Ectomachine

I have recently made the awesome discovery of Jonas Damon, the Creative Director of Frog Design.

His work is nothing short of amazing. The designs of these products are so simple and elegant but could also be pretty practical.

Via Jonas Damon

The new line of Tron toys look absolutely bad ass! This will probably be my only request for a Christmas gift this year. ( via FastCompany )

We were recently approached to come up with a full scale identity, branding, and themed strategy for a start up social / job networking site. The initial idea for the site had been laid down however there was nothing set in stone for the creative aesthetic or theme for the site. After days of careful thought, planning, and initial logo designs we created sprowty. The idea around the site is a friendly way of networking jobs that is very simple in principal. You can either complete peoples jobs that they want done or you can post jobs you want others to do. For instance, you want someone to write you up a resume for $10? Simple, just sign up, post the job and pick who you want to tackle the task. This is the whole function of the site, but there was no theme for it.

Here is where Ectomachine came in. What we proposed is having 2 roles for members. Either be a Seeder or a Sprowter. The idea of the site would stay the same however with a fun theme of posting a job would be ‘Planting a Seed’ and doing a job would be ‘Sprowting a Seed’. With this very simple ideology the creativity just kept rolling and sprowty was born.

So now we had the name, the concept, and the site architecture. Now it was time to brand sprowty.

First, just like every logo we do, we started with some rough sketches. Some say sketching the idea of your logo is always the most valuable and important part of creating a good identity piece. It allows you to explore options and remove yourself from the computer entirely to focus on the sketching of ideas and really flesh them out. Now that the sketches were done I picked the top 3 that I thought fit sprowty the most.

My first instinct was to go with the budding seed. So I grabbed the sketch and went straight to vectoring the logo. Piece by piece it was starting to take shape.

For a solid presentation to show the client I explored a quick color option and went through some nice typefaces until I landed on a font I thought fit the theme. There had been no customizing to the type yet but I wanted to get the foundation.

After having the first concept done I moved straight to the second concept. This concept derived from the first sketch of the ‘S’ ambigram with leaves on each end of the S. During sketching I wanted to steer clear of a traditional S shape so here is what I ended up with. Also the ambigram shape looked a little lonely and stagnant by itself so I encased it in a circle and it really gave it a more balanced feel to it.

Again I found another font that I felt went with the theme of the brand and had good harmony with the ‘S’ symbol. This time I started customizing the type and spacing to get the feel right. I also threw in some quick color for good measure. At this point I felt that things were really starting to shape up and had almost abandoned the seed logo mock because I felt so confident in this concept.

I presented both options to the client and the feedback was positive on both but the overall decision was to continue on with concept 2. I wholeheartedly agreed, except with this next round the client wanted to explore a thicker ‘S’ shape and bigger leaves but still keep the ambigram idea. I knew I didn’t want to change it too much but rather enhance it from the original idea. Here was the outcome:

I was most confident in this version of all the concepts and really thought it encompassed everything we were after. Strength, Simplicity, Fun, and Memorable. There was only one thing that didn’t feel quite right with this version. The circle. So I simply removed it!

Now it was time to add the new symbol with the customized type. I reverted back to the same customized type I used for concept two and did a few new spacing adjustments to the letters to really get the feel right. I presented this finalized piece to the client and we both knew we had ‘The One’.

Now it was time for some color options for the brand as a whole. I really wanted to focus on a kind of 70s Technicolor vibe but also incorporate colors that come to mind when I think of farms. Yellows, greens, browns, and creams.

After going through more greens than I care to remember I landed on one that I thought was perfect for our logo.

So that’s the breakdown of the sprowty logo. We hope you enjoyed it and be sure to look out for a special look into the site design in the next coming months. Below is the logo mixed with some of the site elements and a quick stationary example.

I have recently stumbled upon the uncommon works of Black Sheep Prodigal Sons and their retail project line Occulter. Occulter showcases the works of the Black Sheep & Prodigal Sons archive along with pieces designed exclusively for the shop.

I have never considered myself a jewelry or accessories guy but in this instance I think I could easily make the switch. The work is unreal and there are more than a couple of pieces I wouldn’t mind having. However be prepared spend, this quality doesn’t come cheap, but after looking at all of the products, especially the limited ones, I wouldn’t expect them to be reasonable.

For the latter part of my youth and now most of my adult life I have been a very big fan of Nine Inch Nails, or in most instances I guess you could just say Trent Reznor. One of the biggest lures of NIN to me was always their visual aesthetic. It was always a very dirty, haunting, and unsettling affair. It seemed every piece of art they had always went right along with the music tied together in matrimony. I spent many years gazing at cd’s, posters, and merch pieces from them but never knew who was behind it all.

This past week I stumbled upon him and his name is Rob Sheridan, he has been the creative director for NIN for the past 11 years and I am sure at one point in your life you have probably seen some of his work. Oddly enough I am familiar with some of his illustrated pieces and never in a million years would have tied any of this work together.

So check him out, also check out this new interview he did with Sleevage on recreating the remaster of Pretty Hate Machine.