Back to the drawing board

As mentioned previously I'm trying to work more and more from paper beginnings. Especially with logo design I'm starting to explore the relationship between the letters and words more with a pen; rather that darting around in Illustrator.

I think my lack of formal training has meant that I've never really done this, and the need to get jobs done quickly has always been a barrier. Since the start of the year I've done 5 different company logos and all of the best results have been from paper to screen. (Not that these are the ones that got chosen).

I wonder how many designers really work like this anymore? As stated previously, it's my aim to bin the laptop and send all my work in the post by the time my laptop (which feels like it's on the way out) dies.

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Life on Earth Alternate Cover

It's coming up to a year since I finished the artwork for The Moons 'Life on Earth', and I thought now was a good time to reveal the first idea I pitched to Andy. It still resonates with me, and personally, I think is a more iconic design than what we eventually went with, (which I do still love by the way), but just feel like this shades it. It's more striking, and for me, looks more genuinely 60's than the final execution.

I remember finishing it and having that excited feeling the my stomach, then emailing it off and it getting rejected. That feeling when you really love something, and your client doesn't, and nothing you say will change their mind is really crushing. I think sometimes it's a problem of working on email, face-to-face you can really demonstrate your passion for a piece, and it can be infectious.

It takes me about a week to pick myself up after a debunk, and generally I can't sleep very well during that time, it's very dramatic I know! Anyway, we kept some of these elements for the artwork throughout the booklet, so it wasn't entirely wasted, and, together with Andy we forged a great campaign that I was really happy with.

You can buy the 'Life on Earth' with it's actual cover here, it's a great piece of work.

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010

RAW Productions logo

"Simple, modern, and conveys something about what we do."

The 'A and W' represent film strip, in pervious versions they has beading along the edges to look more like film, but after some discussion we decided to drop that and go with a subtler approach.

This is the second logo born from the pad, as part of my New Years Resolution, all conceptual logos are starting life as pencil drawings. For my sins this isn't something I've always done, it's always been too easy to jump straight onto Illustrator and take it from there. It's working out nicely, one day I hope I can get rid of the Mac all together and send my client their designs in the post.

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010

Glasgow Wedding Collective

This was a nice little job that I got through our Wedding Tea Towel contacts, the brief was really well constructed and GWC sent me so many ideas and references that I really got a good flavour of what they were looking for.

The basis of the logo was a font called 'Handmade' and from this starting point we worked to embellish it, creating a decorative 'Rococo' feel that works well in the industry while at the same time eluding to the companies 'collective' nature.

Get in touch ben@citizenstudios.co.uk

Visit www.citizenstudios.co.uk

Or call 07764 898 010