Pops Vs. Pups & Vintage Logos

Recently finished up a couple of identity projects for Swift Creek out in Midlothian, VA.

The first is for a girls-night-out type of event.

Made a logo:

An announcement:

And a web banner for their website:

The next event was a guys event. A father-vs.-son athletic challenge type deal. Same type of package:

Swift Creek: Go! Cleveland Brochure

Designed a brochure for Swift Creek Baptist for a summer missions camp: a combination of a summer camp and mission project (pretty cool idea). The vision conveyed to me was to create something that was "fun, but still geared towards missions." I wanted the brochure to be colorful and a little "whimsical" ("fun") with a touch of sophistication ("but still geared toward missions").

My designs have always tended to come out pretty clean-cut, but with this brochure I turned a corner in that I took some chances I don't normally take. What I ended up with is some chaos within a clean-cut template. Pretty interesting process for me. Now let's check out the design:

Front Cover of the brochure/logo:

Inside of the brochure (once it's opened up):

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Wallpaper of the Month: December

Is your desktop boring?
Have you resorted to pictures of cute pets to bring some life to your background?

Well, my friend, if your desktop wallpaper has been there longer than your grandma's kitchen wallpaper, it's time to spruce up your computer screen by joining my Wallpaper of the Month Club. Membership to the Wallpaper of the Month Club is free and easy: just check out the blog at the beginning of every month and get a great wallpaper that captures the spirit of the month it is named after. Satisfaction (might be) guaranteed!

Ergo, ladies and gents, I give you: "December."

[Click the image to view full-size. Then right click and select "Save As"]

Check back next month for (you guessed it!): January!
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Bellevue Student Ministry Identity Project

A few months ago, the decision was made to update the identity of the Bellevue Student Ministry (where I work). A new vision had been cast for the ministry: "To lead students in becoming authentic followers of Jesus Christ through community, disciple-making, and action." My goal was to incorporate this new vision (namely, the three components of "community, disciple-making, and action") into the new identity. So, I began to work on the logo (quite a daunting task). It didn't take long before the text portion was complete. I decided to go with the font Museo for the BSM identity project. Museo is so crisp and clean - very modern. It is a font that is taken seriously, but it is playful at the same time. Museo was the perfect fit for the project! The logo itself, however, proved to be more difficult. How do you visually represent these three huge and important concepts? After months of experimentation, brainstorming, meetings, and discussions, I arrived at this:

Now, at first glance, it may be hard to discern the meaning behind the logo. That is why I shall explain it with a picture and some words:

This is the logo in separated form. Notice that the disciple-making portion shows the multiplication process of one person (or, in this case: "red dot") pouring their life into two people ("dots"). Community is represented with a simple circle. Action is conveyed with three dots forming an arrow (implying that this ministry intends to get outside of itself and serve somebody).

With the logo complete, the next phase of the identity project began: a new communication package. Everything was updated: letterhead, envelopes, business cards, notecards, postcards, and even a small card with information about the ministry. Here is the entire communication package:

Here are a couple of close-ups:

letterhead, postcard, postcard envelope

information card, business card, notecard

While being challenging, this was also a really fun project. I really appreciate the amount of freedom that was given to me and the support and help of so many people.
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Eccentric Photography

Nothing like a logo design project over Thanksgiving. Anna White (my girlfriend) needed a logo for her photo blog, so - to keep our relationship on good terms - she chose me to create it.

With the title of Eccentric Photography, we wanted something bright and colorful and...eccentric! Anna had the idea (which I thought was genius) of creating multiple logos with various color schemes. Here is my favorite version, as well as two alternates:

 

  

This is the banner for her blog:

And finally, here is what the logo looks like on a photo:

Check out Anna's blog for more great pics.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Swift Creek - Refuel

Recently finished a logo for my friends at Swift Creek in Virginia. This logo is for their once-a-month outreach event called "Refuel." Lately, I have been trying to make letters and words convey the meaning that spell out. "Refuel" was a perfect candidate to do this:

Here is the black-and-white version:

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More posts about Swift Creek: [Crossfire] [Elevate Design Process] [Elevate]

Girls Reality Tour - Program Insert

The ladies of Girls Reality Tour have their first girls conference this weekend. Since we intentionally made the Program Book generic (so it could be used at multiple conferences), an insert with specific information was necessary for this particular conference in Richmond, Kentucky. I was responsible for the layout of the information, font selection, and overall design (mostly on the cover).

The finished product is a black-and-white insert. Grab a piece of computer paper, now fold it in half (where it's fat, not skinny) - this is all the insert is.

Here is the cover (look familiar?...except the location and date are present this time)...

This is what you see when you open it up...

And on the back...

Thanks to the GRT-gals and hope the conference goes great!

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See previous posts about Girls Reality Tour [Program Book]

Parkside Student Ministry Logo

I have been working on a new Student Ministry logo for the folks at Parkside Baptist Church in Texas. I was given the idea of the ministry being "deep and wide."After brainstorming, sketching, and playing with the concept of "deep and wide" (as well as being heavily influenced by the work of Herb Lubalin) I came up with a couple of concepts to convey the idea (do you see the deep and wide?):

[Roots!]

 
























[Sans-roots!]

























Roots or no roots? Which is better. I am torn. Post your opinion.

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See previous posts about Parkside Student Ministry: [Throwdown] [Throwdown Update]

Crossfire

Crossfire...you'll get caught up in it!

