Drawing Logos from Memory

Over the last six months or so I’ve designed some logos for a few new clients. During the sketching process that I always go through while designing a logo I happened to come across a neat little article on Adweek about remembering certain brands’ logos and how well you could re-draw them from memory. Just for fun I tried a few. 

Most of the logos I tried are very recognizable, but even as someone who is pretty adept at noticing details, remembering the little bits that make the logos what they are was quite challenging. For example, I see the Apple logo every single day so that one was pretty simple but I still had to think before I started. Is the bite on the left or the right? Which direction does the leaf go? FedEx, with its forward-facing arrow hidden in the negative space between the uppercase E and lowercase X is another fairly easy one, partially because of the simple straight lines, although I couldn’t remember which side of the logo was purple and which was orange. Luckily this was just a sketching exercise and not really about colour. Other logos, like Coca-Cola, has some pretty intricate details that are tricky to accurately recreate. For Disney, I was on track with the “y”, but everything else was a bit, well, off.

The process made me appreciate logo design even more. Designing a logo takes a lot of patience and attention to detail that might go unnoticed to many people in the end. Still, taking the time to go through this is an important step in the creative process.

Some of logos I tried were easy. Others, like my Starbucks attempt, were clearly not.


FlashWR 2017

The award-winning FlashWR, which started back in 2015, was another roaring success on Friday. For the third straight year it was a sold out show where the guests were treated to some spectacular imagery, both from the submitted work from local photographers, but also that of the three featured photographers—Alina Chirila, Peter Power, and Lissa Rivera—and of course, the headliner, Larry Towell.

Mr. Towell has the distinction of being the only Canadian member of the prestigious Magnum photography collective. He has documented multiple inaugurations, war zones, as well as the recent Dakota Access Pipeline protest. He spoke at length and showed countless images from his experiences shooting all over the world and even included some of his music to go along with it. Oh yeah, he’s a poet and singer/songwriter as well. It was hard to keep your eyes off the screen because his work is so enthralling and inspiring.

The committee behind the scenes did another top-notch job this year. The preparation, the organizing, managing the open call, and the promotion can all take, what I imagine, is an incredible amount of hard work and considering everything went pretty flawlessly I’d say they did their job well and then some. Craig Norris once again did a fantastic job as emcee and Mathew McCarthy lent his endless talent to creating and editing the videos of the three featured photographers.

And once again there was a donut bar for our enjoyment but I was too busy shooting the event to indulge. Next year, donut bar, next year.


Waterloo at Seven Shores

My friends at Seven Shores were gracious to once again loan me some wall space for some of my work. It’s been a few months in planning but everything is up and ready for viewing (while you grab a meal, of course). Each shot was taken in and around Waterloo, going back a few years all the way up to a few months ago.

I did a slightly different approach to how I displayed everything for this show. Instead of typical framed photographs, each shot has simply been matted and affixed to the wall. It was easier to prepare—not to mention less expensive—and gives everything a nice tidy look.

Everything is up until the end of February or thereabouts, so head over to the cafe to grab a bite and see my work. You’ll probably notice my ongoing obsession with the Seagram Lofts while you’re there.

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