300 Random icons - a personal design challenge

So here we go. It's now 2012 and the start of another new year. What better way to begin this next 12 months than a personal design challenge and goal to create some new work and perhaps grow a bit creatively? I can't think of any. Perhaps I'm a bit cloudy still from the holidays. To be honest, I've been rather impressed and a bit envious of some of the work that my fellow designers and illustrators have put forth in the last couple of years. Some really cool stuff has come out of their personal projects, and I'm feeling like I need something that will force me to work a little harder and expand my horizons. And, who knows, I may develop some new styles, techniques and workflows in the process. You know – learn stuff.

By posting it on my Illustrative Designer blog, I'll hopefully be held more accountable for keeping it going and it should be a nice way to see how the project progresses.

I'm not saying all the work will be stellar and some of it may even suck, but it will be all part of the journey and hopefully will help make me a better creative person.

So, what exactly are you going to be doing?

Icons. Essentially, icons that will be communicating a concept with a very simple and clean visual solution. These won't be icons that you will use for your average website for things like 'print' or 'payment'. I am focusing on taking two keyword phrases (Ex. orange juice) that are all familiar to us and creating an icon that communicates that idea. They might be one-color or many, simple or illustrative in whatever style I may see fit.

They are not meant to work together as a set, but just an exercise in making the visual communicate clearly. As mentioned in the title, they will be random concepts and really could be anything. Some may be basic and some may have a little humor, I just don't know yet. That's the cool part of trying something like this.

Can some of these icons work as logo designs? Sure. And some of my icon design could even be considered illustration, depending on the work style.

Why 300 of them?

I picked 300 to try and design and post them often. That way, it would force me to keep with it, but not have to post every single day. I do enjoy my family and weekends.

When are you starting?

I'm starting January 1st, 2012 and continuing until I hit 300 icon designs, whenever that happens, but during the 2012 calendar year.

There you go. Feel free to follow along on the new 300 Random Icons blog.

Logo work honored in iheartlogos Season Two.

I am honored today to receive word that we will have work in the upcoming volume of iheartlogos Season Two. The iheartlogos.com competition model is unique in the fact that the work is judged not by a group of select designers sequestered in a room, but by your own competitors. You are the judge. And so is everyone else.

I have a lot of respect for the work submitted this season and am honored to be included in Season Two's offering. The inaugural book was certainly a nice beginning to a series with great potential, and I'm looking forward to seeing in person in all its glory.

Congratulations to the other designers and firms on their selected work. Cheers.

Logo lettering design to appear in Letterhead and Logo Design 12

Just announced today is the shipping of Rockport Publishing's latest publication, Letterhead and Logo Design 12. And, with that I am proud to say that the logo design created for Zelos Winery will be included in this volume's collection. The logo design was a hand-lettering assignment I had been commissioned to do for Zelos' design firm, Damion Hickman Design, who also has additional work in the new book. I am certainly honored to be recognized with them for this project.

Awhile back, I did a little more in-depth blog post about this project and the other lettering options that were presented. You can take a look at that here. 

Oxide Design, Co. has collected and curated this latest collection of stunning letterheads and logos. From logos to labels, business cards to envelopes, the creative techniques and full-color images portrayed in this broad range of work inspires new design solutions for age-old challenges that beg for a fresh approach. This invaluable resource contains hundreds of inspirational logos and letterheads that will leave a lasting impression and that both designers and their clients will refer to again and again.

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.

Logo work chosen for LogoLounge Master Library, Vol. 4.

I am very pleased to announce that three of my logo designs will be included in the upcoming LogoLounge Master Library Vol. 4, Typography and Enclosures – which is now available as of February 2012.

This is the latest installment of the celebrated logo design series by authors Catharine Fishel and Bill Gardner.

To date, their website, LogoLounge.com is one of the premier resources for logo design inspiration with over 140,000 searchable logos. The LogoLounge books are certainly one of the more popular series on graphic design that Rockport Publishers produces. To date, these represent more than 70 logos chosen over the 10 published LogoLounge volumes. Needless to say, I am honored to be a part of it.

Logo work appearing in the digital-only Trademarks USA.

Just received word today that 13 of my recent logo designs will be appearing in the upcoming 2011 publication of Trademarks USA, by David E. Carter. This is especially exciting because the new volume will be published exclusively online through Amazon, Google Editions and Apple’s iBookstore.

This means that instead of a standard hard or softcover edition, they will only be viewable digitally. I am very interested in how this works out. The iPad, Kindle, Nook and the many other soon to be released eBook readers have really changed the publishing world and how we view our content. Apparently, Amazon states that for every 100 softcover books sold, 115 Kindle versions are sold as well. We shall see.

