Piztachio 2: January 2009

Logo Redesign Competition

Everyone in my design class was asked to redesign the logo of the 100 Year Association of New York. It was a voluntary competition, and the winning logo would be used on the organization's website. After the class ended, the project must have fizzled because the old logo remains. But it was an interesting exercise regardless; we got a chance to see a dozen different interpretations of the same material. It was only after we had all come up with new logo designs that we found out they wanted a golf-themed logo to use for their annual golf tournament. Below is what I whipped up (after the class had already finished) to accommodate the golf theme, followed by my original designs and then the real--and sadly still existent--100 Year Association logo.

'Miami Holiday' Poster

For my design class, we were asked to make an 11 x 17 poster using six or more photographs. It was an exercise in arranging multiple images to portray a single theme. I had recently gotten back from a quick hop to Miami and my photos from that trip were the most accessible. I was going for an explosion-of-champagne-bubbles-at-night kind of thing.

Logo + Brochure

The six panels of a small brochure for the make-believe bar for my design class.

Logo + Ads

Ads for the logo project in my design class.

Infographic

Getting from the Chalfonte to Irving Wine & Spirits.

Illustrated Quote

Business Card

For the made-up bar for my design class (back and front).

Logo II

The actual final logo (+ tagline) plus some color brainstorm.

I tweaked this thing to death (and to the brink of madness). It's a little hard to see here but the type is in two different shades of brown. I wanted some element of brown from the start, because black seemed too chic and brown made me think of casual pubs and underground wooden dives. I fell for the pale lavender in the end, but it was more instinct than reasoning. I wouldn't pick a fight over it, let's put it that way.

Logo I

The first version of my logo. I got fixated on two concepts, the martini glass and the bird. The martini glass was inspired by the tacky neon-light decorations in a lot of grungy/dive-y bars. The bird was just a fixation. Of course it relates to the sky, and I thought some kind of animal or character would add a playful, casual element to the logo. (And a bird drinking a martini is funny.) The first image shows the (original) final logo in black-and-white and in color. The other images show a bit of the process.

This logo was received well by my classmates, but there was one (apparently fatal) flaw: the bird wasn't decipherable from a distance. I tried to remedy this, but I felt like I needed an illustrator to somehow fix the bird. I'm not an illustrator, and my couple scratch marks were not cutting it. I was running out of time and ideas, so I ended up coming up with an entirely new logo. I was never totally satisfied with it and preferred this playful one.

Logo Brainstorm

For my design class, we had to come up with a product or service (or anything) and then create a logo for it. The single requirement was to select three words out of a hat and to choose our favorite among the three to use in the company/product name. I got the word 'Sky' and came up with 'Sky Dive', a dive bar in the penthouse of a skyscraper (or any tall building with a view). It turned out to be pretty challenging to depict this high-low mix. I found that most dive bars didn't have designed logos, and I struggled trying to maintain good, clean design without making something too sleek.