Archive for the 'Logos' Category
ProBlogger Logo Design Monday, August 27th, 2007 by Mike
At the end of May, Darren Rowse contacted me, to redesign the ProBlogger logo.
Darren has one of the net’s most popular blogs, and is one of the founders of b5media. I was honored to have a chance at designing the new identity, so I agreed to come on board the design team with Darren’s site designer, Ben Bleikamp.
Darren’s story is interesting, not only because he turned blogging from a hobby into a full-time career and business, but because he freely shares what he’s learned from blogging. I quite like Darren’s attitude of helping others grow and succeed by sharing his knowledge.
In this post, I’ll share details and sketches on the new ProBlogger identity.
Initial Specs and Feedback
Darren answered my standard list of questions, and from his initial feedback I gathered several themes to embrace and portray with the new ProBlogger identity. He wanted ProBlogger to be:
• A welcoming community where bloggers can learn and grow
• A source of information on making income from a blog
• A site promoting professionalism in blogging
• An extensive blogging reference
• Keywords: income, professionalism, community, inspiration, credibility, encouraging
Darren wanted a clean, crisp, contemporary, professional logo, without superfical “Web 2.0″ stylings. He wanted a logo to represent himself and his blog, in a design that wouldn’t go out of style in 6 months.
Sketches v1
With all of this information in mind, I began sketching multiple concepts to get the project rolling (click the image to see the v1 sketches).
With all of my logo projects, I like to loosen up with pencil in my Miquelrius notebook, freeing my mind to explore ideas. Note the keywords on the upper right of the page, which help guide me in idea generation during this first sketch phase.
I focused on theProBlogger P, as it portrays the brand well, and would be a consistent element from the original design. I explored one other idea (8) which suggested community as a nucleus with network connections and multiple outer atoms.
In Darren’s feedback, I learned that he liked the emphasis on the P. He preferred the squarer P characters, as these leaned away from the “surf” look and feel he saw in ideas 17, 18 and 19. He also liked the community concept he saw in 8, so it was on to v2 sketches to explore those ideas a bit more.
Sketches v2
I this set, I explored the winning concepts and a few others, bringing in aspects of idea 8 and the community “atomic” ideas merged with the P character.
After review, Darren and his team of trusted advisers focused on two ideas from this v2 set: concepts 19 and 23. Next up was the black & white and color phase.
Black & White and Color Concepts
Because Darren was on a tight timeline, I changed my normal process, including both black & white and color logos on the same mockups. This way Darren could see the B&W ideas and some explorations of initial colors.
Concepts v1:
In the first set you’ll see I came up with ideas based on the v2 sketches (2, 3, 4 and 5), along with a new idea (1) which came out I worked with the logos. Sometimes this happens, and I’ve learned to go with the flow and include these as options:
Darren’s feedback from round 1 aimed us at the P within a nucleus circle with orbiting atoms around this central icon to embed the concept of comminity into the mark. While the more graphical representations of this community were interesting (1, 2 and 3), the clearer P emerged as Darren’s top choice.
Concepts v2:
Based on feedback from v1, I narrowed to the single P with orbiting atoms, exploring different ways the atoms could be positioned, the connection between atoms and the outer ring, a font option and variations on the provided color pallette:
Concepts v3:
Darren really liked the color combo in ideas 7 and 8 in this set, leaning toward 7 a bit more. He wanted to keep the “P” and “BLOGGER” in orange and do one final exploration on atom position and separation between the atom and the outer ring. So I did a final v3 to help Darren see the 3 final options:
In the final version, I felt the leading atom suggested forward movement, and the separation of the atoms from the circle provided focus to the 3 atoms. 7.1 was chosen as the final winner:
Conclusion
Darren was pleased with the final logo, which was subsequently included in Ben’s redesign of the site. It was great fun to see the logo announced on Darren’s blog, followed by the release of the new site design.
