Logos

The Hatchery project was a 20-foot-tall climbable wooden tower based on one designed in the early 1900s by Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin. The Dallas version was destined to go to Burning Man, the huge arts and music festival in Nevada, and to go down in flames with the other 30+ CORE projects brought from all over the world.

The project needed a logo to give it an identity for promotion and fundraising purposes, and to set it apart from the other CORE projects that would be working in parallel on their pieces. We designed the logo in the Russian Constructivist style to complement the time period of the original Russian tower project (which was never built).

Characteristics of Russian Constructivism include very strong graphics, elements running on diagonals, red and black color schemes and bold sans serif typefaces. What a fun style to mimic!

The Hatchery logo includes a simplified rendering of the tower (overly complex logos are trouble to reproduce in all the ways one might need to reproduce them, so it’s best to KISS — keep it simple stupid); in the background there is an abstract version of The Man with a star for his head (because we’re from Texas!) and a flame icon.

We chose the typefaces East Bloc (bold & chunky) and Heliotype (condensed) since they are reminiscent of faces from the early 1900s.

As every good designer knows, a good logo works just as well in black and white as it does in color; thus we modified the artwork into a one-color version for tee shirt art. The shirts were used for fundraising and Kickstarter incentives. And wow, were they a hit! Reducing the logo to one color and printing it on a dark shirt as a graphic tee was very well received.

The logo, the fundraising and the tower project were all a huge success!

Shown below are the color logo, the black and white logo on a dark red shirt, and a patch, which was produced in red and black thread on a khaki background.

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We created this fun and colorful logo for the sometimes annual event, Dallas Bunny Rampage.

We chose and customized a cute, cartoony illustration and added a pop of color with the flowers.

The condensed sans serif type follows the round shape of the character’s head; the “HOP” type is set in Vantasyhouse because it’s friendly and whimsical.

Since all the logo elements are light in color, we chose a nice, dark teal as the background in a rounded rectangle shape to finish it off … hop hop hop!

What a fun project this was! We got to design a logo for a small travel agency (yes, they still have those!) created by two lovely South African ladies. Both specialize in creating amazing, unique travel adventures in their home country and other parts of Africa — especially safaris!

We researched traditional African colors and patterns and chose some simple graphic shapes to accent the typographic logo. We replaced the crossbar of the “F” with a diamond and mimicked the shape of the “K” with another.

Then we manually adjusted the letter heights and added the three khaki blocks above and below certain characters to create a pleasing rhythm.

We set “Our” in a nice friendly script, painted it red and outlined it with a stroke of white to pop it off the black “A” to complete the logo. We chose a black, red and khaki color scheme since it’s earthy and vibrant, just like Africa.

Rooooaaaar!

Diploma Sender is an internet-based service that manages GED testing data and delivers required documents to its test-taker customers. Since they are dealing with people in the education field, they wanted a strong, yet accessible mark for their company.

We chose a dominant “D” and wove a couple decorative elements through it to show motion (for the sending part, of course).

We chose a slab serif typeface since it is friendly and easy to read.

On the letterhead, we placed the logo top right, flush with the right margin of the letters printed to come. The wave element is repeated large and light at the bottom. The business card is designed to match, but the gold is a little stronger to stand out and attract attention, as any good  business card should do.

We also created a seal graphic for their web site to highlight an essay writing contest. It’s friendly, yet official and adds some new curves to the mix.

We created this charming logo for The Learning Tree, a small private school in Dallas. They throw an annual fundraiser in the springtime and needed a logo for signage and event materials.

The event planners wanted a rustic and friendly logo that included a cowboy on a horse under a tree to complement the western flavor of the venue and catering.

We customized a silhouette cowboy illustration and combined it with a colorful type treatment; the script is appropriately named Giddyup  and resembles a rope-drawn typeface. The condensed face is Birch and fits well nestled under the “g” and “y” above.

A spring party logo calls for some color! Combining red, orange and alternating greens for the type treatment gives the silhouette some much-needed pop.