DOLLA! GET IT?! DOLLAAAAAAA!

WHILE listening to Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", which according to several friends the B-side of the album is perfect, I began thinking about the process of client perception on your work. It's an interesting thought considering that what I do for a living is taking somebody's idea and making it happen in a functional form. Creating a logo is easily the hardest project for me to take on, as a client is very particular on how their company/appearance is preceived. As a society "looks" are so important that some people spend more time on perception than on the actual product.

RATHER recently as Switch we were awarded the opportunity to develop the new logo for St. Louis's Ad club. The project was pretty simple in theory; Come up with a new name and design around a name that the group had come up with, Young Guns. In a group of three, myself and two other art directors, began brainstorming names. With this recent surge in a "green" lifestyle, we wanted to try to focus on a similar feel. "Fresh Greens", "Fresh Mint", "Fresh Stock", etc. etc. were a few names we came up with.

AFTER a round of eliminations, as a group we decided on "Fresh Stock". My perception on the name was "Fresh" meaning fresh out of school, or new to the business and "Stock" as a type of paper. Most of the time "stock paper" is of a nicer quality and a little costly at times. My original concept was to create a leaf combining a stylized "F" and "S". After several failed attempts to make something work, I decided to scratch the concept and start over.

AS the second concept began to form, I brainstormed with a personal icon of mine (Mr. Andrew Dyer). A quick sketch was formed from making the "F" and "S" into one icon and from the bottom of the "S" a paper roll, rolled up. Sounds a lot more complex then it really is.


THE original drawing of the logo revealed several hurdles to jump over in order to get a workable version. I began redrawing the sketch in Illustrator as a locked template. As the first round of sketches became first round of vector concepts, I noticed a slight problem in the thinking. While, the "S" was very readable the "F" had begun to lose clarity.



WHILE dealing with the "F" clarity, my creative director advised me to think about my decision regarding the color palette. After reworking the same palette just figuring out a different way to use the colors, it seemed everyone was happy with the decision. When it was all said and done, the final draft looked a little like below.