ShanMonster Logo Development

Creating my thumbnails forced me to think further about my logo ideas. I went from full-on monograms to much more abstract designs. My idea changed from octopus to mountains to monograms to variations on the Egyptian fly. I ultimately went with the fly design for a few reasons:

1. It was something I could more easily recreate with my nascent Adobe Illustrator skills.
2. It's loosely based upon a design I created for a tattoo I got.
3. It abstractly incorporates the monogram for SM.
4. It is based off the concept of the Egyptian fly, whose symbolism is meaningful to me.

When I studied jewellery design and jewellery history, I learned about the symbolism of the Egyptian fly.



The fly amulet was a military honour bestowed upon those who persevered in the face of adversity. Think about a fly. They never give up. They will keep buzzing around your face no matter how much you bat at them. They are a potent symbol of tenacity, and this is a symbol I found inspiring.

I am not Egyptian, so I chose a species of fly indigenous to where I live: the common greenbottle fly. This species of fly may be found all over the world.


The original concept sketch for my tattoo looks like this:



The tattoo artist (Cam at Berlin Tattoos) simplified the design to this:



I played around with the design some more with the thought of turning it into a logo. The swoop of the wings create an abstract M. Viewed from the side, they also produce an abstract S. And the mouth parts of the fly are a much more direct M.

Here's my initial thumbnail sketch:



I took it into Adobe Illustrator and worked with shapes, type, and the pen tool. The colours became even more simplified: Chartreuse, mid-toned green, and black. Chartreuse, black, and green are the distinguishing colours of the common greenbottle fly, depending on light refraction. I chose a transparent background so that it could be used digitally on a variety of backgrounds.

I ended up with this:



Then, to see what it looked like in a physical application, I used Photoshop to place it upon an article of clothing.



I also rendered the design using traditional media: black and grey ink on paper.



When my software skills are stronger, I'd like to revisit this and improve upon it.

ShanMonster Logo Development: The Octomountain

One of the initial designs I worked on for my logo was the octopus mountain monogram idea. I went through a lot of experimentation with this idea, and also learned more about how to use Adobe Illustrator while I was at it.

Although I ultimately did not choose this idea, the process was educational.

I played around with rough design.



And then I experimented with colour:



When I took it into Illustrator, my first attempts were awful.



But it did get better. For the curved part, instead of just using the shapes or pen tools, I used typography. I grabbed a letter S, turned it into a shape, and modified it.