Sometimes a client has a really clear idea of they want. When this is communicated upfront, it can be a great thing – focusing the design efforts of a project in the right direction or providing a starting point to finding a good solution. This was the case on a logo made for Guatemala Fairtrade.
After returning from a long stay abroad in Guatemala and connecting with Maya Traditions Foundation, Ditte Tøfting-Kristiansen was ready to start her own business selling fair-trade Guatemalan products in Denmark. She knew that she wanted the logo to reflect the handmade nature of the products and connect with the town she stayed in, which used a cat as their local embroidery symbol.
Using the client-provided inspiration gave plenty of options within a framework to come up with an embroidered cat icon and hand lettered brush type as the logo. Below are two images to show a great example of visual ‘input’ and ‘output’.
Client-provided inspiration for local Guatemalan cat icon and embroidery.Guatemala Fairtrade logo series in tag format.
Guatemala Fairtrade currently is on Facebook and has an online shop selling scarves, shoes, bags and other fairtrade items.
Recently I worked on a fun redesign project for two interior space designers who wanted their logo and website revamped. While logo redesigns aren’t always about doing something new and crazy, it’s a good design challenge to keep enough of the existing logo around for client recognition while updating it to something new and better.
Left: before – Right: after, with additional signature icon and DC pattern.
One of the design goals for their new website was to combine Danish simplicity with an organic, textural and hand-drawn feel. To accomplish this the structure of the site was kept simple with utilitarian fonts and text formatting, which allowed the few color pops and hand-drawn elements stand out but not overwhelm the simplicity.
Old DesignCure website design.New DesignCure website design.
The patterned shapes were also used on the business cards to support the tagline and DesignCure’s thinking that space is organic and evolving, not structured and rigid, and even institutional spaces can be designed to feel at home in.
Business cards with variable organic shapes wrapping around the card. Tagline translates roughly to “peoples’ well-being in space”.
The amount of content on the site was minimal, so we opted for an all-on-one page design to make it easy to get to everything. The site was built in WordPress to allow for easy client updates. You can see an expanded view of the site design below, or visit the DesignCure website here. Big thanks to Refresh Media and Jip Jip for working together across continents to make the technical part of this site happen.
Almost all of the projects posted on the Bureau blog are real, live, produced projects. Hardly ever do I post a speculative project, and if something is made for personal gratification it is duly noted. Along with posting nearly 100% original content, transparency was one of my goals when starting a blog – showing what I made for fun, what I made for money, and how I got there.
To me, is important to show design that has been through the filter of client feedback, changing project needs, production specifications, budget requirements, and multiple rounds of design. So much of design is what happens between the initial idea and the end result. But a part of the job of being a designer is also getting things killed, which I’d also like to share.
A recent project for Umpqua Bank didn’t make it through a budget shift, but I am proud of the result and got permission to show some work that would otherwise never see the light of day. The project was to create a promotional sticker for a video with the title “Fall in Love”. A love parachute was drawn with Umpqua’s blue color palette, the cloud shape subtly alluding to the clouds used in their branding. The sticker evolved from a detailed illustration to a more simple line drawn design. Produced or not, the message is positive and I’m happy I got the chance to work on it.
Almost all of the projects posted on the Bureau blog are real, live, produced projects. Hardly ever do I post a speculative project, and if something is made for personal gratification it is duly noted. Along with posting nearly 100% original content, transparency was one of my goals when starting a blog – showing what I made for fun, what I made for money, and how I got there.
To me, is important to show design that has been through the filter of client feedback, changing project needs, production specifications, budget requirements, and multiple rounds of design. So much of design is what happens between the initial idea and the end result. But a part of the job of being a designer is also getting things killed, which I’d also like to share.
A recent project for Umpqua Bank didn’t make it through a budget shift, but I am proud of the result and got permission to show some work that would otherwise never see the light of day. The project was to create a promotional sticker for a video with the title “Fall in Love”. A love parachute was drawn with Umpqua’s blue color palette, the cloud shape subtly alluding to the clouds used in their branding. The sticker evolved from a detailed illustration to a more simple line drawn design. Produced or not, the message is positive and I’m happy I got the chance to work on it.
My partner in dining crime (including but not limited to: root beer taste testing, Tour de Nacho, Danish Julefrokost, and juicer extraordinaire), writer Jen Stevenson has recently launched the next step in her march towards world domination via culinary storytelling by creating the website Wordcake.
On Wordcake you can buy exhaustingly comprehensive and entertaining eating e-guides for select cities, get the book 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces in Portland, and protect your iPhone against food foibles with custom cases. If you’ve ever dropped your phone into a chocolate cake, you’ll know the importance of protecting it. Here are the first four designs created for Wordcake’s new line of products.
For the past 6 months I have been working on a very exciting project for a group of entrepreneurs who want to change the art and music economy. Frequently, only a few artists “make it” only to have a large part of their profits go to a label or agent. How to make a system that is more balanced? Enter the team at Bandwaggon.
Bandwaggon aims to make the process more fair by connecting fans directly with artists and letting fans helps artists succeed by sharing and promoting their work. In exchange, fans get a share of the profits – but only to a certain point; the artists always takes home the bulk of the profits. A direct artist-to-fan relationship, where they work together without the top 1% fleecing the socks off of everyone…sounds nice.
