A former co-worker called earlier this month wanting to know if I'd do a logo for them. They home school their kids and having a "school name" helps them in the state they've moved to.
I'm such a slow designer. I didn't sketch anything for this one - mostly because I thought I could work faster if I just edited some open source stock art I had. But the process was still slower than I'd have liked. I spent a good long while on research and looking for inspiration, more time gathering useful bits and pieces, and then at several hours fiddling with things to see what direction I should go in before I had anything worth looking at. So yeah, this project has a lot of time invested in it - which for a simple design like what they wanted, is pretty normal. I'm glad I didn't need to sketch and then digitize because I'm even slower when it comes to that now that I don't have access to a graphics tablet (boo-hoo - I really miss that tool - maybe with what I make on this job I'll be able to start a fund).
The following is what they sent me. They said they wanted a black and white design with a professional masculine look to the overall piece - something they could use for stationary and shirts and such. They liked the idea of the shield, book and sword but weren't tied to the particular imagery they sent.
Just below is one of the proofs from the first set. I recreated the book almost exactly as it was in their original image, combined a few sword images to create a sword silhouette I liked, changed the shield shape and added some embellishments before I sat back and realized it was probably too busy (see below). I thought they'd probably want something a little more simple, but I wanted to make sure I had done all I thought I wanted to do with it before offering simplified versions. I experimented with several different font faces once I got the shields done, but the one I liked the most was a serif font called "Californian FB." It was just quirky enough for me to enjoy looking at it. That and the serif on the E as well as the elongated ascended line of the A made it look a little more "medieval" to me and that fit with my preconceived ideas of the shield and sword heraldry type of imagery they wanted.
After they saw the first set of proofs, they chose one of the simpler shield designs and said they really liked two of the layouts. I did some tweaking and sent the next round, assuming that they'd be pretty happy with one or all of the versions I sent. It didn't take long for them to come back and say we had winners.
Here are the ones they settled on:
I'm such a slow designer. I didn't sketch anything for this one - mostly because I thought I could work faster if I just edited some open source stock art I had. But the process was still slower than I'd have liked. I spent a good long while on research and looking for inspiration, more time gathering useful bits and pieces, and then at several hours fiddling with things to see what direction I should go in before I had anything worth looking at. So yeah, this project has a lot of time invested in it - which for a simple design like what they wanted, is pretty normal. I'm glad I didn't need to sketch and then digitize because I'm even slower when it comes to that now that I don't have access to a graphics tablet (boo-hoo - I really miss that tool - maybe with what I make on this job I'll be able to start a fund).
The following is what they sent me. They said they wanted a black and white design with a professional masculine look to the overall piece - something they could use for stationary and shirts and such. They liked the idea of the shield, book and sword but weren't tied to the particular imagery they sent.
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| Preliminary idea images client sent to me | . |
Just below is one of the proofs from the first set. I recreated the book almost exactly as it was in their original image, combined a few sword images to create a sword silhouette I liked, changed the shield shape and added some embellishments before I sat back and realized it was probably too busy (see below). I thought they'd probably want something a little more simple, but I wanted to make sure I had done all I thought I wanted to do with it before offering simplified versions. I experimented with several different font faces once I got the shields done, but the one I liked the most was a serif font called "Californian FB." It was just quirky enough for me to enjoy looking at it. That and the serif on the E as well as the elongated ascended line of the A made it look a little more "medieval" to me and that fit with my preconceived ideas of the shield and sword heraldry type of imagery they wanted.
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| One of the busy versions |
After they saw the first set of proofs, they chose one of the simpler shield designs and said they really liked two of the layouts. I did some tweaking and sent the next round, assuming that they'd be pretty happy with one or all of the versions I sent. It didn't take long for them to come back and say we had winners.
Here are the ones they settled on:
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