One of my favorite areas of design is…
branding!
Merging personality and position with visual elements is as exciting to me as meeting a new person and learning allllll of their stories! IMO, building a brand is at it's best when it is sharing true intention.
I recently had the chance to work on a campaign logo for my father who will be running for local office next fall. Cue all bad memories of tacky campaign logos…NOW… In order to avoid, avoid avoid! the tacky train, we discussed early on what the main focuses are for the position he is running for. From there I got to work on creating a meaningful logo that would accompany any campaign materials he would need to produce. Since running a campaign is a loooong process, it was important to get to work right away.
The area in which the campaign will be run is a rural part of northern Michigan so agriculture and nature are of huge value to the community. Since my father shares in these passion, it was important to highlighting that in the logo.
Here is an explanation of the logo in greater depth:
At the bottom, the name anchors the logo in red. From there the blue field, which represents the water of the bay, contrasts with your name to give a visual nod to the American flag and being patriotic. Next up, there is the warm brown color which represents the farm land and agriculture. At the top we have a tall triangle that represents a tree and the shape of a sun setting, this is to signify nature. These forms all come together to form a triangle that points upward to represent progress and 'moving up' coming from the candidate.
In the development of a brand's logo it is important to have a great amount of knowledge of the project (or company) before even starting! Maybe it's back story, goals, personality… As you become familiar with the brand position, working on it's visual representation becomes, maybe not easy, but way easier! I always let intention be my guide. Stylistic trends and effects are the furthest thing from my mind.
I hope you enjoyed this look at finding the voice of a logo, brand discovery and how integrated design starts! This form of branding is something I find true passion working within.
Intentional + Heartfelt = a brand's happy place!