://www.flyzoom.com/">Zoom. The whole logo's a ligature!

I suppose the other obvious one is Audi ;-)

Cheers, Si

@ timd
As the one who sent the Mary's Woods logo, I can say that they've got a couple cleaner versions they also use. But they still use something similar that this one on at least one outdoor sign, and when I saw it (walking through a slush-filled night the day after Christmas) I thought there were three "o's"!

The Romans used to carve oo ligatures all the time. I'm sure that u have some examples in my Flickr stream, but I can't cut and paste links on an iPhone :(

Hey, why can't I edit my post? Has that functionality gone forever?

[double post]

"Chris L, am I right in thinking Froggy has an oo lig?"

That is correct, Nick--no double O and no 007 either :-)

ChrisL

There's definitely a logo with an infinity-type 'ligature' in it (two O's) which I think is set in Palatino. Someone please put me out of my misery! Think it's probably British.

Here's one I spotted on my lunch break today...

http://www.roosorthodontics.com/

Thanks for sharing the Olympic logo and Audi :) Gave me a good laugh.

Re Dan – here’s one from my Flickr stream: CO, OO, LI & Co

Great! Thanks.

And here’s a beautiful finding from Caren Litherland.

Moo. A moo ligature?

@Frode: I think those look more like c+o, James.

To ensure that somebody would say that, I left them out of context. In context they function as OO units.

@Altaira: As per the “non-true ligature” attached to the first post, James, I don’t think it is so much about the unusual placement of the second “O” than because it is quite visible that the second O was scaled down in size.

Scaling down the second O in size is the best thing about it and to my way of designing using ratios and sizing for repeating letters is essential. It makes loads of sense to me, and so on, and such-like etcetera. I put lots of ratio and sized bowl elements into Pyke's Peak and have continued the theme and technique in Jabberwub.

Florian that's a great example of Caren's!

Great thread!

j a m e s

Here's a whole identity scheme we designed a few years ago based around the rather tasty OO-Ligature in *gasp* Optima Nova:

http://cocoons.funkbuero.de/

http://funkbuero.de/projekte/casestudies/cocoons/ (German text)

The company is sadly defunct now, though I tend to think the ligature wasn't to blame.

Thank you to everyone who posted a response to my question! I really appreciate all the great examples that you've found.

When I mentioned in my original posting that I didn't think St. Mary's used a true double-o ligature, I'm talking about an actual ligature; i.e, one single character, or glyph in the typeface. I think St. Mary's logotype was created by using two distinct letter o's.

The Audi and Olympic symbols are excellent examples of O's that intersect, but these are not true ligatures either. They are wonderful examples of how circles were used to form a distinct logo.

I love all the examples. Thank you again for all the logos you've found, including the font families that were mentioned.

Glenn

Chiming in a bit late here, but since you mentioned Bloomingdale's, Glenn, I thought I would also mention its younger neighbor: Bergdorf Goodman.

∞ps!

Not double o ad infinitum!

ChrisL

Hello,
Sorry about the shameless self promotion, but here a couple of double o's

That is sweet as a nut.

Tim

Hi Mark,

I love your Mark Books stamp, with the double-o ligature. I noticed the MB ligature in your avatar, too.... nice work!

Thanks Glenn (and Tim)
A few other bits and bobs on
http://flickr.com/photos/m-brooks
I love this forum - I'll get stuck in where I can. Glad there are some other weirdoes out there who worry about ligatures, spacing, and other such things. I'm not alone.

Some of the Peugeot range have a weird double-0 (not O) in their name (e.g. Peugeot 4007) but some versions (on the Peugeot website) don't seem to have this nuance.

Doubletree. The official lesbotel. Kidding. Sadly.

hhp

i designed a logo for a magazine called MOOI (which means beatifull in Dutch) for which i designed a double O ligature. The magazine was suppose to be about fashion, glas an ceremics and juwelry and would come out once a year all long side an Artmagazine, But it never made it
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b175/joostmarcellis/Mooi.jpg

Just noticed this amusing treatment in Klimax Plus by Ondrej Jób (typophile screen name = ugla):

Screenshot from here:
http://www.urtd.net/?id=type&browse=fonts&font=klimax&sub=styles&style=plus

nice one!

And another...

http://i.gizmodo.com/5142553/hitachi-wooo-adds-another-dimension-to-cell...

WoooTF! ;-)

Audi's crash test department will sue them blind!

hhp

Yikes..that looks REAL close.

This is a furniture store in my town that has been using a double-O ligature since it was founded in 1917.

'scuse me for reviving this oldie – I spotted this on a friend's bike today:

Another for the pile: