My new logo is finalized!
Well, it was finalized back in February. I’m just now getting around to blogging about it.
Read on for the iterations and the design process!
How it started (Round 0)
In the beginning, I had no idea what sort of logo I wanted. I knew what I didn’t like on sight, but I couldn’t describe what I liked. I didn’t want books, phoenixes, or dragons, so Jess threw together rough sketches to see what I was leaning towards. She was thinking nibs because of writing and plants because I like them and they’re part of my branding already.
This is similar to what I’d call a “zero-” or “discovery draft” in writing—throw everything onto the page and add or refine from there.
Rounds 1/2
From here, Jess began creating digital drafts.
⟡ We mutually agreed the nibs weren’t working, so they were nixed.
⟡ Instead of having random-flower, I suggested pussywillows and Chinese lanterns, so Jess tried to work them in.
⟡ The geometric florals stayed with refined iterations.
Rounds 3/4
Unfortunately, neither of my suggested plants worked out. The lanterns were too busy, and seeing the willows changed my mind.
At this point we narrowed the design down to:
⟡ hexagon with florals
⟡ a flower (in this case, a chrysanthamum)
⟡ the window-esque design
⟡ other dark shapes with negative space
Jess also began playing around with my colours and various fonts.
Round 5
Everything was in colour to better help me visualize the end product, and we’d selected a few fonts. Some of you might recognize the chrysanthemum as my old placeholder logo.
⟡ The hexagons with florals was chopped as I didn’t feel they said anything about my personally. I’d also seen quite a few similar designs used by other people.
⟡ I really liked the knife crossed with plant, but it wasn’t giving the right message for my branding.
⟡ In case I ever branch out from writing, I didn’t want to be bound by having “writer” in my logo.
In between rounds I tossed out a new idea (knife with vine plant). Don’t do this.
Round 6 and final logo
⟡ As cool as the knife wrapped in vines was, I realized I liked it more as a tattoo design than as a logo. Again, it didn’t say much about me in terms of writing or fantasy.
⟡ The standalone chrysanthemum was removed as I didn’t want a singular flower, and it reminded me too much of the current peony trend.
At last we were left with the logo I have now! (Plus some tweaking.)
I still didn’t love the chrysanthemum , so we changed out the flower for a queen of the night, which is actually what I based the main flower in With the Sun on. (Give it a read if you’re interested in the purpose of the flower.)
We played around with colour combinations and some of the individual lines. I’ve left in some comments Jess had left for me.
Jess also created a favicon (the small logo you see on a web browser tab) that also went through a few iterations. I asked for shape that evidently fundamentally changed my logo too much, which makes it very clear that I’m not a graphic designer.
Blog thumbnail: Ceiling in Salzburg, Austria (sorry, I don’t remember exactly which ceiling)