Free is a Verb logo, initial sketches

My wife and I were planning to go overseas for a year to do charitable work fighting human trafficking, and I think it was my Aunt Sarah, a graphic designer who astutely pointed out that we needed a brand to get people excited about our work, motivated to donate, and also to help us establish our work as part of something bigger. So we bounced some word associations around, looked at some fonts, and I got started sketching.

Since one of our main goals was not just to fight human trafficking ourselves, but to prompt others to do the same, I gravitated toward the phrase "free is a verb." And since human trafficking often involves physical transportation and literal tying up or handcuffs, the imagery focused on those areas as well. My initial sketches are below; in the following post we'll look at the finished version.

Skyline Home Theater 3: final business card

After combining the giant "skyline" letters in the background from option B with the more extended graphics from option C, we arrived at the final design here. I generally don't advocate centered layouts (because any amateur trying to do yard sale posters in MS Word will center things), but in this case it happened to be a good solution; the hierarchy of elements is clear.

Looking back, the slight left-heaviness bugs me a tiny bit (I could've switched the TV and subwoofer in the center), but on the other hand, because of that weighting the eye reads smoothly down from the name to his name, so maybe it's ok.

Skyline Home Theater 2: logo/business cards

Once we'd settled on the business name and the basic idea of using a/v components to create a skyline, I had to figure out the best way to lay out said elements. With all of them, you'll see that I used a cream-colored background, because doing that versus a white card stock gives more of an impression of an older, established business, a subconscious message that I thought important in this case.

Option A shows a grounded feel with the components on the bottom; A puts his name in the foreground and makes the graphic elements way smaller, and C extends the skyline. He wanted to combine elements of B and C, and we'll see the final result in the next post.

The Green Grocer: logo (part 2)

After discussing the initial ideas with my sister, she wanted to focus on a simple text-based logo that incorporated a food element, like a tomato--cute, colorful, and distinctive. She also gave me a few sites that she liked to give me a sense of her preferred style, and used the words "clean" and "modern." Ok, I said, we can work with that. So here are the variations on the theme that I came up with; I went with the vertical layout because it worked better with the logo shape and information we needed to include:

The Green Grocer: logo (part 1)

My sister and brother-in-law were starting a local/organic/sustainable grocery store up in Windsor, a small town up in wine country (Sonoma county). So for their logo, my first sketches explored the idea of location, of food iconography, and of plants. (See sketches.) Regarding the design process, I always start with pencil on plain white paper, so that I can quickly explore as many ideas as possible without wasting time on paths that turn out to be dead ends. Plus, many more visually talented people than I advocate working with sketches first, computer afterwards--Michael Bierut is just one example.