In any case, I am honored to have my work included in this latest edition from David E. Carter. For the last 15 years, his books have dominated the best-seller lists for the category of graphic design and advertising. His compilations of outstanding creative work are among the industry standard.

Logo work to appear in the debut of iheartlogos.

Very excited to announce my logo work's inclusion in the debut volume of iheartlogos. This inaugural logo design competition is unique in the fact that the competitors are judges and vice versa.

It's a very different approach to a design competition and the only one of its kind. These five winners were selected among the many other entries by some very talented logo designers and firms from around the world. I am honored to be among the first to get published in this debut volume.

My selections appear on pages 170, 187, 209, 211 and 227, respectively. You can order yours here.

Logo work honored in the upcoming LogoLounge Master Library-Shapes and Symbols.

I just received notification today that six of my logos will appear in the upcoming 2011 release of LogoLounge Master Library Vol. 3, Shapes and Symbols

Of course, I am very honored to have more of my work included in this very prestigious logo design series. I also have work appearing in the two previous releases of the Master Library, Volume 1, Initials and Crests and Volume 2, Animals and Mythology, as well as several of the other LogoLounge titles. You can check out some of the other LogoLounge books by Bill Gardner and Catharine Fishel (Rockport Publishers, USA, TBD) on Amazon.com.

Logo work honored in upcoming LogoLounge 6.

I just received word today that the logo I designed for the Port of Long Beach's Seaport Sustainability Symposium will be included in the upcoming LogoLounge 6 volume by Bill Gardner and Catharine Fishel, published by Rockport Publishers.

This will be my seventh LogoLounge volume that my work has appeared with nearly 70 honored logos.

As quoted by the LogoLounge staff, 

This was an incredibly competitive judging session with over 34,000 logos entered for consideration. The work has been chosen for the new book by an international panel of judges. This years panel included, Bart Crosby of Crosby Associates, Hans Hulsbosch of Hulsbosch, Jeannie Servaas of Saffron Brand Consultants Inc., Jessica Hische of Jessica Hische, Marius Ursache of Grapefruit, Sherwin Schwartzrock of Schwartzrock Graphic Arts, Silvio Giorgi of Latinbrand, and Tessa Westermeyer of Landor.

I am certainly proud of my inclusion in these volumes and am honored to be a part of it. Looks like I'll take a long lunch today!

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.

San Jacinto logo illustration

Here's a new logo illustration project I completed for San Jacinto College, located in East Harris County, Texas. There are three campuses, each with its own rather established sports mascot. The assignment from their agency Whole Wheat Creative, was to help create a cohesive look and illustrative mascot style to the group of new logos, complete with custom typography and ligatures to be emblazoned on their newly updated uniforms. This was a particularly challenging project as there were many individuals with separate ideas, needs and opinions on how these designs should be handled. After several rounds of sketches and type explorations, here are the final results. Also included is a script direction, primarily for the baseball/softball uniforms that was not used in the final deliverables, but was fun and challenging to design.

Recognized work in the new LogoLounge Masters Library.

Just received word that a number of my logo designs will be included in the new LogoLounge Masters Library Volume 2 coming out some time next year.

I am very excited about the recognition of such a prestigious collection of logo work from around the world. There will be approximately 24 pieces appearing in the volume entitled, Animals & Mythology. The book will be available from Rockport Publishers. These are the winning entries.

New logo work for the LogoLounge Masters Library.

Just received the word this week about my logo work being included in the upcoming LogoLounge Masters Library series. The new series of design books will be published by Rockport Publishers.Unlike the original series, each book in the Masters Library series will focus on a very specific logo design category, such as: Initials & Crests, Typography, People, Animals, Birds and Mythology, Shapes and Symbols, Nature and Food and Arts and Culture (including transportation, sports and architecture). These selections will appear in the first edition, Initials & Crests under my other name, Hubbell Design Works.

Look for it in bookstores or at the LogoLounge.com website in the next year.

Got some work in LogoLounge 4.

Some of you logo design fans have probably already scoped out the new Logo Lounge 4 (Rockport Publishers). This is the latest in the Logo Lounge series of design books—and I might add, every one of them is excellent. The level of work is superior and the logo design is nothing short of inspirational.

So, of course finding out that I had a handful of pieces selected for the latest edition was definitely a shot in the arm and a good reason for taking a two hour lunch!

Anyway, here are the selected works. Hope you like them. By the way, I have a collection of other logos that were in the previous editions: LogoLounge 2 and LogoLounge 3. They are listed under my other identity, Hubbell Design Works. You can also check out their website at: www.logolounge.com