Some Rejected Logos

So that you (our valued reader) can see how we work, we’re sharing some samples from our own logo design process to show what works, what doesn’t, and what may get you a nice letter from an expensive corporate attorney.

We liked this logo. A lot. It just felt so instantly recognizeable, and a little bit rock-n-roll to boot. But then our intern walked in wearing a similarly designed T-shirt, and we suddenly remembered some of the finer qualities of our other logo designs.

This logo has a nice hand-drawn feel that made us think about the early days of art and design. We were all set to print our business cards when a large mouse showed-up at our door and threatened to kick our collective butts if we didn’t change our design. Needless to say, We moved on.

Power! Electricity! Stability! This one had it all. We dreamed of spray-painting this all over town. We even made a stencil. Then we recalled where we’d seen this design before. How could we be so dumb?! We still liked it, but ultimately said no to “Back in Black” and went back to the drawing board instead.

We had a whole bunch of sketches of heraldic designs–shields, medallions and what-not. We liked this enough to develop it, even though it have a brief run looking like a 60′s illustration of a delivery box. Finally in the end it just felt too “brown.”

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We wanted to make a logo that you couldn’t refuse… Something strong, but timeless. A bold, graphic design that could pull the strings on your subconscious and make you want to call us. Make you feel it was your sworn duty to make that call. One of our “family” members pointed out the resemblance to another design for some movie and the book it was based upon.

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At first this logo felt so sunny, fresh and bright. A visual testament to our dedication to running our business in the greenest way possible. Of course, a variation of this mark was used by another company from across the pond that has tainted the visual, much like a huge oil spill taints the ocean and all of the life in it. And, by taint we mean completely devastate. Next!

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So, now you can see why we ended-up where we did with our own branding. Stay tuned though, as we may get that itch to re-design it any day! Want more now? Take a look at some real-world examples of logos that we’ve designed for our wonderful clients.