Shantell Powell

ShanMonster Logo Development: The Octomountain

Sun, 11 Feb 2018 17:42:21 GMT

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.

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ShanMonster Logo Development

Sun, 11 Feb 2018 17:19:28 GMT

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.

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Personal Logo Design

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 22:24:26 GMT

For my visual design course, I am to design a logo for a fictitious company. I think it would be more useful for me to design a logo for myself. My creative endeavours have been marketed under The ShanMonster for well over twenty years now, and I've never developed a logo. This could be useful for my website, business cards, etc.

I've used The ShanMonster moniker for such things as DJing (radio and club), clothing and jewellery design, dance performance, visual art, and for my online persona. Since I've used it for so many eclectic, creative endeavours, it makes sense to me that whatever design I use should deal with mutability and creativity. This makes me think of cephalopods, since they are about as creative and mutable as a critter can get.

Possibilities include monograms, but the project requires a graphic mark as a basis. For this project, the logo cannot be purely typographic. So something like a monogram done in the form of an octopus's arms might work. If I do use an octopus, I must be careful to avoid looking too much like other logos which use octopuses, tentacles, or krakens.

So not like this:

Maybe like this? Yes, a tentacle scaling a mountain....

I also don't particularly want to evoke steampunk, and the octopus has been coopted by the steampunk community. So to avoid that, it would be expedient to use a colour palette which isn't steampunk. So I should avoid old-timey browns and sepias. And I should definitely avoid cogs and goggles....

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