A really good logo is memorable and recognizably unique. Paired with a smart identity system, it 1) helps visually establish what your brand is all about and 2) distignuishes your brand amongst the competition.

When working with a rebranding project, the first step thing to evauluate is what kind of mood does the brand want to evoke. Every company has an aspirational personality balanced with realistic expectations from their consumers/clients. Some brands seek to be splashy and bold. Others know that a more restrained approach is more appropriate for their audience and offerings.

For example, in the above logo for the Foreign Language Institute, is bold but clean. It reflects the program's formality while utilizing a foreign-looking FLI mark to give it the personality it needs to really give it that extra polished and elevated look. It's then paired with its full name, typeset in a large utilarian font.

For another example, we have the emblem developed for The Joe, a chain of student coffee shops. Because The Joe is a in-house chain located in exclusive student housing, it made a lot of sense to co-opt the synonymous coffee shop stamp/sticker look. The client ultimately chose this direction because they liked how the circle emblem immediately said "coffee" at first glance, and there wasn't any need to worry about visually competing with Starbucks because it wasn't a public chain.

The actual name of the brand also has a lot to do with how the logos are strategically developed. Many times, the logos I work on are rebrands. The company has some traction and name recognition and they want to make things look more professional. The caveat is that they sometimes come with long names—but that's okay!

On a case by case basis, I look at whether it makes sense to rename, abbreviate or just embrace the length.

In the case of Mason-Dixon Knitting, the client liked the idea of shortening the name to MDK. Their decade-old blog had a sizable following with good name recognition, but they felt a small disconnect with their name due to its ties with the civil war (they originally coined the name in reference to the pen pal nature of their co-founders, one being from the South and the other from the North). Plus, with the design of the yarn letters, it just sealed their decision.

On the other hand, there wasn't a way to elegantly break down the words with CMC Motorsports. They were also married to the name. Therefore, I just had to design around it. Although the final lockup ended up being quite long and horizontal, it worked out because the company is an online-only retailer of official F1 racing gear. Their main use for the logo was for their business card and their online store.

Coming in at a whopping 37 characters, AI-AP International Motion Art Awards begged to be shortened to IMAA. Similarly, the Institute of Economoic Democracy was shortened to INED, giving the perfect oppporutunity to design meaning within the letters.

For the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, the name was abbreviated to SMFA at Tufts for the logo. This interim logo was used after the SMFA Boston was acquired by Tufts University. The logo was quickly created to match the new branding which was scrappy but elegant and straight-forward. The logo also honors from the original red square SMFA logo.

Drawing inspiration from a clear vision

Most of the time, clients come in with a blank slate in mind, but once in a while the project comes attached with a clear vision. Below are some examples of that in the logos for real estate properties (The Holly and The Madison) and hair extension start-up (Voël).

A flexible logo system

One of my favorite logos I've worked on was for the Cedo25+ exhibition. As part of the exhibition, we invited designers to submit to the flexible logo system by creating their own 25+ art. The exhibition featured a lot of talented designers and you can see below how participants came up with wildly different solutions along with the ones I created to get things started.