Jeremy Bolton | Logo Designer » Inspiration

Interiors Journal Printed

Jeremy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:04:52 +0000

Well it is finally here. My cover design for the Interiors Journal from Berg publishing has officially been printed and sent off to scholars around the world. I want to thank everyone who encouraged me every step of the way. I feel extremely fortunate to have helped build this journal from the ground up and I can’t wait to start on the next issue!

Interiors Journal | Front Cover Design | Jeremy Bolton

Interiors Journal | Back Cover Design | Jeremy Bolton

Logo Designer’s Unused Logos

Jeremy — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:05:50 +0000

As promised here are the unused logo design submissions made to JeremyBolton.com. Thanks to all the designers who sent in their designs. It is a great mix of logos that, for various reasons, haven’t been used for any particular project.

It was exciting to see all the submitted logos because I am always inspired by other designers work. I hope you too can find inspiration in every one of the logos too.

These, of course, are logos that were never used, but feel free to click on each designers link to see their full portfolio of work. You will also see I threw in a few of my favorite unused logos from past projects. Again, thanks to all the designers who submitted!

Designer: Riavon | Riavon Enterprises | Contact: ria@riavon.com

Sparians Logo | Designer: Riavon

Whiskey Creek Logo | Designer: Riavon

The Dirty Logo | Designer: Riavon

Designer: Gerard Whelan | Brand Central | Contact: Whelan@brandcentral.ie

Lifeblood Creative Logo | Designer: Gerard Whelan

Designer: Eric Benson | renourish

Stitch Logo | Designer: Eric Benson

Designer: Mateen Poster

Core Logo | Designer: Mateen Poster

Designer: Jeremy Bolton

Associated Painters Logo | Designer: Jeremy Bolton

Insyndia Logo | Designer: Jeremy Bolton

Now That’s Clever – Alfa Vale Hotel Logo

Jeremy — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:09:07 +0000

Alfa Vale Hotel Logo | Design by Denis Wong

One of the recurring design challenges that logo designers face is coming up with a design for something that may be viewed as cliché or obvious. However, when done right, even the mundane can become interesting. Take the above logo for example. Although the first idea that may come to a designer making a logo for a hotel may be a bed, this design takes that idea to the next level. The inviting typography and colors add to the overall idea of comfort. Find other great logos by Denis Wong on his Behance profile.

Now That’s Clever – Museum of London Logo

Jeremy — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:35:57 +0000

Museum of London Logo by design firm Coley Porter Bell

The striking new logo, designed by award winning agency Coley Porter Bell, takes the conceptual form of London’s thumbprint. Coloured layers map the shape of London over time, reflecting the ever-changing, diverse and dynamic make up of London and Londoners, past, present and future. The brand mark has been crafted to create visual impact, and link the Museum venues. — Press Release

I came across the Museum of London recently and was simply fascinated with the concept. The logo epitomizes the very essence of conceptual logo design. And it does so with style and flair. It also represents a logo that gives you an “Aha!” moment. It’s unlikely you will understand the logo concept at first glance, but when you are told what it represents the logo takes on a whole new layer of meaning.

12 Inspirational Wine & Winery Logos

Jeremy — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:02:00 +0000

It is amazing to see the scope of logos dedicated to the wine industry. A quick Google search will offer hundreds of results. Unfortunately, many of these logos rely on tired clichés to get noticed. However, there are a few diamonds in the rough. When doing research for my Grape & Grain logo I found a variety of designs that broke the mold and offered a refreshing take on wine and winery logos. I thought I would share a few of the logos that helped inspire me in my design process. Enjoy.

Pasadena Wine Festival | Design: Studio Fluid

Jackie Blue | Design: Vigor Branding

FinVin | Design: Van Paul

Grace Hill Winery | Design: Gardner Design

Bistro 1689 | Design: Raja Sandhu

Wines of Chile | Design: FutureBrand

Cellar d'Or | Design: Fandam Studio

Sarasota Vineyard | Design: Heisel Design

Proof | Design: Alphabet Arm Design

Corkscrew Wine Bar | Design: A3 Design

2 Saints Estate Winery | Design: The Meyocks Group

Naturavino | Design: Square Logo

Make It Bigger By Paula Scher

Jeremy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Veteran designer Paula Scher has been influencing the design community with her brilliance for nearly four decades. Her autobiography, Make It Bigger, is a first-hand account of her journey from budding beginner to practiced principal at the New York design firm Pentagram. While the graphic design profession has continually changed over the course of Scher’s career, Scher herself has continued to refine personal design techniques without feeling the need to cave to current design trends. As a designer, a historian, and a trailblazer much can be learned from Paula Scher’s long line of professional pursuits which are all a part of her book Make It Bigger.

Make It Bigger, Paula Scher

In the early days of her career Paula Scher designed album covers for CBS records. Being part of such a corporate environment led to a variety of power struggles between Scher and her executives. Like anything else that was seen as a moneymaker, executives at CBS records wanted to create albums that would sell music first and foremost and were less concerned with artistic or conceptual design. Fortunately, because of time constraints that were sometimes involved in the process, Scher was able to squeak through highly conceptual designs she later said would have never been approved for the marketplace today. Of course there were a few album covers she probably wishes she could forget, “A friend at CBS records in the seventies predicted that when I die, my epitaph will read, ‘Art director of the original Boston album.’ The thought has always horrified me” (Scher 26). It is this use of dry wit sprinkled throughout the book, which makes for a few good chuckles along the way.

