This fresh start provides for a lot of opportunities. Like a new logo, for instance! Following is a look into the process of how I designed the Sick Future logo from start to finish, with a few comments along the way. Enjoy.
The first thing I did was compile a little bit of inspiration. Some people call this making "mood boards" or a "creative dig." I just call it inspiration. I thought for a long time about the most influential logos in my life. Without a doubt, my all time favorite logos are those that would draw on with lasers and fly through space at the beginning of movies during my youth. When most people write and talk about quality logo design, they usually drop names like Apple, Nike, and Coca-Cola. Not me. These old home video logos kick the shit outta that shit ;) Oh and of course, gotta throw the OCP logo in for good measure!
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While letting things simmer I started to just doodle a little bit, playing with combinations of the S and F. At this point I was thinking along the lines of some sort of constellation or something, hence the very thin lines.
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I then started just playing around in Illustrator. I knew that I wanted something very geometric, so I started laying down grids to design with. And yes, this is how I design...by making a huge mess! A bunch of real stinkers so far eh? That's all just part of the design process!
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I then began playing around with a square format with the grid. The blue ones towards the top with the really long thin lines aren't what the logo was supposed to look like, that was just how I was plotting out the geometry. I was really starting to like the way the S and F were coming together in the negative space.
For fun I rotated the square and started dicking around with diamond shapes. While I was enjoying working this way, it didn't take me long to realize that squares and diamonds were a bad path to take. The thin lines were a bit too Tron-y and I just wasn't feeling it. I came to the conclusion that I needed to stick with a circle format, as I wanted a logo that felt both organic and cosmic. But I also wanted it to feel technical and futuristic...Oh, the complexity! What to do, what to do??
Diving back into working in a circular format, I just started throwing lines around to see what would happen. I started to think here that it looked like I was designing a logo that should be an emblem on a car or something, haha, so I started over again. I was liking how I had broken apart some of the square ones though previously, with the S and F in the negative space, so I decided to apply that same idea to a circle...
Finally, things were starting to click! A big ol' grin swept across my face at this point. I knew that this was the route I wanted to go. Not only was it organic and cosmic with the circle, it was also technical and futuristic with the harsh geometric cuts. It was hitting every aspect I was going for. As an added bonus, it was a bit reminiscent of the album art for Inter-, which made me even happier. I was already starting to envision what the logo would look like if it were flying through space at the beginning of a movie :)
I then simply refined the logo to make sure all the cuts and slices were perfectly aligned with the grid and that everything was geometrically perfect. I decided to keep it one color, as I wanted it to feel planetary or cellular. Basically, even though the shape is broken apart into different fragments, I wanted it to still feel like "one thing." I also started to work with a little texture, since more often than not that's how the logo would be seen, with the gritty nature of my art and all.
And there she is, the final Sick Future logo! Overall, it took about a week from start to finish. I hope you've enjoyed this little behind the scenes, let me know if you have any questions or comments!
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For fun I rotated the square and started dicking around with diamond shapes. While I was enjoying working this way, it didn't take me long to realize that squares and diamonds were a bad path to take. The thin lines were a bit too Tron-y and I just wasn't feeling it. I came to the conclusion that I needed to stick with a circle format, as I wanted a logo that felt both organic and cosmic. But I also wanted it to feel technical and futuristic...Oh, the complexity! What to do, what to do??
...
Diving back into working in a circular format, I just started throwing lines around to see what would happen. I started to think here that it looked like I was designing a logo that should be an emblem on a car or something, haha, so I started over again. I was liking how I had broken apart some of the square ones though previously, with the S and F in the negative space, so I decided to apply that same idea to a circle...
...
Finally, things were starting to click! A big ol' grin swept across my face at this point. I knew that this was the route I wanted to go. Not only was it organic and cosmic with the circle, it was also technical and futuristic with the harsh geometric cuts. It was hitting every aspect I was going for. As an added bonus, it was a bit reminiscent of the album art for Inter-, which made me even happier. I was already starting to envision what the logo would look like if it were flying through space at the beginning of a movie :)
...
I then simply refined the logo to make sure all the cuts and slices were perfectly aligned with the grid and that everything was geometrically perfect. I decided to keep it one color, as I wanted it to feel planetary or cellular. Basically, even though the shape is broken apart into different fragments, I wanted it to still feel like "one thing." I also started to work with a little texture, since more often than not that's how the logo would be seen, with the gritty nature of my art and all.
...
And there she is, the final Sick Future logo! Overall, it took about a week from start to finish. I hope you've enjoyed this little behind the scenes, let me know if you have any questions or comments!
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