Freeman Advertising

Perhaps there is a story behind every logo? Ultimately, a story about a logo is irrelevant. The logo only need be clear, concise and be an indispensable tool for the client. But for the purposes of this blog and my potential clients I would like to provide a bit of a story on how this logo came to be.

Client supplied sketch

The New School is a private school in Kennebunk, Maine. The parents of one of it’s students decided it is time for the old sign at the school to be replaced. They came to me and asked for help with putting together a design concept that they could present to the board of directors and upon approval donate a new sign to the school. As we discussed the project it became apparent that the existing logo was due for modification.

Nancy, the mom of the proud student is a very creative. She presented me with some wonderful colored pencil sketches of her ideas for a new logo. But this is where the problem begins.

The school’s existing logo had been created about 10  years ago by someone who was still affiliated with the school. Over time the electronic file had been lost. And discussion ensued about the original logo versus the logo that was currently being used. So Nancy created a concept for a logo make over for the schools consideration.

The original logo

When Nancy’s proposal was presented it was agreed that the logo should be re created.  Of course in situations comprised of more than one person everyone is entitled to contribute. Initially it was challenging and I stayed on the sideline. Eventually, the dust settled and we had a direction.

The consensus was to keep all of the logo elements intact but modify them in a way that pleased everyone and that could be used electronically and look good in black and white. Nancy went back to the drawing board and produced several more sketches based on the input. She tried to incorporate some new ideas of the original logo creator as well.

Next, I scanned one of the images and it was decided the final image would be saved as a raster file. This type of file is not ideal for a logo but because of the complexity of the drawing it seemed practical. Working with large images I really wanted the final design to be vector and kept my fingers crossed.

Nancy is a very capable artist as can be seen from the drawing below. She has no experience in computer graphics and was intrigued by the process.

Initial Logo rework concept drawing created with color pencil by the client

As she sought approval from the board and higher ups at The New School the logo began to evolve and became simpler as a result of her modifications. She presented me with the line drawing at the top of this page. Realizing this would be very easy to create a vector image I scanned it, imported to Adobe Illustrator and used the live trace option. It worked perfectly, tracing all around the lines and creating vector paths almost without flaw. After a few edits I had an image that Nancy and I could select fill colors and or gradients until she was happy with the results.

Using Adobe Illustrator we collaborated. We sat together in my studio and Nancy made suggestions and I tried to translate them into vector solutions. Much of the beauty of her color pencil was lost but we gained an image that was vector and easily scalable for all situations including billboards (which, bye the way, are not allowed in our State of Maine).

4 color vector image created in Adobe Illustrator

When I was working on the original line drawing scan, converting the raster image in Illustrator to paths the image appeared in two colors, black and white. I thought the black and white image had a strong impact. I had saved a copy and I showed it to Nancy as we worked on the color design. We both took pause and instinctively agreed that it had potential.

Infact, we thought the image was so strong Nancy decided to use it as a primary logo concept which she presented at the next meeting. The two color logo is very versatile. If it is a strong and engaging image it can be much more economical to reproduce, especially in items that would be screen printed, like t-shirts.

Nancy has presented the 2 color concept as well as the 4 color to the board and both have been enthusiastically accepted. The 2 color will be used primarily and the 4 color for special occasions. She said there was much discussion and excitement on how it could be used for bumper stickers, posters and t-shirts.

The final logo is 2 color, here beige and green

This was a fun job, working with a creative client always pushes me a bit into unknown territory. I need to bend a bit and be willing to reach into areas beyond my comfort zone to help realize their vision. At the beginning we were looking for a 4 color solution but with the help of the Live Trace option in Adobe Illustrator had the good fortune of finding something much simpler and what we think has more mind share potential than we had hoped for.