Fall 2023
Overview
This project challenged us to design and refine a black-and-white logo for one of four provided companies. The company names were selected through a class vote. The company options included a children's interactive science museum in Portland, OR, a seating company in Cedar Rapids, IA, a 55+ planned community in Charleston, SC, and a xeriscaping company in Phoenix, AZ. Our final logo design had to reflect the nature of the chosen company. While designing our logo, we had to keep in mind the future potential applications of our logo (collateral), which would be designed throughout the duration of the semester for our broader branding project.
The design procedure for this portion of the project consisted of initial research and brainstorming, sketches and doodles, 2 thumbnail designs for each company, 2 intermediate designs, and a final hand composition before the creation of multiple computer progressions.
Research + Brainstorming
Before beginning my online research, I started with brain maps for each of the four companies, keeping in mind the specific locations in which each company is located. After doing this, I ended up with some pretty clear visions of what my potential logos could look like and how they would reflect the nature of the company. After the brain maps, I started researching images and logos of similar companies.
Sketches + Doodles
My sketching process, while messy, allowed me to see which of my ideas for each company translated well to paper. I had some pretty rough doodles for each of the companies. With the ideas that looked promising, I created some more refined sketches, penning in some of the concepts that I felt strongly about. It was at this early stage that I realized I really, really dislike drawing furniture. I felt like I had the best and most workable ideas for Young Minds Exploratorium, so I ended up creating numerous refined sketches.
Thumbnails
After pouring over my sketches and doodles, I selected the strongest logo concepts for each company. Clearly, I felt strongly about four of the Young Minds Exploratorium concepts and couldn't stop myself from creating more thumbnails than required. Since I had to decide which two companies and concepts to move to the intermediate composition stage, I spent a good deal of time staring at the thumbnails and imagining them on multiple different forms of future collateral. I was most excited by the sketchy, hand-drawn Prickly Pear stacked logo, the magnolia New Circle logo, and the four-sliced circular Young Minds logo.
For the Young Minds circular logo, I wanted each of the four slices to represent different sections of the actual children's museum. The planet represents the astronomy section, the atom represents the chemistry & biology section, the circuit board represents the engineering section, and the gear represents the physics section.
Intermediate Compositions
For the Young Minds intermediate logo, I decided to ditch the script type and replace "Exploratorium" with a wider-tracked, more futuristic sans-serif typeface. I liked the direction of the sliced circle, but could already imagine some future problems with scale. Additionally, I realized I didn't like the ultra-rounded typeface for "Young Minds." I decided to remove the ground lines from the Prickly Pear logo while still keeping the sketchy, hand-drawn look. I loved the direction of the typeface choices for this concept.
Final Hand Composition
As much as I loved the Prickly Pear concept, I felt like I had something really promising with this concept. Additionally, I felt like I had some really exciting directions to go with future brand collateral. For the final hand composition, I ditched the ultra-rounded title type, which I liked better, but both typeface directions still lacked personality and didn't fully reflect the nature of a children's science museum. While I did fill in some of the circuit circles in this hand composition, I hadn't yet adjusted what I should have within the other slices.
Black + White Computer Progressions
My initial output allowed me to see that the white space around the planet rings was going to be an issue, especially on a small scale. From the first computer output, I received great feedback. I needed to widen the partition between the four slices, align the circle in the atom with the circle in the gear (or remove it entirely), and either adjust the baseline of the 'g' in Young Minds or go entirely with all caps.
After the second output, I still didn't like the white space around the rings, and I didn't like how empty the atom looked without the circle. I also tried to fill in some of the circles in the circuit board slice, but decided that they were better left outlined. Additionally, the angles of the circuit lines didn't match. I had adjusted the baseline of a new 'g,' but it still looked off. Some feedback regarding this type issue was to play around with a mixed caps title, similar to the "Will & Grace" title typography. Also, I needed to fix the tracking in "exploratorium." I had forgotten to widen the partition in this second output. I received a great piece of feedback in class suggesting that I just make the entire design a flat design rather than having the planet and the atom more 3D. This would create more cohesion.
