Logo Design for Martial Arts Company
- lkd439
- Aug 30, 2018
- 3 min read
This summer was filled of new things. I moved to a new state, started at a new school, and started a new research project. Yet it was also a summer for new growth in art. I had the opportunity to work closely with a martial arts company in developing a logo for them. This logo was primarily going to be used for t-shirts, but could also be used for posters, business cards etc.
The experience was incredible. I learned so much about working with another company. The representative I worked with was nothing but helpful, insightful, and great at setting expectations and developing goals. The process was a mix of guided and organic and allowed me to create my own art while tailoring it to the company's needs. On another note, I learned a lot about how to handle my process professionally. For instance, how much to charge, when to request money, how to email professionally. Those lessons were the most valuable and not something that comes easily in conversation. Thankfully I was working with a great company that respected me and respected that I was new to this field, rather than taking advantage of me.
In this post, I am going to walk you through my creation process and show you the end result. Hopefully you enjoy learning a little about my artistic process.
The first thing I needed to figure out was the expectations of the company and what they wished to convey with the design. I knew that the company was drawn to the linework found in my drawings. They were drawn to my drawings that focused on continuous lines, circles, and a sense of flow.
I need to learn a little bit about the themes found within martial arts. For each belt color, there is a relationship to an element. These elements tie back into the progression of the student as they progress to each new belt color. The elements are: the Heavens (sun, time of the day, the sky), the Pine Tree (Seed, sapling, roots), and the Earth (the soil for the tree, a mountain). My art has frequently includes themes of the sun, trees, and mountains because I am personally drawn to these things and thus it seemed like a natural progression to include these items in my design.
Knowing this, I ultimately developed a few very rough iterations. Here you can see my thought process, notes, and things I liked and didn't like. It was a good first step to figure out what features I was stoked on and which features the client was similarly interested in. Within all of these, I aimed to keep the thematic features of the Heavens, Earth, and Pine tree.
After communication between the client and I, I started making a few more developed iterations. We discussed which rough iterations were worth keeping, and which iterations were not as successful.
I considered the iterations below "midstep" developments that could be adjusted based on what worked and what didn't.
Ultimately, we decided we did not like the mountain within the "CM" (in this case, "CM" stands for "central movement") because it was too broken-not connected, not flowy. Additionally, the pine trees in the second image were disjointed from the mountains. Those components could be altered for an improved sense of connection in my next iterations.
The last image was the fan favorite. There was a lot of movement, but all of it was ultimately connected giving everything a very connected and fluid feel. This was something that I could work with in the future.
Knowing this, I developed the final two iterations.
I developed the first design- which we affectionately called "spaghetti" so that any words could be overlaid on top. Words could be color blocked in white so that they were made legible by the absence of lines. The bottom image better connected the mountains from the trees so that everything seemed to be continuous.
And so I made one of my favorite pieces of artwork yet: the spaghetti piece seen above.
In the end of this process, I learned some new techniques and the client received multiple designs for Central Movement Martial Arts.
Ultimately, this process included a lot of discussion back and forth between the client and I. We always adjusted outcomes, objectives, and timelines. Ultimately, the experience was an incredible growing process. Hopefully this is just the start of future collaborations.
I cannot wait to see what products are developed from them and I am so thankful for this opportunity!
Hopefully you liked learning about my process! As I have progressed in my art, I find myself doing more and more iterations of stuff before I commit to a final design. My brain just works best while I am putting my pen to paper. Stay tuned for more stuff created as a result of putting my pen to paper.
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