Props if you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway...Swift Creek is back at it. This time the event is Crossfire. Honestly, I played around with this one for a while before something came to me. That being said, I am pleased with the end result!

 What I love is that the "o" from "cross" and the dot of the "i" in "fire" form an independent logo themselves!

Having the text as well as a simple logo opens up so many possibilities, especially in the context of a church program. Viva versatility!

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"Elevate" Design Process

Today, we look at a typical logo design process from start to finish. We will be examining the "Elevate" logo, which I've posted about previously.

For me, it's really a three-step process:
brianstorm/sketching > design concepts > complete design

Brainstorming/Sketching:
If I have a chance, I do some initial sketching. I love playing with letters - seeing how they fit together and how they completely change when you make the smallest alteration.
Here are my sketches (I apologize for the poor quality, just took this picture with my iSight). As you can see, I've circled a sketch that ended up being very similar to the final product:

Concepts:
After brainstorming and sketching, I go to Photoshop. Photoshop is my playground - I definitely see it as a blank canvas. I like to think of Photoshop as the tool that I use to make what's in my head (which is alot) into a reality. This is when I really want to try to make the vision of the customer come alive in my design. At this point, I send some concepts and get feedback from the customer.
You already saw my concepts for the Elevate logo. Avant Garde is a great font to play around with, due to the fact that it is straight-laced.


Finals:
After receiving feedback, I make whatever changes need to be made, and finish the bad boy off.

Here is the final color logo:

And here is the final black-and-white/one-color version:

Hope you can keep checking back - I've got plenty of new and exciting design on the docket, just waiting to elbow its way onto this-here blog.
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Girls Reality Tour

Girls Reality Tour is a conference for teenage girls hosted by a ministry called Get Real Ministry. I was approached to design/layout/edit the program book and corresponding Bible study book for the ministry's first conference. With a name like "Get Real," the design has gotta be in-your-face (not-so-much on the cutesy, pink, flowery girl stuff).

Here is the front cover:

Back Cover:

Font Package:
Titles:

Alternate titles:

Body text:

Shout out to Christy and Elaina for the opportunity/patience.

Swift Creek Student Ministry

Working for a couple logos for a friend at Swift Creek Baptist in Virginia.

After some initial sketches, I started to work on a logo for "Elevate" - the Student Ministry's Wednesday night discipleship ministry. Being that it is a program designed to take students deeper in their faith, I wanted to create something that came across as somewhat mature. And, of course, I always like for things to be fresh, crisp, and simple.

Here are four concepts I have come up with:

1) I really like the background on this one. "ATE" is elevated (...metaphoric...).

2) Captures the essence of the word pretty well in my opinion (notice the elevation of "ATE" and the shadow that makes the word appear to be elevating).

3) Probably my favorite. This one came out so crisp! Started with white background, but that navy really makes it pop!

4) This one doesn't really fit what I was going for (...so much for maturity). But I kept playing and ended with this. I like it, just not for this project (file under: "Ideas for vintage children's books"). So quirky.

Bellevue's Winter Camp

So I do most of the graphic work for the Bellevue Student Ministry (where I work). With signups for our Winter Camps coming up, we were looking to brand the phrase "Winter Camp." I really wanted to create a theming package that evoked fun memories of wintertime, snowball fights, and Christmastime. The font "Folk" worked perfectly with what I was trying to design.

Here is an initial concept I have come up with so far:

More to come...

DReW

JF Photography

My mom has been making a name for herself as a photographer in Denison, TX. Lately she has been doing quite a bit of portrait shots (everything from graduation pictures to family pictures), as well as landscape and nostalgic shots. In the wake of her starting her photography blog and getting her business up and running, she came to me about a logo. We discussed creating something that conveyed the warmth and personality that she strives to display in her photos. What a fun (and challenging) project!

After some experimentation, I arrived at this...

Although I loved the design (as did my mother), we both agreed that it did not fit with what we were trying to create...

...Back to the drawing board...but this time focusing on personality and flair. The result:

Exit 15: "The Gospel" Backdrop

Here are a couple of pictures of the backdrop I created for the Student Ministry’s series on the Gospel in Exit 15 (our Wednesday night High School service).

 

What you see is 2 projectors working together to project one widescreen image onto a huge canvas backdrop. Since projectors don’t project the color black, I made the background of these graphics completely black, so that the words appear to be floating on the backdrop.

What I love about projects like this is that you are able to see a vision come to life on such a grand scale!

ThrowDown Logo Update

Here is an update of the ThrowDown logo with a little more depth (see previous post):

Parkside Student Ministry - ThrowDown

A few weeks ago, I was asked by Parkside Baptist Church Student Ministry (where my dad is on staff in Denison, Texas) to design a logo for their Wednesday night event "ThrowDown." I was excited to create something that could be fun and crisp. I kept both of those words in mind throughout the design process.

Here is one of my favorite concepts I designed:

Here is our tentative final (but stay tuned for some new changes to this design):

I also gave them a black and white version that will be great on anything that they send to print:

Thanks Jason for the opportunity. It's been great working with you.

Memphis BCM: "Focus: Up"

The Baptist Collegiate Ministry at the University of Memphis recently contacted me about designing a logo for their Thursday night Bible study “Focus Up.” My goal was to create something that would be clean and simple as well as something college students could connect with. I wanted a logo that would be taken seriously, but not too professional. I decided to loosely go with the U of M's color scheme (blue and grey).

I came up with 4-5 concepts. Two of my favorites are below...

Eventually, however, we landed on this...

Thanks BCM for the opportunity.