Jeff Rojas, a fashion photographer based in New York City, came to Wonderful Machine hoping to develop a strong graphic identity to enhance his business. His work consists of powerful monochrome photographs with intermittent, eye-grabbing pops of color, making for a refined look that we immediately wanted to translate into his brand. After discussing our ideas with Jeff, we agreed that a bold, clean graphic would be best to capture the personality of his work.
The first round of logo designs contained three different concepts: each included a submark, as well as horizontal and vertical versions:
Exploring the more traditional elegance of the fashion industry for the second round, we focused on the treatment of his initials: contrasting thin, delicate curves with stronger, bold lines.
New age fashion influenced this bolder variation for the third round. Instead of contrasting type, we focused on a bold text with tight spacing, allowing the positive and negative space to form its own design.
To replicate modern and minimalist trends, Jeff’s initials became the core of this design. A solid font, yet sophisticatedly incomplete. Less becomes more in this modern logo, encapsulated by a square border and flanked with type.
We reviewed these logos with Molly Glynn, our photo editor, and Thomas Lawn, our marketing specialist. They agreed these ideas exemplified the strengths of Jeff’s brand, so we excitedly sent them out. With great enthusiasm and some review, Jeff decided to go with Concept C — which we affectionately dubbed “The Mod Square.” He loved the empty space in his initials, the balance between light and dark, and type arrangement in the horizontal and vertical logos. We spent a bit more time optimizing the work by testing variations of fonts and spacing to develop a final look.
Jeff also hoped to gain an identity that could encompass his YouTube channel, which is filled with photography tutorials and business insights within the industry. He was amazed and satisfied with his new logos, so we were now able to shift our focus on building his brand.
When we learned how much Jeff enjoyed old-world refinement from the turn of the century, we decided it was ideal to add a vintage touch to his brand. To match Jeff’s aesthetic, we picked a modern, clean type and kept the color palette to a minimum. The color was incorporated by adding a premium metallic shade (similar to an aged bronze antique). While muted on screen, this color shines in print (literally and figuratively)— perfect for business cards or print collateral.
We were thrilled with how well this logo matched his sophisticated work. Jeff has big ideas for his new brand and is excited to use it for his company and educational resources:
What I’ve appreciated is the detail and the level of focus that Christine had in terms of putting this project together; effectively understanding my brand as a whole, what I wanted to bring to the table, and where I want to be and how I want to be perceived in the marketplace. I think Christine took those things and understood them, analyzed them, and put together something that looked like what my thoughts and processes were, even when I wasn’t 100% sure and clear what the end result should’ve been like. So, you put all my ideas together for me, and that was amazing.