Last time out, we took a look at how a client wanted a complex logo, only to have the project turn 180 and end up with a brutally simple design. Today we’ll take a look at the other end of the spectrum - an extreme logo project where the client wanted loads of realistic detail, the result of which is a very complex piece of artwork. Calling this an extreme logo is fairly fitting I suppose, considering the name of the company, Australian based Xtreme ATV, and their target market - the all terrain racing crowd. And despite the highly rendered detail of this work, I think it turned out to be an extremely (pun intended) effective logo - especially when we consider the target market - and one that will serve the client well. Let’s take a look at the preliminary passes -

These mock-ups were rendered into vector versions after quite a few sketches and conceptual drawings of the company’s ATV vehicle. Like any illustrative logo project, there’s really no point in spending large amounts of time on the computer until we have a first stage approval on the pencil drawing itself. Before we could achieve that, the drawings had to meet a few bench marks set by the client - they wanted to show the buggy “in action” rather than a static beauty shot, and the ATV had to be fairly accurate in terms of specs (the all terrain crowd are sticklers for detail). We worked with several angles before settling on the ATV shown here, one that we’d work with throughout the project.

Once we had our finalized vehicle, it was time to work the complex illustration into a logo by adding text and other graphic elements designed to ‘hold’ the artwork together visually. To further complicate matters, the client wanted a text only variation that could be used for applications where the detailed illustration wouldn’t work, or where the aspect ratio of the logo was height prohibitive. Accordingly, we had to design the text portion as ’stand alone’ as possible, while making sure it sat well within the main logo. We messed around with a few variations - the Australian flag and related elements were added and added and removed, we worked with the bounding graphics and text (adding an Australian tag line and then removing that too) until arriving at the final version below. Despite its relative complexity, this art still works as a ‘logo’.

Certain applications of the design would see it being used on dark backgrounds, so we had to make sure the logo worked on white and black.

If the original company logo wasn’t extreme enough, the client wanted another variation of the logo that was even more ‘over the top’. This artwork was developed for a T-shirt run. We took the company logo and added even more graphic flourishes - buggy lights, tire tracks in the font work and some chains. Below you can see the T-shirt back (right) and breast text logo imprint (left). To top it all off, we added flames. Yep, this logo was as extreme as we could go (at least without ruining its relationship to the actual company logo).

Even a highly complex design has to work like a logo. It has to be featured on business cards and stationery just like its simpler, iconic logo ‘cousins’ - here’s some of the business card designs that were presented to the client. As the logo was full color - no point in trying to work with spots - we had a lot of design latitude and didn’t have to ‘hold back’. Like most highly colorful designs, these cards were created with glossy stock in mind. Printing them on matte, or uncoated, card stock would mute the colors, and the design, far too much.

Despite the extremely complex logo, fairly ‘busy’ business card design, we decided to restrain ourselves and keep the letterhead and envelope to a basic layout. While we’re always tempted to create letterheads that scream, it’s always good to keep this in mind - the most important part of any letterhead is the letter itself. Typed words. A signature. No point in compounding things by presenting the client a complex letterhead design that may look terrific, but will clutter up any message that’s written on it. The envelop is extremely simple - the overall design and a text logo ‘ghost’ that’s so high key, it might not even be visible on your monitor.

Rounding things out on the project was a nice little beauty shot - a fairly simple affair that the client planned to use on his website (hence the button).

Update: Heh. Had a few wags e-mail me and tell me that the letterhead featured above is too ’skinny’. Xtreme ATV are from Australia. A4 people. A4…

In the span of their careers, there isn’t a designer alive who hasn’t heard those heart-wrenching (and blood-pressure raising) words - “I could have done that in five minutes”. We’ve heard them a few times at the shop - usually by clients who think their logo has to look like it took fifteen hours to develop. And I suppose they’re kinda right. Some logos could be rendered (an important distinction) in a couple of minutes. If we knew exactly what the client wanted. If we were able to nail a concept down in our first attempt. If the client approved said design on first blush. And if that logo consisted of basic elements - a few shapes and some typography. Take this design for AGX Technologies - a manufacturer of high-tech fiber optics products.

An exercise in simplicity itself. A red circle. A black circle. Some Futura condensed type work. Could this logo be rendered in three minutes? I’d say it could be done in much less. What many folks may not understand is that this simple design is the result of about two days worth of design, concepts, back-and-forth with the client, doodles and general mucking about with the various elements that make up a logo. Let’s take a look at how this project fleshed out.

