The process of developing my personal logo for 'JBattdesign' took many years. In fact it could almost be traced back as far as 1999, to a bored 14-year old freshman drawing in his notebook. I had used a couple rudimentary graphic symbols for my initials as early as sixth grade, but they weren't anything I was particularly proud of. They were mostly based on the "Stussy S" symbol that kids of my generation, even those with no art skills whatsoever, liked to draw on their notebooks and textbook covers.
I was guilty of this simple pleasure too, but I never actually knew the symbol had a name. Read a bit about the phenomenon below. For those of you who are too old/young to know about this fad from the Nineties (and those of you who deny ever having been a kid) this is what the notorious symbol looked like:
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The “Super S” or “Stussy” symbol was drawn by kids worldwide in the 1990’s. Origins of the symbol are generally unknown but some have suggested it is related to the “Stussy” clothing line (although they say they never used this font style). It was a worldwide meme reaching countries all over the world, primarily drawn at school on binders or notebooks. There is a technique in drawing the symbol (which consists of 14 lines) which was regarded as a kind of special knowledge. In some schools it was later banned because it was wrongly thought of as being a gang symbol. Multiple S symbols are referred to as “Stussies”. |
You could almost call it the first internet meme ever, before the internet was even around!
Everybody knew about it or had seen it before, and yet nobody knew who created it or where, or even how, it came to be. It just popped up all over the world around the same time, like the pyramids. It is quite mysterious, and I suspect it has some secret occult origin.
Anyway, the first row of symbols on the scanned notebook page below were my earliest iterations of my initial logo. They were crudely drawn in the same style as the Stussy symbol, and I don't think they were particularly effective. In fact, they sucked. The next 3 rows below that are angular, Runic-looking symbols meant to be carved on things with a sharp implement, as in woodcarving or metal engraving. I still use one of these as a maker's mark on my wood projects. The one I really like is the one five rows down and to the left, with the star above it next to the words "curved round" That one is still in use today. The next three rows are all my initials within a circle. Now it looks almost like I was trying to develop an alien number system. Then I had some square or rectangular seals and at the very bottom, my quaint attempts at graffiti-style tags.
So this is probably my earliest attempt at graphic design, which I didn't choose as a major until four years later.
Not pictured on this page are at least 30 more symbols that looked like Japanese characters. I used those for signing my anime drawings. How many other 14-year old kids do you know that can write their name 100 different ways?
2005: First Font-Driven Concepts
I continued to use the above symbols for years. Until college, when I was actually given the assignment to design an initial logo with software. I showed my old sketches to the professor and he wasn't impressed. So it was back to the drawing board.
He told us that the best way to create a logotype with letters is to pick characters from two different typefaces that contrast each other. Perhaps one Serif and one Sans Serif, or thick and thin strokes, block letters and script letters. So after printing out tons of characters from hundreds of fonts and tracing them onto vellum (as we weren't allowed to go near a computer until we developed a solid graphic concept on paper) ... My best results were the following:
The one chosen by the class was the logo in the bottom right. This one, if you know me, is very recognizable. I don't even remember which fonts I used for the J and the B. I liked the strong, bold stroke of the J that almost becomes abstract, and the long swoopy curve of the B.
So after adding some embellishments, below is the logo that completed the assignment. It was only meant to be black & white at first, as all successful logos should be designed in black & white. They loved the reverse-out "negative space" effect between the two characters. I personally like it because it has a throwback 1980's feel, like most of the things I like.
The assignment was completed. But as usual, I took it a step further. I began to play with colors and styles.
Then I decided the logo itself shouldn't be colored, but the background should. It seemed to look good in white in front of a gradient, like the spectral one in the center. The logo also needed to be filled in and did not look as good as an outline.
Having just discovered the Gradient Mesh tool in Adobe Illustrator CS2, I then went wild and came up with this "Rorshach"...whatever it is, which in retrospect was my greatest failure as a designer. To think I actually wanted this for a letterhead on my resume!
Here's what it evolved into by late 2006 or early 2007, as I started to put my portfolio together:
2007: Logo for Portfolio Design Class, Resume and Business Cards
During mid 2007 when I was a senior and began assembling my portfolio, it became this. I used a light blue because I like the color blue. There is still a gradient behind it, but it's a single spot color and I dropped an outline behind over that for an interesting layered effect. The bigger JB in outlines was usually greyed out with a 15-25% opacity, but against white I darkened it so you can see it better.
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The grey one is how I used it as my first trademark, and for watermarking digital art.
This was the logo design that landed me my first job interview and got me hired at a studio. Two years later as my Illustrator abilities exploded, I was at it again.
2009: The Graffiti Stamp
This next iteration of the logo (which I think is nice but very limited in application) is the graffiti stencil. This was created by building up layers of graphic styles, expanding the appearance, and tweaking opacity between layers, then punching my white logo out through the middle of it. This design, at a very light screen tint, was used successfully as a watermark on my resume. The overall reaction to this logo was, "How did you do that??" I think it would look great on a t-shirt.
But when I tried to make it into a t-shirt for screen printing, which requires an outlined vector design on a transparent background, I ran into problems. Because when you look at it in Outline mode, you get this:
Nope. Nobody's cutting a stencil of that!
Even trying to separate one shape from this tangled web of points is Bezier's worst nightmare.
It was back to the drawing board. ...So resentfully, I retired this fantastic matrix of nonsense and settled for the old and wise ways of the Bauhaus:
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| Designer Zen: Less is more. |
What is the moral of today's episode, boys and girls?
Don't spend too much time on logos.
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