“A logo doesn’t sell (directly), it identifies”
— Paul Rand
Logo design was one of the first areas of design that captured my interest. I enjoy creating a seamless, yet identifiable design that incorporates aspects related to its owner. Throughout my career so far I have created a logo for various different consumers.
Below are a few examples of the logos I have created so far; with explanations to accompany each.
Ellesmere United - Football Club
Whilst at university, my housemate asked me to create a club logo for one a local team from his hometown of Ellesmere, Shropshire. With the name and colour scheme (blue & yellow) being the only information given, I began the design process by researching Ellesmere.
I found that Ellesmere is full of meres, lakes and canals. This is where I gained my inspiration. The final outcome is based on the front of a canal boat in the shape of a shield. I used the shape of a shield as it symbolises strength, battle and unity. All aspects of the Football team would require to be successful.
The above graphic shows the design process of the final outcome. From the original sketched idea through the tweaking/trial and error stage to the final outcome.
I was very pleased with the outcome due to its subtle meaning and clean finish.
Initial Sketch Ideas:
PAVEC - Engineering Consultancy
PAVEC were an independent engineering consultancy contractor. They came to me with the need for a logo to front their brand. In order to make the logo design clear, I made sure I used engineering iconography to achieve this.
For this project, I did not capture any imagery of my initial sketch ideas, unfortunately. However, I digitally designed quite a few different ideas (as seen below). I used Inkscape to design these designs, a new platform for me meaning I had a learning curve to navigate. I thrived on this as I always love learning new things.
Here are just a few of the ideas I came up with for this project. As you can see most of the ideas include that engineering iconography as I mentioned previously. The final two ideas were much more simple, with the last including the Welsh colours due to the client being a proud Welshman and wanting it included in the design.
Eagle Vision - Sports Viewing
Eagle Vision was a sports viewing system designed to give spectators at sports stadiums all replays of the best action including slow-motion images and refereeing decisions. Initially designed for cricket, allowing the fans within the stadiums to view the important decisions such as a leg before wicket call as it is very hard to see live with the game being played at a high pace.
I was asked to create a logo and small text branding design to accompany this idea. Unfortunately, I did not capture the initial sketches. therefore, I only have the digital displays to show.
The idea behind the design of the logo was to create a seamless design that incorporated iconography and letters. I used the ‘V’ for vision and added eyes to make it look like an eagle and incorporating the whole name into a simple logo design.
I am very happy with the outcome of this one and it is certainly up there with one of my favourite designs to date.
The IoT Lab - Technology Company
The IoT Lab were a start-up technology company that aimed to display data through physical displays. For example, the more likes a post gets, the higher a balloon would lift off the ground. As this was a university-based project, I created a website design and brand guidelines to accompany the logo design. Check out my website design on my UX/UI design page.
The inspiration for my designs on this project centres around technology iconography. The final design shows a link which creates the ‘o’ and ‘a’ of the name as well as displaying the link between data and physical visuals.
Here you can see the development of the final logo design idea. Starting very square and blocky and progressing to a more rounded and flowy design testing the width and thickness of the link and supporting text.
Below you can see my initial sketch ideas, full of variations upon a theme with experimentation using shapes and incorporating designs within them. Overall, for me, the logo design process was the most successful aspect of the IoT Lab project.
Initial Sketch Ideas:
Shopping Pal - Shopping Assistance App
Shopping Pal was a university project based on my idea for a business plan. The premise of the app was to make customers of supermarkets more self-sufficient when shopping. This would allow supermarkets to free up staff (who would previously spend time helping customers locate a product) enabling them to concentrate on their job role e.g. stacking shelves etc.
The Shopping Pal app would include features such as an item locator, shopping list creation, shop route planner (based on desired products) and stock level checker. Features such as these would allow for those too anxious to ask a staff member where an item is, leading to higher customer satisfaction and more items being sold. Click to view UX/UI design of this app.
Following on with the theme throughout this logo section, above is the design progress of the logo idea for Shopping Pal. As always I tinkered with the design a lot. This allows me to explore various avenues and arrive at an outcome I am happy with. The Shopping Pal logo design incorporates a shopping basket iconography which makes up the initials of the name Shopping Pal, ‘SP’.
Below are my sketched ideas, showing just examples of my design ideas for this app idea.