By my third output, I felt like I was getting somewhere. The flat design worked a lot better, and I liked how I matched up the circles in the atom and gear. The circuit board problems were resolved by removing any angles entirely and just outlining each of the circles. I did round the corners on the gear and the circuits, and this small adjustment improved the overall look. The planet gave me a ton of issues because planet rings just didn't look good as a flat design, so I went for a more abstract planet/moon look. The widened partition worked a lot better. I played around with different typefaces at this stage, reverting back to my initial typeface, but making a playful stylistic choice to have the name be in all caps except for the 'i.' Also, the NASA-esque font was a little too literal and stylized. I could see at this point that I needed to fix the kerning on everything.
Then , I printed a version with all caps and a different typeface for "exploratorium." I thought that the all-caps version would end up as my final, but surprisingly I actually really liked how the stylized lowercase 'i' ended up looking in the logo, and I felt it fitting given the nature of the company. I decided to keep that version but revert back to my initial chosen typeface for 'exploratorium' since this new choice was still a little too NASA-esque.
A lot of time was spent refining, especially with the planet and the typefaces. I'm happy where eventually I landed with this, though I do recognize the potential weakness in having such a busy logo, even if it is representative of the nature of the museum. I was pleasantly surprised that even at a small scale, I could still see recognizable shapes. It was a risky move to stylize the 'i' in the company name, but I'm glad I stuck with my instincts because I think it really calls to who the company is. I see a lot of potential for social media designs and even apparel and merchandise.
Initial Black + White Logo
A lot of time was spent refining, especially with the planet and the typefaces. I'm happy where eventually I landed with this, though I do recognize the potential weakness in having such a busy logo, even if it is representative of the nature of the museum.
Before moving on to color studies, I revised my logo based on class feedback. I increased the size of the circuit circles and filled them in, removed the outlines of the planet circles, and changed my typefaces. With my former typeface choice for "Young Minds," it was pointed out that it was funky and playful but not funky enough to look intentional. So, the uneven characters just looked misaligned accidentally. I really liked this new rounded typeface and felt it solved the alignment issue while still appearing playful. I changed the exploratorium font to a different space-y and science-y font that was a bit more toned down than the ones I had previously tried.
Color Studies + Applications
I created and printed numerous swatches for my color studies. I really wanted to use blues, greens, or oranges in my logo since I felt those colors spoke most to a children's science museum. I tried out a couple applications of yellow and blue since those two colors are actually a part of the Portland, Oregon flag where the museum is located. Eventually, I ended up settling on the navy blues and oranges. These two colors had good contrast and are commonly seen in science-related designs.
Though I would later revise these logo colors entirely, at this stage I had settled on Toyo Color Finder Colors CF 10144 and CF 10924. I also decided against the previous space-y typeface for "Exploratorium" and reverted back to my original choice, Kallisto, but this time I adjusted the kerning as well as the leading and type sizes. It was also pointed out to me that my typeface choice for Young Minds looked too much like it had come straight from the computer (it did), so I customized the U and I characters, with the U intending to look like a little magnet!
In an extremely unfortunate and now glaringly obvious yet somehow overlooked turn of events, it was also pointed out to me that the circuit board slice of my logo looked too much like a swastika. After a moment of panic as the realization hit me, I revised my logo to remove any indications of a swastika. Big yikes.
Final Black + White Logo
This ended up being the final version after end-of-the-term revisions. I updated each of the logo circle quadrants but entirely changed the atom quadrant so it reflects the more accurate, flat depiction of an atom.
Final 2 Spot Color Logo
During the business card project, I changed the brand colors from orange and blue to a bright green and brownish-grey. Toyo colors CF 10222 and 10820. I felt that these colors were more playful, science-like, and especailly representative of the Pacific Northwest.