When Fort Mill, SC-based photographer Chris Edwards wanted a new logo for his photography business, he reached out to Wonderful Machine for help. He wanted a wordmark logo with simple typography that evokes an industrial look and feel but was also very receptive to suggestions.
As part of our process, we typically have photographers complete a questionnaire so we can get a better idea of what the photographer has in mind before starting work on the project. Along with his answers, Chris sent some examples of logo designs that he really liked — and as soon as I saw them I had an immediate flashback to my days of studying graphic design while in college! They reminded me of type treatments and designs I discovered while researching the famous Bauhaus graphic design movement in the 1920s and 1930s in Europe. The Bauhaus movement had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography…and still does to this day.
I immediately started researching colors, fonts, and lettering similar to what was used in Bauhaus designs. To my surprise, I found a handful of newly released Bauhaus-inspired fonts in the Adobe Creative Cloud! I was excited to see what Chris thought of them so I made a few type treatments using the fonts and sent them over to Chris for his thoughts. He told me really liked two of the three, and sent me a font called Jeanneret, that he really liked.
Jeanneret, is named after Jeanneret Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, also known as “Le Corbusier”. Le Corbusier was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. The Jeanneret font features distinct angles and curves similar to architecture. Upon seeing this font, I had a good feeling that I could make a wordmark that would not only be something Chris would be happy with but something that would be a great representation of his work.
I laid out a few type treatments using the font “as-is” first. Then I started really paying attention to the angles of the letters and thought that I could add an angle or a cut of some kind to enhance the already eye-catching angles of the font. Once I stacked “Chris” on top of “Edwards” I noticed that the r’s presented an opportunity to manipulate the letters so the “stem” (initial straight vertical line) of the ‘r’ letters could be shared between his first and last name. I played around with it for a little while before finding something that I thought worked well and had a lot of visual interest.
When initially looking through all of Chris’ photography on his site at the start of this assignment, I noticed that he had a very keen eye for angles and vanishing points. So once I came to this version of the wordmark I was pretty excited to show Chris and get his reaction. He loved it! We adjusted some of the kerning (the spacing between individual letters) and tweaked the red color so it didn’t “pop” as much.
Here’s what Chris had to say about the logo design:
Nailed it! Are we finished here? I’d love to go ahead and get it placed in my site.
Looking to design or refresh your logo and establish a brand identity? Reach out!