As one might expect, with a major change on a popular site, there were a few who liked the old design better. However, after reading comments on the site related to the new logo and design, a majority of Darren’s readers really loved the new site design and logo. Most importantly, Darren was pleased with the results.
Thanks Darren for choosing to work with me and MakaluMedia on the logo design. It was an honor and a pleasure working with Darren and Ben on this project.
Paul Stamatiou’s Logo Design Project Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 by Mike
I’ve just completed a logo design project with tech guru, and fellow 9rules blogger, Paul Stamatiou.
Paul writes commentary and reviews on varied topics with a focus on technology, and has very high visibility on the web. So as you can imagine, I found it a fun challenge to work with Paul.
Below are links to the set of mockups and final art at Paul’s Flickr account:
Paul Stamatiou Logo Design Set
Paul Stamatiou Final Logo Design Spec Sheet
It was fun, and different working with Paul, since he put all of the sketches, black and white and color mockups I did for him on Flickr — as they were delivered — and opened them up for public comments. I’ve not had that kind of in-progress, public critique done with my work before. Paul and the commenters liked the work and through the normal process, Paul selected a final winner.
One advantage to having your client post in-progress to final work posted on Flickr is, prospective clients can see the process, how it works and looks — which hopefully sends them to me and MakaluMedia for their identity design.
All in all, it was a blast working with Paul. I think we’ve found a clean, crisp and memorable mark for Paul to use as personal branding, on the blog and for other things, which makes me very happy.
Thanks for choosing to work with me Paul! :-)
Panoramio (and logo) are acquired by Google Friday, June 1st, 2007 by Mike
Congratulations to my friends Eduardo, Joaquín and José of Panoramio, in the recent Google acquisition of their startup!
From the Panoramio blog post on May 31st:
The integration of photos from Panoramio in Google Earth has been so successful since John Hanke suggested it that we see the acquisition of Panoramio as a natural consequence. We have tightened our relationship with Google Earth more and more in recent months, and at the end we decided to walk one step further. After so much work together, honestly, we couldn’t imagine a better scenario than selling Panoramio to Google.
I was honored to work with “the boyz” back in October 2005, when we created the Panoramio identity (along with two other identities after it, including Cursoo).
I’m very excited for the Panoramio team, and just as excited that the identity work for the project had a small part in helping the team get to the next level.
Congratulations guys! :-)
Red 66 Logo Design Thursday, February 8th, 2007 by Mike
In mid-2006, Carlos Granier-Phelps contacted me at MakaluMedia, about designing a new logo for Red 66, his consulting business focusing on Web 2.0, usability, Internet video technologies, digital security, ratings analysis software for TV stations, and web/tech consulting for movies & TV.
I worked with Carlos to gather my standard information package his company structure and outward image goals, his likes, dislikes in color and design and other tidbits that would give me insight in the sketch stage of the project.
Carlos wanted the logo to embody many different aspects of his personality and his business, including: hip, clean, dynamic, safe, fun, global, innovative, and high-tech. Quite a challenge, but I felt confident that by working with Carlos through the normal sketch to final process, we would find the right solution.
Sketches
First, I brought out the trusty Miquelrius sketchbook and pencil, and began capturing ideas as they came to mind, after reading Carlos’ notes. Below I’ve posted thumbnails of complete sketches and artwork: click each image to see a full version:
Here you can see I explored a wide variety of ideas, playing with the interesting shapes created by dual 6s. I felt drawn to circular shapes enclosing or working with “66″, as 6s are organic and round.
Carlos quite liked idea 27, since it seemed to capture Route 66, which was a positive thing in his mind, yet had a clean, simple look he was aiming for. He also liked 16 and 18, and oddly enough, liked the 2 Route 66-style ideas below 5 and 6, which I hadn’t even highlighted on the page!
So, after some discussion, I prepared a second set of sketches, focusing on the narrowed field of ideas.
Here you can see the Route 66 approach expanded greatly, along with square idea 18 and the circular idea 27 from the first round of sketches.
