I was gonna add text (taglines) but decided to keep it visual.

I also submitted a version with this logo at the top:

Beware: game talk ahead. If you don’t play TF2 tune out now.

Regarding the class war in general -it feels like a lot more people are playing soldier! I find myself trying to dodge up to 4 rockets at a time on payload and capture maps. At least when attacking. And these are the regular 24 player games. Obviously demos are meant for defense, so the likelihood of demos winning this war is further diminished by the deficiency in certain maps/scenarios. Add to that, the learning curve for demo is steeper. Any noob can aim a rocket so it explodes near someone. Aiming grenades to do any damage (either full on or splash) is not as easy, and their close range game is a lot weaker.

Demos need the numbers to prey on soldiers’ main downfall. Soldier is perfect for taking on one enemy at a time, but as soon as they need to reload there’s a lot of downtime in their offense. Their other weakness is shooting enemies above them. However, this isn’t easily exploited by demos since they’re not the most mobile of classes, and is once again map dependent.

Anyway, I don’t really mind who wins. I mainly sided with demos because I usually play scout, and demos are easier to kill than soldiers. ha

Here’s hoping the new weapon will replace the shotty! lawl

Here’s the final version:

And the heavily debated version (across 3 posts):

Now… Read on for an insight into development. Beware: lengthy post.

I was tasked with branding an established personal training business in light of future expansion. This was the old business card (with censored details):

Nothing sacred – as you can see the logo’s just a typeface.

First of all, the brief. To summarise: it’s a mobile personal training service targetting middle-upper class people, both male and female. A point was made about it being great for housewives/stay-at-home Dads. They also referenced Under Armour, Skins and ebb as logos they liked.

After meeting with the clients I went off and did some research on local gyms and sporty brands.

I expected to be making a logo with the emphasis on “Elite Body” following the discussion, but after doing some research and ideation I tried another approach which would brand them as “Elite”, in the same kind of way that Zest is abbreviated from Zest Health Clubs.

I thought this type of branding would translate well to an equally long name like “Elite Body Concepts”.

This was a cut down set of options about 4hrs into development (including research). Here is an excerpt from my email to the client:

“I worked mostly on 6-10. I think it suits your target market the most. For branding I suggest making “elite” the focus, and that’s the part that’ll become iconic. The whole logo will say elite body concepts, but people will likely just refer to you guys as ‘elite’.

I think 6 and 9 are the best shapes. The ‘e’ is still quite elegant being circular and the shapes are reminiscent of a designer label brand – which should appeal to mid-upper class women. Number 9 is kind of sporty and adidas-esque with the downsloping ‘lit’ kind of like their 3 stripes, whereas in #6 everything slopes up so conceptually it’s kind of an ascent. Possibly a good thing – you guys are ‘taking people higher’, reaching their goals, etc. The downslope is kinda nice for readability though since the ‘t’ is slightly shorter. Possibly reminiscent of a training routine with the logo sloping up, then down, then up.”

I also noted the logo would say “Elite Body Concepts” regardless, I was just honing the iconic part at this point. The client feedback was they like 5 and 7. But wanted to see 5 without the bits and the ‘t’ in elite needed to be more obvious.

Here is the next iteration:

At this point they liked 1 and 4. I suggested they run with 4 because it’s a more unique design and I think the typography’s pretty smart and well-targeted. It’s also a better branding avenue in my opinion, becoming known as “Elite” rather than “EBC”.

Now for colour! The client said they had green in mind…

This was mostly the same 6 logo colour combinations on different backgrounds, including some inverse fill logos for the white backgrounds where appropriate.

The client liked the yellow logo on teal background (in the bottom right section) and I sent it to the web design company, who queried the readability of the ‘t’.

I’d ‘tested’ the logo on some people without issues, all reading ‘elite’, but I took this onboard and tried a few more subtle variations:

The client liked the second last one, but noted the web design company still thought people might mistake that for ‘elile’.

That seemed a little unnecessarily pedantic, so I hit rewind and consulted some freelance graphic designer buddies for feedback in the appropriate realm of expertise. The consensus was it looked better without the full crossbar and would logically read as “elite” if there was any doubt so I sent through this version with some accompanying reassurance/confidence.

“After considering the situation and working with another freelance graphic designer over the issue we’ve settled on pretty much the original version of the logo, but with less angled e’s, and I’ve spaced the letters out a little more for readability.

In any case, people will know it says elite because they will either come in contact with it via you or your employees saying “I work for Elite Body Concepts”, or maybe they’ll visit www.elitebodyconcepts.com.au

In the situation of people seeing your logo completely out of context; myself, my designer colleague and various people I’ve asked to read the logo all agree this will be read as ‘elite’, since ‘elile’ is not a word. Surely anyone who thinks this says ‘elile’ would follow it up with “Or maybe it’s elite?” then reach the conclusion that “Elite Body Concepts” would make more sense than “Elile Body Concepts”.”

At this point I thought the deal was sealed, however, after showing a few more people it was apparent some were reading ‘elile’. Ohnoes!

Thus began a day of live on-blog iteration via feedback. The shenanigans start here, continuing with this post and that other one over there.

Resulting in the ‘safe’ option:

Thanks, Nick! *dusts hands* My work here is done.

To see more of his work come along to the Summer exhibition! Only 2 weeks away!

Also, there’s an eventface here.

So the last one definitely reads as elite, amirite? Although I made ‘lit’ slightly closer (fixed the kerning) for the pic below:

I think it’s between the first and last… Or the way way back original one. hah

PS. Thankyou all for your feedback!

Is there any doubt as to what this says? Is this dumbing it down to an unnecessary extent (see Greg’s comment on the previous post)?

I’ve reduced the incline to 5degrees and extended the crossbar.

Also here’s a comparison with the old incline:

We have an epically-talented lineup of artists for this exhibition so be sure to check it out!

The artists are:

Otilee and Brendan Ninness of ForksOpenDoors
Rebecca Lee
Mitchell and Dent
Jessica Singh – who also has her solo show launching the same evening on the other side of Little Creatures’ gallery wall.
Nick Lowe
Luci Everett
Yolanda Stapleton
and ofcourse myself.

The theme for the exhibition is Summer and contains all new work from the artists available for sale.

On display will be limited edition digital paintings and photographic prints, illustration and original mixed media works.

If you’d like to know more I can be contacted via:

sb (-at-) simonboxer (-dot-) com
or call 0401 660 286

Zap.

A lot more thought goes into design than may be expected from a glance. Another big consideration was focus. Keeping the content to a minimum and getting the heirarchy of elements right. The future perth logo (which I didn’t design) and website needed to be most prominent, then something to catch peoples’ eye and a few teaser points of information. Thankfully, the clients were savvy enough to keep the required text to crucial points only.

Being a ground-standing banner, the further down you go the less attention details receive, so I had no problem leaving the base of the banner blank. A better alternative may have been to crop the bottom of the banner off and make it a hanging banner instead, but the specifications were already sorted.

How did I reach this?

Well, the girls are quite natural and have a playful, approachable dynamic on stage. The handwritten font alludes to this, as well as the indie side of things. Plus it’s more organic. I added some serifs to ‘professionalise’ it a little.

There are so many directions a band logo could go in it’s a little confusing. Their songs are also a bit mysterious, and Pez’s tunes especially seem to have darker undertones which I don’t feel this logo captures. But maybe it doesn’t have to. It depends what image they want to put forth.

I think I’ll try a few more directions before settling on one. To be continued…