Posts Tagged ‘logo’
Process: The Redner Group
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
A little while ago I was contacted about creating a logo for a brand new PR agency known as The Redner Group. Their areas of expertise are "video games, consumer electronics, and men's fashion," so I was pretty much on board right away. Visualizing PR without resorting to gimmicks is kind of a tricky thing, plus there was the added weight of creating something for a brand new company (as opposed to redesigns, which at least for me tends to be a bit more common). The one thing we established early on was that the color scheme would be primarily red-based (REDner, right?). With that in mind, I got to sketching in my handy-dandy Field Notes book:
Sketching wasn't going as well as I am maybe used to. Things were a little murky, although if there was one thing I did hit on at this stage it was the notion that the acronym TRG was potentially more visually interesting than writing out the whole name — I don't know why exactly, but it seemed to have interesting ligature possibilities. I decided to dive head-first into Illustrator, with less of a life-preserver than usual.
A few themes came out of this stage that would set the course for the rest of the process, namely acronyms and circles. The top left was a fairly successful (I thought, at least) full-name version, set into a rather abstract capital R. The other versions on top also intrigued me — I had primarily been using bold condensed sans-serifs like Bureau and Knockout (especially nice as cap acronyms, I think), but in this case I used a typeface my co-worker Ryan introduced me to called Calvert, which worked pretty well. The lower-right logo is a little too obviously Draplin-y, and yeah, it's kind of goofy.
So those were shown, some edits were made, new logos were shown, and we quickly hit upon these three "families:"
I should take this opportunity to mention how great a client Redner was. With every new batch, I felt like real progress was being made towards a solution we would both be happy with, which was really reassuring considering how this process tends to go sometimes. Anyway, I was pretty excited with the right option especially, but then this was pointed out to me:
Oops. Yeah, it's not the same typeface, but it was close enough to be an issue. It was right around this point that I think we both started gravitating towards the "acronym in a circle" option. Not because it had a whole lot of special meaning, but because both aesthetically and functionally it held the most promise. Next I made a whole slew of typeface/color variations:
Yeah, so some of those are a little wacky, but I felt like we were 90% of the way there and it was important to me to make sure no stone was left unturned. We narrowed that down to two options:
And then one:
Helvetica wins again. All in all I'm really happy with this solution, I think it lays a really solid groundwork for future visualizations of the brand. Like I said earlier, tt's somewhat rare for me to a create logo for a brand new company, and not a re-design of an existing logo, so the idea of "laying a good groundwork" was an important goal for me. Nothing too flashy or bogged down, just a no-nonsense mark ready to get to work.
Coming soon, another process-y kind of post on a year's worth of editorial illustration for the MG Newsletter.
Tags: logo, Process, red, redner
Posted in Portfolio, Process | 2 Comments »
MunkyButler.com
Friday, July 24th, 2009
Just a quick note to let everyone know that munkybutler.com, a new social networking site that Media Genesis developed, is now live. I got to work on this (specifically the name and logo, above) so it's exciting for me to see it finally released into "the wild."
Side note: apparently to help promote the launch there are guys in monkey suits performing zany stunts all over metro Detroit right now, so if you're heading downtown today don't bring any bananas or anything (and if you do, make sure you keep your eyes "peeled" for any suspicious activity).
Tags: logo, mediag, munkeybutler
Posted in Internets, Portfolio | No Comments »
Ugly Mug signage
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
The Ugly Mug Cafe in Ypsilanti is using my logo as their signage now — looks good. If you're in the area check them out, they make a great coffee.
Tags: coffee, logo, ugly mug, ypsilanti
Posted in Portfolio | No Comments »
Ugly Mug identity
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Just got word that this identity I did for the Ugly Mug, a really excellent coffee shop in Ypsilanti MI, is being used by the store. The system is such that I can do a lot more variations for different uses, I'll post those sometime in the near future. Also forthcoming: pictures of the logo in use.
This one was a lot of fun to do, I've been really interested in the "identity vs. static logo" idea for awhile and I was eager to get a chance to put it into practice. Its success will ultimately come down to how much worth we can get out of the different variations, something I'm really looking forward to. Plus it's always great to work with a client that's eager to try new things, trusts your judgement, and brews a hell of a cup of coffee.
Tags: identity, logo, ugly mug
Posted in Portfolio | No Comments »
UEFA Euro logos
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
Travis alerted me to these great logos used for many years by UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, for their "Euro" football/soccer competitions (think World Cup but just for Europe, played in the off-years). I tried and tried but could not find any info on who designed them. Whoever it was did a great job, these were used for years with just slight changes (the flag represented whichever country was the host) every year. Some may question the legibility, but I had no trouble identifying it. Sometimes recognition is more important than preserving the sanctity of each letter.
A few years ago this logo was thrown out and currently a brand new logo is unveiled for every competition. This summer, Austria and Switzerland are co-hosting the games. Their logo is below.
This is a great example of what's wrong with logo design today and how far it's fallen, corresponding (I think) with the rise of computers and design software. Every surface is shiny, the type is uninspired, and that drop shadow -- it looks like someone's copy of Photoshop just threw up over the whole thing. The idea of using the Alps is fine, but the execution is weak. Why would an outline of mountains be beveled?
If you have any info on whoever designed the older logo, drop me a line.
Tags: Design, logo, soccer
Posted in Design | 3 Comments »
Lemon Party Gator Style
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Presented without much comment: The logo I made for my wiffle ball team, Lemon Party Gator Style (there might be t-shirts!). I also helped Tait with the theme song, which I can hopefully post later.
Tags: logo, mediag, wiffle ball
Posted in Lulz, Portfolio | No Comments »