After review of the second set, and my suggestions to lean toward 9, 10 and 7, Carlos settled on these ideas to prepare black and white concepts to narrow to a finalized design.
Black & White Concepts
This is a very critical phase, where my rough concept sketches are turned into production quality art. It is here, where a mark is proven to work, or not work in the simplest form possible — black and white. Often, this is the moment where an idea tends to shine and separate itself as the right solution, or fade as an also-ran. The Red 66 logo project was no exception, as the circular concept 9a immediately and clearly step out front as the winning black and white mark.
Color: Round 1
Outside of coming up with ideas, color can often be a tough stage. Colors are often emotional, which is why I like to have a solid black and white logo selected before moving to the color application phase. 
On set 1, I explored a variety of color combinations, taking into account Carlos’ location in Miami as one aspect of color influence.
Color: Round 2
Based on this round we wanted to refine the color selections a bit more, to include brighter colors and explore reds and burgundy colors with similar tones and contrasting choices, like blue-green, orange and teal.
At this point, both Carlos and I honed in on idea 8.3 as our color winner. It had the nice light/dark red tones to reinforce the “red” theme, with a secondary Miami-influenced, cool retro blue-green outer ring for contrast. It had a muted, yet strong overall feel that we both liked.
Conclusion
Since creating the new mark, Carlos has applied it to his blog, and other materials. I’m very pleased with the simplicity and cleanliness of the Red 66 logo — it’s organic and smooth, yet has a hint of hip retro Miami.
Thanks Carlos for working MakaluMedia and I on your new Red 66 logo!
Business Opportunities Weblog Network Logo Design Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 by Mike
In late 2006, Dane Carlson of the Business Opportunities Weblog Network contracted me
to design an identity for his weblog network.
The Business Opportunities Weblog Network (BOWN) is described as a “moderated list of legitimate business opportunities for entrepreneurs”, which features lists of business ideas, and tips.
Dane has been blogging since 2001, and wanted a new corporate identity that was fresh and clean, to help realign his blog.
So, Dane and I started through our normal process of getting information from goals, the business, his color and style likes and dislikes, and other useful information to help me develop good design ideas.
Dane liked the general idea of a lightbulb, so I included this idea, along with several other ideas, to make sure we explored all options.
Challenges
While “Business Opportunities Weblog Network” was descriptive, it’s a really long name to deal with when creating a logo design. It would be challenging to be find a way to list the full name and not let the words dominate the identity.
Another challenge, related to the long name, was keeping the identity simple and easily recognizable. How do you show a business network in a single symbol?
Sketches
Once Dane’s information was read and digested, I brought out the sketchbook and pencil to get ideas on paper. In 2 rounds of sketches I produced several interesting ideas, incorporating the lightbulb and other ideas for representations of a network. Here are a few selected sketches:
1. This idea featured “Business Opportunities” larger, and a briefcase fashioned from triangular shapes, woth “Weblog Network” tucked under the larger type.
2. On this concept, I’ve replaced the briefcase symbol with an interconnected triangular grid symbol, to emphasize the network nature of the name.
3. Here I’m indicating a stylized lightbulb to the left, Business with most emphasis and “Opportunities” and “Weblog Network” descending in size and importance.
4. The winning idea shows a lightbulb within a circular symbol on the left, and an alternate dark version on the right. The idea was to show the lightbulb as a node on a network, incorporating both a bulb and network in the logo.
Black & White Art
Once the winning concept of a lightbulb on a network, inside of a circle containing the type was selected, I moved to produce the black and white version of the logo for Dane. The black and white phase went pretty quickly, and we both liked how the concept translated from sketch into black and white art. The next challenge was color.Color Art
In the color phase, I wanted to show Dane some color varieties, but didn’t want to do too many at one time, so I selected 3 color themes with both flat and gradated options, and presented them:
Our eyes were pretty immediately drawn to blue, orange and green. I also liked the blue/green option, though the orange center circle of the first idea (B&C) really seemed to convey a warmth to balance the cool crispness of the green and blue.
