Tree of life - 50th Wedding anniversary illustration

This project was something that doesn't come around very often. If you're lucky, it's once in a lifetime. My wife's parents recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary – a truly amazing feat anyway you look at it. Two people have been able to share a wonderful life together, through thick and thin for half a century. That's pretty awesome. So, what in the world do you give them as a gift? Well, if you're like me, there's always someone in the family that will quickly throw your name in the hat to help out. That someone was my wife. Go figure.

To be honest, I have a great relationship with my in-laws and have shared a long history with their family. A lot of the adventures and experiences that the family has shared have been told to or experienced first-hand by me. When the concept of a tree-of-life was mentioned, I gave it a lot of thought. What better way to convey the many adventures they've shared together over 50 years, several states, three kids and a smattering of grandchildren? It made perfect sense and I was honored.

Now, I know this isn't the first tree-of-life illustration to grace the planet, but it would be my own personal rendition of the idea. I would take the many details and experiences from the family and try to depict them in icons, collected together into one, robust and sturdy tree. Since it would probably get pretty busy with all the different colors of everything, I tried to limit it to just two shades of blue. And, to make the tree even more special, I would draw the lower boughs into the shape of the number '50'. See if you can make that out in the last photo.

Some thumbnail sketches from the sketchbook.

And, some details from the finished illustration.

Needless to say, they were very touched with the result. Big smiles on their faces, and even some tears – that's always nice to see. The best part is watching them pore through the different icons and interpreting the significance of each symbol and discovering details they hadn't noticed before.

It was certainly a great way of giving back to people who've made your life that much more complete – in their own way.

Guest writing for LogoNest 01.

Greeting me in the mail this week was the first edition of LogoNest, an inspirational collection of logo design culled from the popular website of the same name. Awhile back, I was asked to be a contributing writer to the volume for which I was quite flattered (you know, being a DESIGNER and all) and maybe a little tentative.

Frankly, I thought I was just putting a few words together to help out the book. Little did I know, my piece would end up right up front for all to see, right there in print.

I did my very best, so please be kind. :)

Overall, I thought it came out very nice. I dig the very impactful and distinct, orange cover and mailing package. The pacing was nicely planned and the page layouts were well done. It was a great first-edition effort.

What made this book different is their premise of ‘The book from logo designers for logo designers’. So, it seems only fitting that they included a nice collection of work with some great articles from notable logo designers from all over the world. Designers like Steve Zelle of Processed Identity, Tim Lapetino of Hexanine, logo designer and blogger, Jacob Cass, Gareth Hardy and others.

Here is an excerpt from my article, The Power of a Good Logo:

At the heart of every great brand is a logo–a symbol, icon or typeface that is easily recognizable by the viewing audience. Something that, when viewed, sparks an impulse or emotion about the company or organization it represents. That reaction is what makes a good logo truly powerful.

To read the rest of the story, you can order your own copy of the limited-edition LogoNest 01 from the website.

I want to thank Alen, Sinisa and everyone at LogoNest for the opportunity to help out. We all look forward to LogoNest 02.

The Lions Club's new vision.

I just completed a logo and illustration for the organization, Lions Club International. As in my case, you are probably familiar with the name, but not always up to speed with who they are or what they do.Every time you drive into a new city, you''ll see the LCI seal on the community''s Chamber of Commerce sign along with the Rotary Club, Elks Club and others. Lions are an international network of 1.3 million men and women in 202 countries and geographic areas who work together to answer the needs that challenge communities around the world.

Known for working to end preventable blindness, Lions participate in a vast variety of projects important to their communities. These projects range from cleaning up local parks to providing supplies to victims of natural disasters.

To get this rolling, the Chicago agency Lipman Hearne was hired by LCI to revamp their very established brand.

Initially, I was approached Lipman Hearne about illustrating the new lion for the logo redesign, but as we got further into the project my role extended into the design of the familiar crest and typography as well.

Lipman Hearne had done a very thorough job of researching the past logos as well as how the different charters had 'interpreted' the usage of the organization's logo. One of the main objectives would be to establish a new logo design that was bold and very versatile to make sure that the graphic standards would be easy to follow.

Since LCI's conception in 1917, there have been quite a few logos over the years, but mostly in an evolutionary sense. Most of them stayed in a crest shape and had the familiar lion's heads and initial capital 'L'. in the center. The typography appeared to be a different story, seeming to change with the font popularity of each era and even overrunning text into the crest – ruining readability.

After some of our initial discussions, we agreed that this should be an evolutionary assignment with a good deal of clean up involved. One of the latest logos had almost a bad photocopy rendition of the lions, obviously making the transition from photostat (print) version to digital. Clean-up indeed.

Delving into the project, I soon had a dozen or so sketches of the new lion, with variations of the lion''s mane, teeth, expression and so on. Further decisions had to be about the crest shape and which influences I should use to create the shapes. I started off somewhat simple and we pared down to even simpler – almost basic.

A lesson in full-circle. My original design starts on the left and slowly ends in a cleaned-up version of two of the originals on the far right.

My versions of the lion's head started off as a very modern illustration and style. Some modifications were to try and balance the look of the open mouth and to avoid being too aggressive. Slowly, as the different directions were presented and the many clients gave their opinions, I was asked to do an overhaul on the ''bad photocopy'' version. This would be quite the challenge.

Some crest and type explorations for the new logo. These particular versions were trying to interpret some cleaner art-deco influences.

And finally, here is my final design as delivered.

So, as you take a look at the work, realize that in all the subtlety of the refinements there was a lot of thought and design that went into keeping the integrity of the LCI crest. Lipman Hearne has done a great job in bringing new life into the Lions Club International brand with their different applications.