A great deal is also shared in Make It Bigger about the client-designer relationship and the politics that many times accompany them. For example, Scher points out that, a good portion of the time, her first design proves to be the most successful, but clients believe more is better (instead of more just being more.) Scher explains that she often times presents design options that are simply fillers, because the client wanted to see as many examples as possible. This somehow made the clients feel that a satisfactory amount of time had been spent on the design problem, regardless of how easily the solution may have initially come to Scher (the Citi logo is a great example of this). It was these types of professional experiences, and how Scher reacted to them, that I related to and learned most from the book.

Scher’s love of New York City also shines through page after page. The city seems to inspire her work and, in turn, her work inspires countless others combing the streets of Manhattan. Her passionate work with typography takes center stage all over New York City. From giving The Public Theater it’s identity to her design of the exterior signage at 770 Broadway you can see that Scher has a great eye for laying out type. She likens New York City streets to magazine layouts saying, “A well designed city allows the user to navigate both terrains and encourages their peaceful coexistence” (Scher 236). When the final designed came to fruition for 770 Broadway she explained, “the building is the story, but the awning is the headline” (Scher 236).

Make It Bigger by Paula Scher is an excellent read for any designer who wants an inside look into the world of graphic design from someone who has been in the profession for 40 years. Scher’s exceptional amount of experience in a variety graphic design areas becomes inspirational. Her use of dry humor combined with lessons on tackling design and client related issues makes this book an enjoyable read with nuggets of knowledge tucked into every page. It also paints an accurate reality of what a designer will face throughout their career. Case in point, “being ‘over’ is inevitable and something a designer should plan for. The great thing about being over—after one finished the self flagellation—is that one can start right up again” (Scher 261).

Below you will find part one and two of a great interview with Paula Scher.

The Power of Branding

Jeremy — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:00:37 +0000

A few weeks ago I was reading the Logo Design Love blog and came across a poster designed by Jason Dean called the ABC’s of Branding. The poster uses no ink and is instead created through a stamp and emboss treatment. It is being sold in a limited edition run with each poster numbered and signed by Jason. Being an aspiring logo designer I couldn’t help but buy the poster for inspiration. I was very excited to see that my poster had arrived today.

ABC's of Branding Poster

As you can see the poster depicts the English alphabet using nothing but logos to represent the various letters. What is truly amazing about the poster (other than it’s beautiful design) is that only certain letters from famous (or infamous) logos are used to create the alphabet. Though you are seeing each letter out of context, you will be amazed at how many logos you will recognize based on only one letter. This just goes to show how powerful a brand or logo can truly be.

Jason was kind enough to send an answer key along with the poster to show the logos that each of the letters was pulled from. Thankfully I was only stumped by two of them. How many of the logos can you recognize based on just one letter? (Also, if you are as impressed with Jason’s design as I was please go purchase one of the limited edition posters from his website.)

A New Year, A New Work Space

Jeremy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:21:43 +0000

If you are anything like me you need the right environment in order to work effectively. Whether it is good lighting, quick access to resources, or a coffee in hand we all have an ideal work environment that helps our productivity.

I am fortunate to finally have my dream work space. With a new desk and matching filing cabinet, my LED Cinema Display, the Magic Mouse, my ColorMunki, and a good set of design books for reference I couldn’t be more happy with how my home office turned out.

It also got me thinking: What are the three items I almost always have while designing? It wasn’t a hard question to answer. My three would be a good variety of music playing, a cup of coffee, and my pen and sketchpad. What do you all like to have while you work?

Home Office Desk Setup

Files & Growing Library

Design Resources

Comfy Chair for Sketching

Now That’s Clever – Truce Logo

Jeremy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:25:53 +0000

Truce Logo by Turner Duckworth

Truce Packaging by Turner Duckworth

I have found my new logo design hero: Turner Duckworth. Duckworth is a logo, brand, and package designer. You may have seen some of his work: the Amazon.com logo, the Palm logo, Dolby logo refresh, packaging for Coca-Cola and PopChips, as well as many others. The above logo was created to brand a new vodka and cognac liqueur mix. As you can see the word truce is cleverly flipped and able to fit perfectly inside itself. This is an example of a great conceptual design using carefully crafted type treatment. I think it is just brilliant. Be sure to check out the rest of his amazing portfolio.

Logo for a Difficult Client Name

Jeremy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:43:34 +0000

Vespa Sun Logo | Jeremy Bolton

In design (like life) we sometimes have no choice but to work with the cards we are dealt. Or in this case, the company name I was dealt. As part of a class project this quarter we were given two random words (pulled from a box) and were told to use these two words to design a logo. As far as words drawn I was rather fortunate to draw “vespa” and “sun”, though a link between the two was not immediately apparent.

Over the course of a week I created dozens of sketches and began making rough comps on the computer. I felt the challenge of this assignment (like the challenge of most logo designs) was to find the simplest common denominator that gave visual credit to both the sun and the vespa. The more I worked the more I saw that the forms of the wheel/tire and the sun/rays would work well together.

The final design is shown above. The logo uses an abstract shape that lends itself to represent both the sun and its rays as well as a tire’s treads with forward movement. It also gives credit to the “V” in Vespa in the center of the abstract mark, though this is something only I as the designer would probably notice.

This exercise was a great way to take two random words and find a way to conceptually fuse them into a cohesive logo. It also goes to show that even with a less than ideal company name there is (almost) always a solution that can be simply and effectively created.

Jeremy Bolton | Logo Designer » Inspiration

Interiors Journal Printed

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Logo Designer’s Unused Logos

Designer: Riavon | Riavon Enterprises | Contact: ria@riavon.com

Designer: Gerard Whelan | Brand Central | Contact: Whelan@brandcentral.ie

Designer: Eric Benson | renourish

Designer: Mateen Poster

Designer: Jeremy Bolton

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