Some Logos I Like

Below are two logos which I came across in passing that I enjoy very much. The photos are taken with my phone's camera.

I love the letter forms and the geometry of this first one. It's creative, legible and functional. I wish the colors appeared correctly; the logo is dark brown on a bright yellow cafeteria tray. Blame the camera phone.

This second one is just really sharp and spiffy to me. I like the colors a lot (which are actually pretty accurate despite the camera phone). It's fast and exciting and very retro. It reminds of TRON to some degree.

All Dog Adventures Update / Final Logo

The logo I was creating for All Dog Adventures has been finalized. As you can see some changes were made since the last version you saw below. The colors have been changed PMS 640 (blue) and PMS 152 (golden yellow) and the nose has been removed from the lowercase 'd'.

The colors were changed to represent the clients facility a little more. Their floor is a bright blue, like a wrestling mat in gym class kind of color. The blue chosen for the logo is a little darker than 100% cyan. The yellow color was chosen to reflect the color of many pieces of equipment inside the facility. The equipment is multicolored but they yellow certainly stands out. Also the client's own dog is a golden retriever and I thought it would be nice to convey that concept as well.

The nose has been removed from the lowercase 'd' for the obvious reason that it comes off as being slightly obscene. I didn't see it at first and I don't really see it as a problem but I can see how it can become one. Another reason that the nose has been removed is because it really does lose its purpose of creating the image of a dog when applied to the full logo. The tail stands out because it is a less subtle embellishment and also because it is on the top of the logo where the eye begins. The nose however becomes lost after the 'all' and begins to look like a mistake. I believe that the nose element is still necessary when the word 'dog' stands alone (as it does below in the previous post) to create the image of the animal in the typography, but it is unnecessary in the full logo.

All Dog Adventures

This past week I took on a conceptual project at work that I really enjoyed working on. It was to create a logo for a school that trains dogs for agility competitions. I was especially happy because the client gave me full creative freedom in coming up with a concept. I was toying around with typfaces and I happened upon one of my personal favorites, Cooper Black. I stayed on the typeface for a minute when I noticed the little nub on the lowercase "g" which reminded me of a short tail. I begin to look at the word "dog" in lowercase and I started seeing the animal's shape. The lowercase "d" has an ear flopping over on the ascender and the lowercase "o" works perfectly as a body. A little but of work later I had this:

No changes have been made to the existing forms of the typeface, I only added the elements of the wagging tail and nose. I believe that the word with the added elements visually creates the image of a dog without changing the integrity of the typeface.

So now I had a starting point, I began to work with different type arrangements with "all" and "adventures" but nothing seemed to work. I was afraid that I'd have to ditch the "dog" icon, for something that would work with the other words in the company name but then I happened to come across a photo of a dog running up an "A" shaped ramp and then the answer came to me. I drew a triangle shape and began to play. After reworking the the shape and type arrangement over and over I finally nailed it with this one:

The triangle, as I mentioned above, is representative of the "A" shaped ramps that dogs run up and down during agility competitions. The descender of the "g" goes over the top of the triangle as though the dog is running over the ramp. I think that this arrangement of the typography was the most pleasing and interesting. One major comment I got from my peers was to have "adventures" running down the other side of the triangle but that looked to predictable and also disjointed. I like the negative space. In the end I am very satisfied with the logo, I think it speaks perfectly for the company it belongs to and I'm happy to add this into my portfolio.

Thanks to all who offered their helpful criticism during the process!

Gustav <3 Me 4EVR

In my continuing quest for inspiration, I've found myself spending a lot of time browsing different artists in books and online. About two weeks ago I came upon the works of Gustav Klimt whose work I've seen hundreds of times before. However, I'd never seen this lovely sketch before and now I can't get Klimt out of my head.

I am mesmerized by his forms. They are so sensual and beautiful. His colors are so vibrant and exciting.

It's love, I'm sure of it.

Textures

I am contstantly working at expanding my library of design resources. One such effort as of late has been taking photos of various textures I have found. These are all taken in RAW and are available on flickr under the creative commons license for anyone to use.

Click any one of these samples to go to the flickr page:

Lagomorph 2008

One of my professors from back in design school created a project called the Lagomorph where people contribute words and pictures about music that they have loved/liked/hated in the past year. This past year I had the privilege of being featured in it. Take a look at my submission and other contributions! I wish that I had put more thought into the writing rather than just writing some simple words. The images however are some of my favorite photos that I have taken to date.

Lagomorph:

Images at Hi-Res:

Slow Progress

When I started this blog I had the idea that I was going to treat it as a makeshift portfolio site, but I think thats why I stopped posting. I just didnt have a whole lot to post, you know? I'll just have to make a real website sometime. Well, here we go, I'm going to treat this thing as a blog. I'll update as often as I can with ideas, and process and progress and hopefully we can all talk about it!

Ok so in the many months since the last post I:

1) graduated from VCU in May 2008 with BFA in Graphic Design.

2) got a job at Acorn Sign Graphics in Richmond, VA where I am currently living.

3) have been getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night rather than 2-3.

4) have been working some on my own portfolio.

5) have continued to develop an identity system for myself (I am working on full alphabet system like my logo above).

6) saw My Bloody Valentine and live in NYC!

7) worked at becoming a better photographer.

8) have been getting into DJ-ing / mixing / sampling (my name is DJ Leather Interior for now...).

9) grew a beard...shaved it...and grew it back (might shave again later maybe/probably).

I am happy.