After struggling to produce a logo that both represents Lydia and her designs, I have asked her to give me more of an understanding and explanation of what she does and what inspires her.
These are the key words and phrases she has written down for me:
- taking traditional tailoring and making it modern
- usage of blocked clean lines
- architecture
- bright clean colours mixed with greys and darker colours
- playful
- structured layers
- mens sportswear
As it's been a challenge producing a logo using her name - she wants a symbol to represent her that can work with both her name in type and on its own - I now want to produce something which is more abstract but which relates to her as a designer.
I decided to use the typeface we had decided upon yesterday which was a free download called 'Dolce-Vita' and which comes in 3 different weights:
I liked the shape of the A within this typeface and decided that as I was trying to create a simple shaped logo which comes from her name but without using the initials, it would be an idea to use the shapes of the A. Therefore I flipped the second A around so that it added a bit of variety into it:
Then I traced the basic shape of the A minus the counters and white space. This made a simple shape that I could use as the logo:
I decided to experiment with the type to see if I could put the Y on the same angle as the As as this could balance out the name a bit better:
Although it opens up what feels like a bit of a strange space within the type, this Y seems to fit as the type all uses the same angles now.
I then tested the different ways this symbol could be arranged and used with the type logo:
Another logo experiment:
I then took the original 2 shapes of the logo and moved them around to form this:
Lydia agreed that this was the strongest one I have created so far and we have decided to go with this one as the symbol for her brand:
Showing that the logo works with the symbol in different arrangements, on its own, and just the type on its own too:
This logo also shows the way in which she uses shapes in her tailoring and then the way architecture influences her work. It also feels the most like a mens sports brand and is consistent with the type logo in the way that all of the angles are the same and that the shapes have actually come from the type.
The typeface I have chosen to use with the brand is Gill Sans (Lydia prefers it in Light) as it is a classic typeface - symbolising the classic methods of pattern cutting and tailoring that she uses - and it looks nice and clean next to the logo. This will be used for all of the body copy and headers of the different products.
Now I can begin to produce the other products that Lydia wants to use to show off her collection.
