Some process photos of a recent logo design project for a custom home builder in Greenville, SC. I wanted to create a modern, elegant mark that still had some composition/artsy feels to it. I did show a few old school options, but everyone seemed to feel this was the best direction. Peasants included. Oh middle ages joke!!! Got em.
KONTROL REBRAND
Kontrol Payables has built an amazing platform for companies to optimize payments to suppliers, vendors, etc. Their system provides cost savings by streamlining ACH, virtual cards, checks, etc. into a single, easy to implement platform and they get a rebate based on spending. Pretty amazing company, I don’t understand it all and likely won’t grasp all the capabilities, but boiling down the offerings into a single concept was fun. Some of the words I grasped onto for dear life were “payables and returns”, “speed”, “security”, “identity” etc. I’m also excited about them dropping “payables” in the logo itself as it makes for a really clean look and doesn’t limit them in launching new products and consulting in the finance space.
In presenting these logo concepts, I did a few animated .gif files to show my thought process in development. Showing how the ideas come to life has proven to be really beneficial in presentations. I know these aren’t giving any animators a run for their money, but I think they did their job in telling the story of each concept.
The final logo choice and some identity components are below, many more marketing pieces are in the works. The two way payment offering of “payables” and “returns” is displayed in the form of the arrow icon. I’m excited to continue building the Kontrol brand with new presentation decks, product offering launches, etc. I’m sure they’re will be some future blogs showing off that work as well.
REVITALIZING POE MILL
Poe Mill once was a booming area from 1897 to 1977; it’s milll was producing cotton fabric and thriving. The building burned in 2003 leaving only 2 smoke stacks as reminders of the past. Griggs Church has been serving the area since 1936. As the neighborhood declined over time, the church also dwindled down. In 2015, pastor Mitch Miller was called to the church with only a handful of adults and kids still in attendance. A revitalization effort began at this time, and recently Griggs has seen nearly 90 for a Sunday morning service. While the church is more than 80-years-old, we’ve had a large percentage of young people come in and breath new life into the church while reaching the neighborhood. A pretty cool story to lead a rebrand!!
If you look closely, you can see a small weed/plant growing out of one of those old smoke stacks. This sparked the idea of a flourishing, growing plant reflective of Griggs new growth and the goal of revitalizing the neighborhood. There a tons of great, large churches in Greenville, but it’s been a rewarding experience to see a small church rebuilding and assisting a community who needs it. Anyway, it was fun to work on the rebrand, see the logo coming to life on materials, shirts at events etc. If you happen to be in Greenville, visit the church on Pointsett Highway, everyone would love to meet you.
PUT A LOOK TO IT
I get asked to work on all sorts of identity projects. Some may be rebrands or refreshes of existing companies, others could be upstarts looking to invest in their look/feel or even projects where I’m putting a look together to add credibility to a presentation for gaining investors. This project was an exploration for a business that may include purchasing already existing, established brands and re-naming or even starting from the ground up with finding the right distribution channels and building something new.
Either way, the project had a budget, and I was hired to start creating various looks/feels! I typically wouldn’t show all the unsold, unfinished work, but I pulled most all of my thoughts together for this post to give a little added insight into this project.
At the top of this post I show the final outcome, a simple “B” formed from a hook and a bit of serif type. I felt for the style we wanted, the serifs added an established feel that worked well with the fishing theme. Since this was an apparel business, I also looked at developing secondary marks for women’s, children’s and specialty men’s product lines. This idea resonated well with the client and gives a lot of flexibility in branding going forward. This also would require more funding and somewhat of a challenge in making sure each of the lines are linked back to Blue Water Inc.
I used low res imagery for quick mockups to show some of the designs in an environment when talking over layouts. These mockups wouldn’t be used public facing in branding as I pulled all of them from google images, but just give a quick glimpse as to the style each brand mark could fit within.
It’s always such a fun process to see how sketches come to life in black and white vector pieces, the vectors then change into color selection and final versioning until finally really coming to life in realistic mockups.
I know some designers dislike a project where the intent is more exploratory than starting with an organized brief and sourcing paper samples for use etc., but there is something amazing about being given free reign to explore a brands direction and see where the concepts lead. In the end, the client was excited about the look and I was compensated to design/create which is my favorite thing to do!
THANKS LOGOLOUNGE
LogoLounge was one of the first books I bought (besides class books) in college. Great books for inspiration, motivation and jealousy :). I was excited last year to be in a Bill Gardner trends video on Lynda.com, but even more excited to have 2 logos featured in Book 10. I also have RVW and WorthLend to thank for the projects and being great to work with.
GRAPHIS LOGO & IDENTITY BOOK RECOGNITION
Truth be told, I didn't know anything about the Graphis till last year. I saw some designers posting about it and the work recognized was great. Some big agencies were in the annuals and I thought I would send in a freelance identity project I had just completed. Identity work that stands out on designer blogs and award shows often times requires expensive printing methods. Foil stamps, embossing, debossing, metallic inks, etc. This project was the direct opposite of that. See the full project here.
Anyway, excited to make the cut for the Gold category and be included with some great work. The book being dedicated to Paul Rand is pretty cool. He is one of my design heroes and I love that Steve Jobs story about him. Big thanks to Rob Belknap for taking a couple pics for me at his studio and to Chad Rucker for coming to shoot some ammo into stationary.