After a little deliberation, Dane chose the blue/orange/green option as the winner.
Conclusion
Just last week, Dane completed his redesign of the Business Opportunities Weblog Network weblog, and used the new logo design to shape his redesign. I really like how the colors feel warm, yet crisp and clean, and after not seeing the logo between delivery and appearance, I’m very pleased with how it turned out.
My thanks go to Dane Carlson for choosing to work with me and MakaluMedia on his new identity. We both had a great time collaborating and I think we came up with a fun, attractive logo design.
Word Count Journal Launch & Design Notes Thursday, January 4th, 2007 by Mike
On January 1st, 2007, Word Count Journal, a new project our MakaluMedia crew has been working on, launched for public consumption.
The Word Count Journal idea is simple — sign up and then write a little bit each day for 365 days. If you write the minimum every day for a whole year, you’ll have written at least 66,795 words. Word Count Journal is especially well-suited to anyone who wants some encouragement to keep their words flowing every day.
I wasn’t sure if the idea would interest me as a blogger, but it’s actually pretty fun. You aren’t penalized for missing a few days, since you can always log in and quickly catch up on your posts.
I’ve even found it fun to write more than the day requires — you only need to meet the minimum, but it’s sometimes easier to keep on rolling.
And now, a few words on the design of the Word Count Journal site.
Word Count Journal Identity Design
Our team had a great time working through the design of the site. 
I had the pleasure of designing the Word Count Journal logo, as well as assisting my colleague Alex Bendiken in establishing a site design based on the new identity.
I had long wanted to use the font American Typewriter for a logo, and this project seemed the perfect opportunity to use this font.
While Word Count Journal is an online journaling application, I wanted to bring in the ideas of analog journaling — the pencil icon and typewriter fonts — as these recognizable elements help convey the idea quickly.
You’ll note that the letters have been pretty tightly kerned, especially ‘Journal’ which I snugged so tightly that the ‘u’ and ‘r’ have merged into a ligature, and the ‘n’ and ‘l’ have been customized to allow for a close fit.
The pencil icon was kept intentionally simple, and also snugged into the space above the curl of the ‘J’ in Journal, keeping in the style of the overall “cozy” theme of the type treatment. Placement of the ‘Word Count’ text was a tough call — I wanted it centered in the space above ‘Journal’ initially, but decided to align the ‘t’ of ‘Count’ on the right edge of the ‘a’ in Journal.
You wouldn’t think so much goes into kerning of a few words, but I feel this little extra effort pays off in a more flowing identity.
Word Count Journal Site Design
Based on the logo, I assisted Alex in developing the initial direction of the site design, which he and the team completely fleshed out and built. I really like the cooler aqua blue and grays, combined with warm orange and bright yellow, and the use of American Typewriter throughout the site. Alex and the team did a great job keeping the structure simple, yet super-functional and beautiful.
If you’d like a space where you write a little each day, check out Word Count Journal!
Makalu Christmas Card Design Process Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 by Mike
Last Friday my batch of MakaluMedia Christmas cards for 2006 arrived from PrintingForLess.com and I couldn’t be more pleased. The quality of the paper and printing are excellent, and I think the design turned out quite well.
Here’s a photo of the cover of the card:
You may recall mention of my inspiration for the snowflake design in late November, this is how it was used on the cover of the card design. In this article, I’ll explain details of the design and printing process, implementing the snowflake design.
I chose the smaller card size of 4.25″ x 5.5″ folded — it’s not too large and not too small. It’s quite reasonable to print a smaller quantity in 4 color, since the size is not too large, and since envelopes are a standard size in the US.
Cover Design Notes
On the cover design, the high-res background was created in Photoshop from the same snowflake design, applying a glow of lighter blue over the darker blue background. The dark texture provides a canvas for the card’s cover, while at the same time being subtle enough to not fight with the white snowflake overlay.
