So Slight Design

I enjoy seeing innovative logo designs. I enjoy trying to figure out the thought process that led to a particularly ingenious logo.

Conversely, I also enjoy seeing logo designs that are so clearly phoned in that the concept of someone being paid for the creation of said logo seems laughable. Like this one for Spa Chakra, an upscale spa located in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Marina Del Rey. To those not versed in the art of Illustrator, it probably seems pretty cool and complicated and somewhat appropriate to the business for which it was created. To those who work primarily in Illustrator, you will instantly recognize it as an instance of drawing a shape and hitting it with the Twirl tool. This process takes roughly 5 seconds.

Take a closer look:

Here’s my first try at replicating it. Not a match, but also next to no time spent in creating something that looks complicated, but isn’t.

If a graphic designer submitted this as a logo and was paid what logos should go for, one has to wonder if the designer found a legitimately simple solution to the design brief or if they presented their design as something special, unique, and complicated, which it isn’t.

This is not to condemn the designer; the client doesn’t pay for the time spent designing, but rather for the designer’s education and experience. That said, I would personally not be comfortable presenting a design like this one because I feel like a paying client deserves more effort.

What do you think? Is this a case of a designer being lazy? Or were they being lazy like a fox?

Second in a series of birds and their hobbies.

Part of a series of little bird innovations and inventions. Ladder Birds use their considerable knotting skills to avoid all the tedious flying.

There’s no denying that octopi (octopuses? even Wikipedia can’t agree) are cool. They’re also smart… if they had longer life expectancies, they’d probably be smarter than most people. As it is, there is a whole segment of the population that I think they far outpace academically, but this isn’t a political blog, so let’s not talk about them.

What I find fascinating is the fact that the octopus can be readily trained to distinguish between shapes and patterns, meaning that they would be better than at least a couple of graphic designers I’ve encountered. You know the ones. They like Comic Sans and design in MS Paint. An octopus would never do that.

It’s called DIGNITY. And octopi have it.

This work is available in limited quantities and several additional iterations with different colors and other appropriate flair. Contact for purchase information or wait until I eventually set up an Etsy shop.

These are some logo comps I did recently for my uncle’s church in Monterey, CA. The church, St. John’s Episcopal, is gorgeous, but better than that, there is a resident seagull named Jonathan who hangs out in the rose garden and eats the church cats’ food.

Step 1 of my logo design process is always a black and white version of three or so options so that I can determine whether I’m on the right track.

Step 2 is working on color options. This design is still a work in progress, but I’m proud of how it’s turning out so far.

Clearly, Jonathan is psyched as well.

This is a red-throated bee-eater, which is a real bird of similar color to what I’ve done here. There are over 20 different kinds, found mainly in Africa, but also existing in just about every continent but North America. Which is unfair. The most interesting bird I’ve ever seen in the wilds of Alabama was an indigo bunting, which comes through for roughly a day or two on its way to somewhere more interesting. Fun fact about indigo buntings: they are mostly monogamous, but not always faithful. Birds! They’re just like us!

Contact for purchase or info on this piece.

I’ve been on a bird kick recently, given in part to the realization that it won’t be long before I live in a new apartment where I won’t have a porch or a tiny square foot of grass upon which to stake a bird feeder. This makes me a little sad, and once my cat realizes that I’ve taken him to such a place, he will probably be sad too. That, or he’ll just take out his aggressive and often destructive boredom on the spines of my signed, first-edition books. (Had I known he was a cat with so little regard for the sanctity of the first edition, I might have thought twice about adopting him, she lied.)

Anyway, I like birds. Perhaps you could tell that by my watermark/logo.

This is my interpretation of a bluebird, or if you’d like to be picky about it, a tealbird.

Moving onto birds of the sort that I don’t have nearly enough of an opportunity to see in person, my latest bird of choice is the toucan. They’re like the gameshow host of the avian world; just look how thrilled they are to see a camera!

Then there’s the most awesomely weird bird in the world, the flamingo. How on earth flamingos got relegated to plastic ground stakes in Florida/trailer parks I will never understand, because they are the greatest. Have you ever seen them stamp their feet in the mud to stir up shrimp to eat? It’s hilarious. And baby flamingos? Are you for real? (For pictures, go here should you prefer not to see profanity or here should you not be bothered by that sort of thing.) My flamingo above has a sort of “Mad Men” feel, or perhaps it doesn’t at all because I’ve never seen that show, but I like to imagine that Don Draper, who I know nothing about other than John Hamm plays him very attractively, would like this flamingo.

Should you wish to order one of these prints without the unfortunate watermark meant to deter internet art thieves, let me know. All are available in any size, or 11″ x 11″ by default. They will be listed on Etsy eventually as well.

No More Absolutes, 2009

Inspired by a Pavement lyric, as many of my abstract works are, this piece will soon be available to purchase in some form or another. At this point, I can’t commit to any particular format, meaning that while I may have named it after what was playing on my iPod at the time, things have come full circle and I cannot say with any certainty what the eventual fate of “No More Absolutes” might be. As it were.

This site is under construction. Please check in again soon. For a look at my portfolio in the mean time, try Sixpence Design.