JB Lettermark Logo
Background
My client contacted me, asking for help with designing a personal ligature he could use on resumes for job applications and his website. He already had a vague idea of what he was looking for, and so it was my job to help him explore his options and to hone in on the final product he was looking for.
The Rough Drafts
My first step was simply sketching some ideas and playing around with how "JB" could be incorporated into a circle. My ideation included experimenting with negative space, the idea of continuation, the presence of the circle and how obvious it would be, the prevalence of contours, color, and textural overlay. In talking with him, we were able to pinpoint where his prevalence for a circle came from - he arrived at an overall circular logo because he was inspired by wax seal stamps and the prestige, class, and sophistication it implied. This meant keeping the logo relatively simple and led to the two tone grey to further imply "class" with the logo.
Specifications
My client's initials are "JB" and he wanted to find a way to fit those two letters into a circle for a stamp-like logo. My client was luckily looking to explore different options so I was able to take his initial idea and try some different avenues. I would ideate on his general concept and eventually create the final product.
The Digital Adjustments
After finding a general design we both supported, I continued exploring what options were left. My client's last name is "Brown," so of course I had to at least see what it looked like, but we both agreed it might be a bit too on the nose and brown wouldn't fit our goal of demonstrating class. We also tried green as it was the client's favorite color and a personal ligature should be a reflection of the person, but was dropped for a similar reason to the brown. Due to the influence of the wax seal stamp, I also tried making the bounding circle more faint and broken up, but we decided it seemed too unreadable at smaller sizes and looked unfinished. The partial background could allow any texture to be more prevalent, and we could incorporate two colors without needing to resort to a gradient or delineating a continuous form.
The Final Product
The client liked the bottom right option from the 4 logos of the previous section, but wanted the texture to be more subtle, and didn't like the 45 degree angles that I put at the interior vertices. My personal preference was to keep the angles to balance the sweeping curves with some hard, mathematical angles. The angles also created an upwards arrow at the middle of the logo, which I thought gave the logo a more positive, almost literally uplifting vibe. We did end up going with two tone grey to imply class, and this implication was reinforced with the the texture I added, turning the basic grey into a marble-like pattern. The white outline offered delineation between forms and improved readability from a distance or at smaller sizes. I also liked the shapes the negative space created between the different forms.