In Adobe Illustrator, I created the card document, then placed the Photoshop-generated background on the base layer, followed by the light blue glow and sandwiched on top by the white snowflake emblem and “Merry Christmas” text. The back cover also featured the company logo and locations.
Here’s the card cover design (click for larger version):
Interior Design Notes
I wanted to carry the theme to the inside of the card, but also leave room for writing personal notes to clients and colleagues. On the left you can see the large, light gray “ghosted” snowflake design, which crosses the fold onto the right inner panel. It’s dark enough to see yet light enough to write over.
On the right, the snowflake appears once again, smaller and in the same bright blue color as the glow and Makalu logo on the cover. Below the snowflake, a simple greeting in dark blue.
Here’s the card interior design (click for larger version):
Printing Notes
Because the file was created in Adobe Illustrator as vector artwork, with a placed Photoshop background, my prep for printing was relatively painless. I checked all of my colors, and made sure the page sizes and bleeds for the art were correct.
Next, I converted the text on the cover and interior to outlines with Illustrator. Converting text to outlines is a feature that converts fonts into vector artwork on your document. This ensures your fonts, sizing, positioning are maintained, while eliminating the need to make sure the printer has the same fonts on hand.
Finally, I uploaded the file with my order specifications at PrintingForLess.com and let them handle the rest. A day later I had a PDF proof of the art, then approved the production and shipping. With this project I chose a medium weight card stock, and added an aqueous coating over the entire cover to help protect the heavy ink coverage and add a nice shine.
PrintingForLess handled printing, cutting and folding, then shrink wrapped the cards and paired them with matching white envelopes. PFL even split the order and shipped a portion directly to our main Makalu office in Darmstadt, Germany and the remainder to me in my Milwaukee office.
Conclusion
Overall, the design was a fun one, from concept to completion. I’m very pleased with the final product, due in large part to the quality work by PrintingForLess.com, and their wonderful customer service.
I hope I’ve provided some insight into the process of designing and creating a 4-color card for printing, especially for those readers who may not have direct contact with design and printing processes.
Snowflake Symbol Design Inspiration Thursday, November 30th, 2006 by Mike
This week I’ve enjoyed the process of designing our 2006 MakaluMedia Christmas cards, being especially pleased with how quickly the design has moved from inspiration to completion. 
This year’s idea focuses on a snowflake theme in blue. Can you make out what the snowflake has been built from?
It’s created from the circular outer arms of the MakaluMedia logomark. Check out the Makalu logomark, below the snowflake.
While at Caribou Coffee last week, I noticed all of the snowflakes on their printed materials, which inspired me to build a snowflake from bits of our company logo.
The Process
Here’s how I formed the snowflake design with parts of our MakaluMedia logo.
Using an outer arm, I spun it around a central point, resizing the arm and exploring different placements of arm: with the ball end of the arm at the center and also at the edges of the snowflake.
As I worked, a star shape emerged at the center, so I removed some artifacts, to further emphasize the star shape.
Finally, I reversed a circle out of the snowflake’s center star and placed MakaluMedia dual Ms in the middle of the circle to complete the snowflake design.
You never know where inspiration may come from — be ready to capture it!
CGI Interactive Logo Design Thursday, October 26th, 2006 by Mike
Last year, after Paul Bradley came across Ian Landsman’s Creating a Business Logo article, he asked if we could design a new logo for his company, cgi Interactive. One of my passions as design director at MakaluMedia is logo design and corporate identity, so I was excited to take on the project.
Paul’s firm. cgi Interactive, is a software development company based in the North West of England, who develop custom web based applications for businesses. The CGI moniker had its touch-point in the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programming done for clients in the early days of the Internet.
Paul wanted to maintain a connection to the past by keeping the CGI name, while coming up with a strong, clean logo to represent his company, on both the web and with other print materials (letterhead, envelopes and business cards).
Questions & Research
I started as I always do: asking questions of Paul about his company, goals, taste and thinking and doing my own gathering of information about the company. While it might seem trivial, the information gathering phase is critical — these are the words I ponder, as I prepare to sketch logo concepts that capture the company in a simple, iconic form.
