Fortunately, they were happy with the minor touchups I made while they sat and watched over my shoulder. I should have never agreed to this, but I wanted to help in the 10 minutes or so I was allotted. Unfortunately, they liked it enough that it took off the pressure for re-doing a more thought out logo, despite the fact that my creative side had been mulling it over at first mention. I suppose there is a lesson in there somewhere, because I basically helped them out of urgently needing to re-design their identity, which I really wanted to do.

I had no way to shut off my creative brain from wanting to “solve” this for them, however, so I decided to create a logo anyway, since I liked the direction it was going, and here it is.

My enthusiasm for this mark continued, so I created a basic ID system for it, along with a spec sheet. One of the goals of designing a logo, besides simplicity, elegance, and versatility, is giving it more than one “read.” What I mean by this when you can see more than one meaning in the logo.

Case in point, the old Bank of America logo with the flying bird that could be made out in the joining of the letterforms. I’m not comparing the level of my Aerofoam logo design to the elegance of this Bank of America mark, but mind does have multiple reads, which is one of the goals of most logo designers.

The identity system utilizes screened back airplane blueprints for texture, and a larger watermark of the logotype on all three elements.

I made this image of the business card out-of-scale to the other elements so it would be easier to see for the purposes of this page.

The spec sheet is a bit more fanciful, and in real life a client probably wouldn’t want to “waste” all the space at the top with a repeating logo, despite the pleasing effect.

Oftentimes clients feel an overwhelming urge to fill every last bit of space with text, since they are paying for the printing, after all.

I suppose if I wanted to get really ambitious I’d create an annual report, but it’s time to get back to my paying projects now.

The logo has been put on posters, t-shirts, basketballs, etc. and has been printed in 2-color and one-color. The folks at the Scoring Factory decided they wanted a more streamlined version with more emphasis on the word “Scoring,” so I created the variation below, which has been well-received.

Here is a version on black. Notice I added a subtle radial background in dark gray so that the black shadow sides of the buildings didn’t get lost.

Here is the revised logo applied on a black T-shirt.

When it came time to create a promotional poster, I was given this image of a basketball player taken with a point-and-shoot camera. The background was shadowed and busy, so that made cutting out the image rather tedius.

Luckily, there are two tools available to designers that allow them to get around such obstacles: creativity+Photoshop. When I have a low resolution or grainy image to start with, there are a few ways to go.

I chose to reduce the image to black and white, and then colorize it. From there, I wanted to give it a feeling of crazy motion. I added some diagonals for dimension, and brightened the color for impact.

As it happens, they wanted something more conservative, and opted for a version with a plain gray background. I still prefer where this one was going….

The logotype was loosely inspired a bit by the Allman Bros. script, and they wanted something that would also work as a monogram. After some experimenting, I decided to keep it fairly simple, and dropped the swash from the final “E”.

While looking over old album covers from the 70s, I came across some script from an old Crosby Still & Nash album that servied as the inspiration for the photo styling. Coincidentally, the lead guitarist had a giant Malamute dog, but since we weren’t doing a parody of the cover, it wasn’t a consideration.

They didn’t have the budget to fly to Austria for the photo shoot, so I worked remotely art directing the photographer. This group of musicians was extremely low-key, and no elaborate styling was going to work.

Above is the original photograph I received from the photographer. You will notice that in addition to the color toning, I added a burlap texture, and did some touch-up on each member, including adding the monogram I created on a t-shirt.

On the inside of the package, I wanted to continue the wood texture, which ended up on the CD itself, and for the booklet I added more color and imagery inspired from the song lyrics.

For the style of the illustration I wanted the simplicity of a woodcut but wanted it to be modern looking and scale down well and still be recognizable at a small size. One of the reason I chose the mountain “range” as part of the image as it is often used in designs related to the San Gabriel Valley, where the City of Monrovia is located.
I chose the Syracuse font because of it’s Arts and Crafts feeling. Here is a formal description of the font: “Syracuse is a font inspired by the typefaces of the “Arts & Crafts” designers of the early 20th Century. As such, it has a distinct “hand” look. In “Syracuse” you will find hints of Dard Hunter’s work at the Roycrofters in East Aurora, New York, a little of the Art Nouveau style of 1900 Vienna, even a touch of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s design ideas in Glasgow, Scotland. The font was named for the city in New York where Gustav Stickley produced his Craftsman furniture.”

The logo also had to be able to accommodate the names of three stations, and so I created an area below the image that could change according to which station they needed it for. I also did color variations for each station, but they decided to keep the colors of all of them identical.

Following the approval of the logo, I was commissioned to design a business card and letterhead, and then a website. The station wanted the website to convey both television and coordinate with the newly established branding. They also wanted to maintain the site themselves, and have it be easy for people to scroll through the most recent videos.

I created the new website on the WordPress platform, and kept with a look consistent with the new logo and color palette. Visit the KGEM-TV website.

I wanted to create letterforms that felt like the ocean waves, or like seaweed, coursing through her whole name. To add a playful element to the identity, I used an ornament that evoked both shells and sea creatures.

I also created letterhead and envelopes utilizing the same pattern I had created from the ornament.

For Shana’s website, I continued the ocean theme and used various moving shades of blue for the opening. The ornaments “swim” horizintally until the page opens up to reveal her slideshow. The site was created entirely in Flash. Visit Shana Cassidy on the web.