GRAPHIC DESIGN
Together Port Moody Logo
Port Moody, Canada
Project: logo for Together Port Moody, an upcoming local pro-development organization with a political focus
My role: first draft concepts; experimentation with imagery, fonts, and color combinations
Design Process
CONTEXT: Living in Tokyo and working as a freelancer for a marketing agency in the US can be a double-edged sword. The way the time zones line up, tasks assigned at the end of the agency’s day can generally be completed before the beginning of their next business day, making for a highly efficient workflow.
However, for this particular project, it meant that I was able to get direction from the project manager and art director before I started, but not during my work day. The deadline was the following day for them, so I only had one day to research, sketch, create vectors, and add color. The idea of a simple, minimalist logo was floated, but inspiration in a specific direction can be difficult to force.
The organization was described as focused on supporting candidates for local development that were pro-development in housing, businesses, and transit.
The art director and I came up with a list of concepts to build on: water and trees, city buildings, hands, and a simple text-only version. There wasn’t an established color scheme or font set for the organization, so we also decided on a few different color combinations and I tried multiple fonts during the design phase.
In researching Port Moody, I looked for not only photos that captured the feel of the overall area, but simple imagery to assemble into a logo.
I typically design in black and white or shades of gray to start so I can focus on the shapes and contrast without getting distracted by color. My preference would have been to submit these to the art director for feedback before devoting the time to adding the color, but que cerá cerá.
To summarize, my task was to create 4 logo designs, each with 3 color schemes and 2 versions (for light and dark backgrounds). That is 24 logos in one day. Unsure which concepts to cut, I ended up with a total of 48. I accomplished a good deal in the time I was allotted, with the task scope I was given, within the restrictions of not being able to ask for feedback or guidance during the process.
In the end, 4 concepts were shown to the client. 3 were mine, one with a minor revision, and the final version retained the core qualities of my first design (as seen above).