Logo
The essence of the Bandwaggon logo was found fairly early in a flag icon that leads everyone towards this new entertainment economy. Many rounds followed exploring the flag shape, how it was carried, and who was the bearer and a balance between being professional and non-slick. Ultimately the flag was brought in-line with the characters (below) as a banner with legs – no extra figure was needed to communicate that you should come along.
Final Bandwaggon Logo: go little flag, go!Logo process excerpts: sketch, digital sketch and two later design rounds.Logo figure exploration process.
Characters + Icons
A series of characters were developed in the initial stages of the website to add personality and show that artists from all walks were included under the Bandwaggon flag. These characters were finalized far before the logo, which helped inspire the final logo.
A guitar rocking with its tongue out, an over communicative film strip, a clown using itself for entertainment, a book combating writer’s block, and a typewriter tripping on letters are just a few of the colorful cast of Bandwaggon. These characters are used throughout the site and other materials to emphasize that the magic comes from the artists and their wonderfully varying personalities.
These guys are all invited to my next party!
Additional icons were created to accompany text explaining in detail the process of how Bandwaggon works, as well as to draw attention to specific areas users should take action (megaphone).
Explanatory icons: spread the word, artist profits, increase your promotor status, share the benefits.Megaphone icons to support fan messages.
Website
The website for Bandwaggon was a very fluid process compared to the “step 1-2-3 and it’s done” process. Since the development team was building in steps and the messaging was constantly evolving, the design also had to morph in response to new priorities and technology requests. Below is a range of excerpts from the site designs that were created along the way.
Please note all site images are mock-ups with fake content. Website is in beta testing so still in progress.
Round 1 homepage.Round 1 user page.Round 2 homepage.Round 2 user page.Round 4 user page.Further along in the design process…Continuing to refine…Most recent mock-up…
Bandwaggon is in beta-testing, so visit their and login if you’d like to help out in the early stages of their site.
Well Vegan is a brand the Bureau created in 2012 and continues to work with today, including this most recent piece. Well Vegan makes it easier and cheaper to consistently follow a healthy, plant-based diet. In the past we had made postcards for Salad In A Jar and Building the Perfect Breakfast Bowl. With summer coming up, it seemed like a perfect time for a follow-up postcard as a reminder of just how good smoothies can be (for you) – so we’d like to introduce the Mix & Match Smoothie diagram! Visit the Well Vegan blog for some smoothie recipes as well as time-saving and on-the-go tips, or check out this handy line-up of green smoothie recipes.
You can also get tasty updates from Well Vegan, including a summer full of smoothie recipes, via Twitter or Facebook or Instagram.
Here is a small excerpt from a project I worked on for Xplane, illustrating an internal process diagram for Coke. The style direction for the project was simple and modern without being completely stripped down. The overall diagram was more complex but also top corporate secret, so here are a few made-for-public-viewing icons from the project to give you an idea of the whole.
Employee Process IconsProduct Placement IconsBefore and After Icons
Recently I had the pleasure of working with Danish singer-songwriter Niel Irson on artwork and schwag for his debut album, “The Sweet Joy of Hunting Someone Down”. While the title of the album might feel like a spurned revenge, deep down he’s a softie which is evident in one of my favorite songs from the album, the sweet duet “Mostly in Love”.
A simple logotype was needed to apply to all manner of materials large and small, so functional Futura was chosen with slight alterations. Another benefit of Futura, commonly available, is that the artist could create branded materials on the fly. The counter in the O was knocked out to allow for a smidgeon of graphic flair in the form of a two arrows at a crossroad.
Niel provided some key words to guide the design: journey, the road, hunt, adventurer, and romantic. After some brainstorming together we decided to create a nighttime landscape full of experiences guided by the stars. Orion, the original Love Hunter, was subtly featured in a splotchy skyscape. To get the most out of creating name recognition, the logotype was placed front and center on the cover artwork so that even on small uses such as Facebook the name is reinforced visually.
Cover artwork for "The Sweet Joy of Hunting Someone Down".Niel Irson debut album cd cover.Inside the CD cover...an actual CD.
Irson is a man of grand gestures, he doesn’t do things in a small way, and the more I got to know him the more this was apparent in both his music and life choices. A few years ago he quit his job to move to Portugal, spend some time writing and playing, falling in love, and finding out about things the way you do when you’re in a new pool.
A year later he headed home, richer a plethora of recordings that he became determined to release as an album. After working at a day job as a programmer for a stint, he took the leap and became a music man full time, including a move to the UK to promote himself in a climate suited for the singer-songwriter. Kudos to anyone who has the guts to know they are meant to do something, and then follow through on that responsibility.
To help spread the word, we bit off the very tip of the merchandising iceberg by making a series of pins and postcards. There’s more to come, that’s for sure!
Crossroads, love hunter, blue heart, logotype, ironic title #1, ironic title #2, triple bullseye.
Niel is a throwback to the time of chivalry and love at first sight, a valiant modern gentleman. I wish him the best on his new adventures in moving to London to pursue his dream as a singer-songwriter – if putting your heart on the line gets you anywhere, this man will go far.