From my initial research, it seemed the logomark should be simple and clean, yet still have a bit of a human touch, as Paul mentioned a history of “bespoke” or custom software development.
Sketching Ideas
As I sketched ideas out, I began focusing on a mark made of the letters C, G and I — using them to form a compact object.
Rounded letter-forms turned into squared letter-forms. I liked the idea of the C wrapping itself around the I to form a “G” at the intersection. To reinforce the “I” character, I used a lower cased variation to take advantage of the dot.
Black & White Explorations
We both liked this direction, so my next step was to jump into Adobe Illustrator and create the letters in black and white vector form, where I could explore the relationships of the C, G and i elements:
Notice how the horizontal stroke of the “i” character extends into the counter of the capital C character, to form a G. Then, the dot of the i character fills out the upper right corner of the mark. I like creating logos in black and white first — to assure they work well in their simplest form.
The mark also created an unintentional, yet nice side effect — notice the appearance of of a person on the right, extending an arm into the C, with the dot of the “i” acting as the head? What a nice coincidence!
Color Explorations
Next up was the color phase, which was quite straightforward, as Paul knew he wanted cool blues and greens used. I explored some complimentary warm colors with the mark, but we kept coming back to a combination of dark sea green and a sky blue to capture a solid, professional feel:
Notice also the font used is a Myriad/Gill Sans blend with a little custom tweaking done on the letters. The “cgi” text was kept in the sky blue, and “Interactive” stayed in the dark sea green, corresponding to the colors chosen for the mark.
Paul was very pleased with the final logo design. He felt it captured the professional look he wanted to portray, yet still maintained a human touch, to represent the custom, collaborative projects cgi Interactive does. I had fun working on the logo design, facing the challenge and seeing a unique mark emerge from the letters themselves.
Since designing Paul’s logo in 2005, we’ve had many interesting and challenging logo projects come from new and existing clients, keeping me happily busy doing what I love — logo design.
If you like this approach to logo design, and need logo or corporate identity design work, just drop me a line and let’s talk!
Recommended Design Resources Saturday, October 7th, 2006 by Mike
Our crew has been very busy this year, helping customers with the corporate identities, application icons, websites, and back-end systems — which is why it’s been quiet here at the Summit blog. In an effort to get back into blogging, I’ve decided to share links to design resources we use in the development of our work here at MakaluMedia.
MyFonts: WhatTheFont?
This very slick online tool lets you upload an image of your font in question and get details on what font it might be. Alex shared this one with me and I was impressed with how accurate it was!
Fontshop Type Navigator
An online tool that can help you visually identify fonts you are clueless about through process of elimination. Use the selections on the left side to narrow down your font until you find just what you’re looking for.
LinoType Font Explorer X
This free tool from LinoType provides very nice font management features for Mac OS X which supplement Apple’s stock Font Book application. You can also buy fonts directly from LinoType from Font Explorer X, making it the iTunes for fonts.
LogoPond
This is an excellent site with cataloged identities you can search by various features, including by color or by rating. This is a nice place to go for inspiration. I really need to submit some of our logos here!
PrintingForLess.com
This printer in Livingston, Montana (Big Sky Country) has very smart people, great pricing and does really nice 4 color print work. We’ve seen good stuff come from PFL for several clients and like their approach to business. Robert Scoble did a video walkthrough of their plant which is well worth watching.
Apple Developer Connection: Icon Genres and Families
This simple document has all sorts of good stuff for the Mac OS X icon designer, including appearance, lighting, design and technical details to help you get your icons spot on.
Design Observer
An excellent resource for the latest in design thought and commentary by founding writers Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand, Rick Poynor and many more contributing writers to boot. More than just pretty pictures, Design Observer always gives me something to think about.
I hope these links provide inspiration in your work or your thinking. If you have links to share with our team, please do! We always love finding new, useful resources.