How we work at The Logo Factory – a detailed look at a design project
It’s been a while since we posted a full-blown logo design case study, and it’s been a while since we posted anything to the blog, so I figured we could kill two birds with one post (as it were) by detailing the logo design process for Black Mountain Bicycles starting from the very beginning of the project, right through to completion,
First, a little about the client (from their website)
Black Mountain Bicycles staff has been serving San Diego cyclist for over 38 years. We offer the following bike brands: Specialized, Trek, Moots, Pivot, MirraCo and FitBikeCo, as well as accessories from great companies such as Fox, Giro, Pearl Izumi, Shimano, and Yakima. Our highly certified service department is here to repair and service all makes and models.
With a name like Black Mountain, the basic thrust of the logo is quite obvious – a black mountain – but even with such a straight forward concept there are an infinite number of ways of portraying that imagery and dozens of ways of translating the concept into visual reality. Our designers got the ball rolling by designing a fairly simplified graphic depiction of a mountain (above) with appropriate typography. We also added a stressed ‘look’ (above right) to the logo in an attempt to tie in with the skater/mountain biker crowd. Horizontal versions with different design elements were also developed (below).
Sometimes the obvious is just too obvious, so we worked the mountain icon into the typography itself.
While the logo certainly spoke to a black mountain, it didn’t necessarily portray bicycles so we had a go with a graphic element created from a chain ring. The mountain icon was simplified greatly in this version and would become the central element that we worked with.
The different mountain treatments as presented to the client.
The final selection with appropriate font added. As part of the overall branding plans, the icon had to work in various situations such as sales promotions, website chiclets and flyer sale callouts.
The logo also had to work in black and white, in both linear and grayscale treatments.
If a logo is to be successful, it must be adaptable to a wide range of uses, some less optimum than others and in situations where the size and aspect ratio are predetermined. Such was the case for Black Mountain, who needed the logo to work on a variety of signs and flags.
And what logo design project is complete without stationery, so here’s a peek at the business cards developed as part of the gig.
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