logo dev

personal wordmark

Creating an iconic lettermark has always been a bit of a nerd goal for me ever since I read The Lord of the Rings and was exposed to J.R.R. Tolkien's wicked cool lettermark. As a part of my recent brand overhaul, creating a new logo was important. Please hover over any iteration to read some of my thoughts on it! (This section is also available under "personal branding")

1

The first and final design are remarkably similar. In this version, the capital 'E' gets lost.

2

Making 'E' more prominent made 'A' harder to identify.

3

Making 'A' easier to identify obfuscated 'E.' Both letters needed equal weight.

4

By merging 'A' and 'E,' identification becomes easier, but the logo loses cohesion.

5

A brutalist take on 'A' created a lot of visual interest, but clashes with and obscures 'E.'

6

This iteration helped me rule out a business card-shaped logo.

7

A dynamic 'A' helped to reveal part of 'E,' but it didn't sit right with the image I wanted to achieve.

8

turning capital 'E' into lowercase 'e' solved the readability issues.

final

Allowing the point of 'A' to extend beyond 'e' gives a sense of upward motion.

My first iteration of the wordmark was simply my name in all caps, in Alata. The iteration work on this logo can be seen below. Feedback indicated it felt like a clothing or designer brand, and this wasn't the image I was cultivating. By separating the entwined EA logo, I kept the spirit of the first wordmark - a lowercase "evan" supported by a capital "ALLEY" - while integrating it into a wider brand identity. The "evan" font was simple enough to continue from 'e' and just needed some refinement. In terms of size, 'A' was sized so that its stroke would just barely hit the stroke of 'e.' "ALLEY" needed to convey support, momentum, technology, and class. 'Y' was giving me trouble, and I was inspired by another font to try a thick baseline. This is the same thickness as the stroke of 'A.' Subtle serifs on the inside edge of the letters gives the font a touch of class and momentum, and match the serifs on 'A.'

soup ladle studio

Like most great names, "Soup Ladle Studio" started as an inside joke that would take too long to explain here. However, as a double meaning, the studio was envisioned as a "ladle" by which talented and driven developers could be lifted out of the "soup" of prospective developers in the founders' community.

"soup bowl"

The first iterations of this logo emphasized the "soup." Experimenting with the idea of an alphabet soup, a soup bowl, and a soup can created some interesting designs, but nothing was really resonating.

the ladle

Once the ladle was added to the brand identity, my focus narrowed and I started to get some more interesting designs. The central idea of the "soup" being lifted by the "ladle" drove these concepts.

gotcha

While experimenting with wordmark designs, I noticed that the S could be arranged as the bowl of the ladle itself. Extending the foot and connecting it to the L gave the wordmark an elegant look and also generated the logo!

skateboard ninja

As the lead producer on Skateboard Ninja, it was my responsibility to "fill in the cracks" on the team, and one way I did this was by filling in as a graphic designer. This included the logo development as well as the final packaging designs.

logo

The initial design for Skateboard Ninja's thumbnail logo was intended to just be a skateboard on a white background, with stylistic inspiration pulled from Japanese calligraphy. On the comment of Brendan, one of my teammates, I realized that it could serve a double purpose as the face of a ninja AND the originally intended skateboard. After several small tweaks and passes, I had something I was happy with, and which looked good as a thumbnail on the homescreen.

wordmark

The fonts of Skateboard Ninja's wordmark were chosen to imply the duality of our game - on one hand, "skateboard" is in a dynamic, italic font, giving the sensation of motion. "Ninja" is much more subdued, in an artistic and calligraphic type, tying into the Ukiyo-e inspired artstyle of the game. By using the 'S' and 'B' as the dots of 'i' and 'j,' the wordmark is transformed into an elegant blend of the two ideas. 'Skateboard' fits underneath the serif of 'N' and gives the whole logo a fun, forward-motion feeling by "hanging ten" off of the edge of the 'a.'