The client wanted a ‘rainbow’ effect to illustrate the fiber optics portion of his business (supposed to represent light). We dutifully tried to incorporate the motif into the first versions (admitedly, some of the designs ended up resembling the cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album). During the first stab at the logo, our designers created a few work-ups as per the client request, but added a suggested alternative - an elegantly simple version featuring a couple of circles and some hyper-kerned type. The designs were rejected and we received a request for even more color. And more detail. And more visual metaphors. This time, we were asked to portray light that was moving down a cable. Tah-dah…

Fair enough. We messed around with the type - made it exceptionally bold to offset the increasing complexity. Added some squiggly lines. Then, we were asked to add some numbers - 0’s and 1’s to represent data - to the cacophony of disparate graphic elements. No problem - the logos were still quite fetching and considering the tale the logo was now telling, fairly simplistic. Then came the globes…

As the design was all about the internet, and the reach of the internet is global, we were asked to toss some globes into the mix. And some data bytes. And the light. And the movement. We did what we could, the results of which are shown above. By this point, the client was getting frustrated - the project was starting to drag, and they felt our designers just weren’t “getting it”. Before the project tanked completely, we decided to revisit the bare-bones concept that we had presented in the first round of preliminary designs - the red circle version - but rather than simply presenting the design over again, we mocked up some business cards. Simple, uncluttered, business cards.

Seeing the simple logo in action convinced the client that perhaps his direction was too complicated after all. And maybe our designers were right - war-and-peace probably wasn’t going to cut it for a high-tech company. The project was saved, the logo was finalized, and we went on to create the rest of the stationery package - letterheads, business cards and envelope. Client was happy. Designer was happy. All was well in logo land.

Now, getting back to my original point - let’s take a look at the final logo again:

Could this logo have been created in three minutes flat? Absolutely. Was it? Far from it. This design is the result of about fifteen hours of production time, a lot of hair-pulling and banging-heads-on-desks. For both client and designer. At the end of the logo design process, we had arrived at a simple, elegant mark that’s quite befitting a high-tech company. It did, however, take us a helluva while to get there. Accordingly, next time your client tells you “I could have designed that in five minutes” send ‘em here - I’d like to have a word.

For today’s Daily Logo, I thought we’d take a look at a fun little project for Goblin Offroad - a manufacturer of racing products, particularly their own line of after-market dashboards. We ended up with a fully illustrative logo featuring a nifty little goblin character - pretty well determined by the company name (while being ever mindful of the Spiderman character of the same name). Like all our illustrative logo projects, this design began with a series of simple pencil sketches and doodles as we tried to focus in on a direction for the character.

The first doodles were discarded as being a little on the menacing side, but after several rounds the character had softened up enough to be non-threatening, while remaining slick enough for the market segment and products that would bear the design. We centered the concepts in on the goblin’s head, so that the design didn’t become overwrought with detail, especially when reproduced at a small size, on low resolution media or in pre-cut vinyl decals. The character was ‘built’ with a racing slash speed theme in mind - goggles with wind-swept head and ears were early additions. Through several ‘evolutions’ our designers began to ‘tighten’ up the crude drawings until they became more graphic, and ultimately more ‘logo’ friendly. We ended up settling with the versions seen below, which were taken into illustrator and rendered into vector artwork (below right) and subsequently, the final logo. The client had given us the okay to work in full color - despite the added costs that might be incurred in reproduction of various marketing materials - so using blends and gradients, we gave the character life-like eyes, while keeping the rest of the logo fairly flat and graphic.

One of the hazards of developing a funky illustrative logo like this is the aspect ratio and footprint of the final design, and their impact on working a company name into the artwork (the entire point of the exercise). If we’re not careful, the type may appear that it’s been slapped on as an afterthought (which, truth to tell, it sometimes is) and not part of the overall logo. During this project, we mucked about with several fonts and layout variations (below) until we arriving at the finalized variation shown.

Whenever we design stationery - business cards, letterheads and envelopes - as part of a design project, we often begin that part of the project setting up the business card artwork. Often times, business cards are the graphic equivalent of ‘the tail that wags the dog’ and once we’ve settled on a design, our designers can ‘reverse engineer’ the letterheads and envelopes into the theme. As we had the luxury of working with four color process, we went to town on the cards, presenting the client with numerous, and fairly elaborate design treatments, using both the front and back of the card layout.

The cards were designed to be printed on a very glossy card stock (UV coating was added to further enhance the color vibrancy) and full use was made of color - spot colors be damned. Here’s a close up.

Once the client had settled on a favorite card design, we worked up the remaining stationery around the general design theme. What resulted is, in my opinion, a fairly attractive stationery package. This kind of presentation isn’t suitable for everyone - the four color set up of the designs, as well as the bleed, equates into a hefty printing premium).

