Filed under: Logo Design | Tags: design, dot, expedition, forward, ligature, logo, logogala, motion, rationale, superscript dot
After a bit of vacationing and prior to some more to come, I’d like to write a bit about a recent logo I completed. (A side bar: this was also featured on Deron Sizemore’s LogoGala.)
The charge of this logo design actually stemmed from first developing the name. At present, the company is involved in a long-term strategic planning campaign with the ultimate goal of winning a Baldrige award. Rather than referring to everything related to this planning as “Baldrige,” the campaign needed a name, and further, it’s own identity.
The following rationale was one component of the identity standards I provided:
An expedition is a mission-oriented journey wherein the dedication, hard work and perseverance of the team involved culminates in the achievement of a clearly defined goal. It implies forward movement as well as a serious commitment of time and effort. This commitment ultimately serves to better those involved while simultaneously forging a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
My visual concept for the logo was to very subtly imply the idea of that forward and upward movement conveyed in the name. The text was set in Cicle Italic and from there I proceeded to create the ligature “exp,” adjusted the kerning visually, changed the angle of the italic and created my own dots for the i’s. The mark is an extension of the ligature but rises above the text and points forward. The logo as a whole really visually conveys movement and I think the color scheme reinforced the idea of this noble venture.
The client was really pleased and so was I, as I really accomplished what I initially set out to do with this piece.
Filed under: Design Resources | Tags: angle, bezier, curve, drawing, Illustrator, pen tool, practice, tutorial, vector
I recently gave a co-worker a relatively brief tutorial on the pen tool in Illustrator. I was trying to convey to her that the pen tool is very difficult to learn when you are first starting out and ultimately the only way to improve is to practice (constantly). A week later I’m pretty sure she hasn’t practiced any further at all, so I created a practice file and thought it might be useful to others. The file contains over 20 geometric abstract shapes with all kinds of different curves, angles and corners. Additionally, I drew them all out on graph paper so hopefully that gives some further tips as to placement of points, geometries, etc. I also figured I might as well make it available to anyone else who wants to pass along or complete. It might be interesting to get some pen tool pros and do this as race of some fashion, but for now download here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: article, blog, building, green, guest, raster, signage, site sign, sustainable, vector, writer
Check out my article today on Fuel Your Creativity. I wrote a creative process article about a green signage system I designed.
Filed under: print | Tags: brand, brand message, brochure, design, die cut, fold, print
As the predominance of my work is in the print realm, I really enjoyed the collection of Inspiring Brochure Designs over at Naldz Graphics. I love the possibilities presented by brochure design because you gcan do some really unique things when you get into designing spreads and (pending the project) several pages through which you can communicate your brand and message.
Filed under: wallpaper | Tags: airplot, distortion, earth, field, green, land, plot, roughen, typography, vector, wallpaper
So it may be the second, but here is your first chance at some June wallpaper I created. The font is completely original and I worked it quite a bit to get this patchwork/tilled field sort of look. Upon finishing it, it is a little reminiscent to me of the recent Airplot logo redesign. Let me know your thoughts or otherwise feel free to download away and green up your desktop.