Once we had finished the logo and stationery portion of the project, we were assigned several other design tasks. The first, an ad that heralded the new company logo and product line, had to be created for off-road magazines. We managed to cobble the ad shown here using client supplied photography and a few lines of copy copied from older press releases. We only had a few production hours to complete the work, in two different sizes, due to the tight deadlines involved.

The second project was to deconstruct the logo into a simple linear version. The client needed a vinyl decal that could be distributed to potential customers at an upcoming trade show and the full-blown color version, for obvious reasons, wasn’t appropriate. In order to manufacture the logo in a plotter-cut medium, we had to line art version of the design (what some people still refer to as camera ready), eschewing all the detail and blends for a simple monochrome treatment. This version was also added to the client’s deign assets - it can be readily used when four color process printing is not available, or for low resolution media like faxes, checks and newspaper ads.

I often wonder why anyone would elect to use a clip art logo in their marketing and advertising. Lack of budget? Lack of understanding about what clip art is and how it can be used? Perhaps. Ironically, many clip art collections - including those that come with software packages - are very tightly licensed (if one cares to read the EULA, which of course, most don’t). It’s often not even permissible to use clip art icons and artwork in any commercial endeavour, never mind as a company logo. Basically, you can use it to create a flyer for the local church picnic and not much else. And if we can forgo the legal issues, doesn’t using clip art as a company logo defeat the entire purpose of the exercise - creating a unique company visual identity under which to market? I think so. And yes, those fancy flash-driven do-it-yourself template logo sites are selling clip art, regardless of what they say. Anyhoo, our main site takes a look at clip art logos and why they’re a very bad idea.

Your business card is an advertising ‘foot soldier’, presenting your company image and (more importantly) your contact information to potential clients, customers and networking opportunities. A large percentage of business cards handed out end up in the round file - everyone’s got a card and only a small percentage get kept. How to make yours stand out? That’s a good question. Depends on the logo you’re working with, as well the amount of copy you want your card to feature. Some things to keep in mind…

While the traditional idea of a business card is that of a horizontal format, sometimes a vertical aspect ratio can work nicely. Vertical cards are generally not appropriate for info-heavy cards - company name and various contact information is about all we can fit. Vertical format cards showcase your logo nicely, and can be quite artistic from a graphics perspective. Many people overlook the back of their cards - perfect for some more info, or some tastefully designed graphics. Unlike larger print items, if there’s an additional printing cost to a back print, it should be minimum. Your printer can produce the run as a ‘working turn’ (a technique where cards are set up as an ‘imposition’ - a combination of card backs and fronts - and the sheet is flipped over once one run is complete).

Horizontal business cards are close to the ‘golden mean’ ratio and are the most common type of business cards floating around. We can generally fit more information into this format, but are somewhat restricted in the design freedom, hampered by the layout. A typical design will see the logo on the left, with contact info on the right side. When it comes to putting information on their card, many clients try to fit as much data as humanly possible. Try to keep it to a minimum. Too much information and the typeface will have to be miniscule and difficult to read. Informal rule of thumb is to keep font sizes to 9pt and larger. While we’re talking about information on a card - remember to include website address and e-mail. That’s if you’re using a domain specific address - hotmail or yahoo addresses should never be used on a card. It screams “I’m using a free e-mail service and don’t have my own website!”). Some folks have requested our designers use their hotmail or yahoo e-mail addy to avoid spammers - fair enough goal, but most e-mail addresses are scraped by bots from ‘live’ links on websites, not from foraging around trash cans trying to find business cards.

If your logo is a full color CMYK design (as opposed to the more economical spot color format) - often required with illustrative logo treatments - you may be tempted to ‘go to town’ on the design of your business card. “I have to pay for full color printing, so I should take advantage” kind of thinking. Makes sense in the economics department but can cause the design of your card to suffer drastically. Best keep the design accents and flourishes to a minimum. Let your logo ‘do the talking’ - after all, that’s what you want people to notice. Your business card is supposed to accent your logo, not overwhelm it.

Over the years we’ve found tons of our material showing up on logo design websites that, to be charitable, we didn’t own. Knocked off work showing up in design contests, do-it-yourself tempate sites (above) and even large tracts of our verbiage, cut and pasted into other people’s websites for SEO rankings. Some of it pretty subtle. Some so blatant as to be hilarious. We’re never sure if these guys are using logos that they didn’t design to create a pretend portfolio, or they’re examples of logos that they’ve passed off on unsuspecting clients. In either case, we grew tired of sending ‘cease & desist’ letters and e-mails, so decided to feature some of this stuff in a Copycats Gallery. May give you an idea with some of the nonsense we have to deal with at the shop. At the very least, it’s worth a few giggles. Just finished retooling so it this morning, so may be worth a looksee…