Hikers And Thinkers Logo

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I've been pin-diddling around and was asked to help out with a logo design for a budding outdoors company.

Of course I said yes.

I worked for peanuts too.

Just because it was for a *dear* friend. (Simple friends and acquaintances do not qualify for below-the-belt-sucker-punch-fees).

Hikers And Thinkers is a unique service offering guides, tips, and helpful hints for camping and hiking the mountains of Western North Carolina. They have a neato idea for handmade hammocks and I hope they can get them implemented soon.

Follow their blog: Hikers And Thinkers

And for the logo:


This is what I was sent as far as the direction they wanted to take.

The concept

This is my final vision of where I felt it needed to go:

Final Version - Client Approved
©HikersAndThinkers

What do you think?

I've always been told by mentors and instructors to include a design of my own free will when doing anything freelance related so potential employers could see "me". Well. This is me. I always include "me" in my designs. How can I not include "me"?

Thoughts?

Always Work At Creating

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This post is neither here nor there... call it a few pointers for young'uns who want to travel the extremely wide path of the Designer.

I was browsing Craigslist (who doesn't love that site?) and came across an ad that made me giggle and then slap my head.

I use Craigslist to either post stuff for sale or buy stuff. I don't find it very reliable for finding JOBS (you know, work that actually pays you and/or is not a cover up for a drug cartel) but I can't resist looking to see what people are posting.

And I came across this gem:

I apologize for the size, so here's a close up and you will get the picture:

*sigh*

Either this poor child will never receive any REAL offers or he/she will be spammed to death. Worse Case Scenario: this child will respond to a reply and end up dead in the woods somewhere in the Mid-West.

Here Begins A Rant:

I understand everyone has to start somewhere, and you are only as successful as you want to be (i.e. put the work in your success) HOWEVER it is impossible for any 16 year old to have "plenty of experience". A college art class. How quaint.

My Advice and Opinion:

Are you a high schooler wanting to break into the biz? Well quit begging on Craigslist and start working for free for real companies in your city. It's called an Internship. College students have to do it, so do you if you want to be successful in any industry. Let's just say internship = apprenticeship.

I love this: "I don't need insane amounts of money". Yeah. Good luck with that!


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Let's Change Gears A Bit:

I worked as a Graphic Designer for a company way back when and I loved it. I loved the company, I loved the people I worked with, and I loved the work. Unfortunately the company closed down. I'm not sure if it went bankrupt or what- all I know is that we had two offices and we downsized. My office was the target of the downsizing.

So I was laid off.

I received a pretty cool severance package for only being there just shy of three years but it still sucked losing my job. If the company was able to keep afloat I would still be there.

Alright. So my office received news of the lay-offs and I immediately started looking for a job. I responded to an ad locally looking for a designer and I was stoked. It was a fairly new design company in the town I lived in- which was amazing because I live out in the middle of nowhere.

I scored an interview.

Awesome.

I arrived at the interview looking smart and packing my portfolio, and who should my eyes gaze upon? A young kid with a 'fro in a tee shirt and jeans.

Hmmm.

Who is this?

Oh, he's my interviewer.

And a co-owner of the company.

Whoops. I'm definitely in the wrong place.

The interview was totally awkward. The kid was 16 years old (oh wait, he was turning 17 soon...) I had ten years on him. Ok so I wasn't some 50 year old with 30 years experience, but this was unbelievable.

His partner was my age and apparently came into some money and bought an old Heidelberg printing press. They wanted to start this design company but needed help. Well color me over-qualified for their position.

I didn't get a call back.

Nor was I expecting one.

I knew more about what they were doing than they did and couldn't afford me.

Moral of the story?

It's cool if you want to start your own "thing", but for the love of my sanity please don't dive blindly into something you can't handle. At that time I had three years of graphic design under my belt and was still more competent and knowledgeable about running their company than they were.

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So what to do if you want in the biz but don't have enough pieces in your portfolio and can't get anyone to "hire" you?

Just create anyways.

Browse industries that you may want to create for: health care, education, banking, etc. Look at different companies in that industry- find a few that you see potential in by sprucing up their image and just CREATE. Create a whole new logo and business standards. Create some brochures, posters, banners, websites (fake ones of course). Show their marketing and art department what you did and ask them how they like it. Ask for opinions (also called Critiques), get used to critiques because in the art industry you will get a lot of them. And receive them constructively- don't get offended or you won't make it.

And please if you show potential employers these things you need to explain that these are your creations and were not hired by the companies to do work for them. It would also help to read a book or two about Copyright Law.

Go ahead and take those College Art Courses. It's fine. I wasn't downplaying it, merely jesting, you need more than college courses to get you established. It's a lot of footwork and what you put in is what you will get.

So let's get serious and get off of Craigslist.

Ground Control To Major Tom

Launching A Start-Up. Ignition Fail!



I am only steps closer to being able to stay at home again... it will be so much easier to focus on my own endeavors when I don't have to worry about stress in retail employment.

I was on the phone with my best friend (whom I've had the pleasure in knowing and keeping up with for over 25 years! Dang that's a long time.) and she asked how my freelancing was going.

I laughed.

It is so difficult to do a start-up of any business if you truly cannot devote ALL of your time to launching it and maintaining it. I've been totally neglecting my OHTY re-brand (we are now Yankee Burrow Creations). Been working on a logo and I was so desperate to fix what my *ahem* partner did as far as banners and avatars so I threw something together to get our "look" going:

Deciding color can be a real pain in the ass when you are designing a new brand/company. Orange is used by a lot of big name companies, and quite frankly it would be hard to use a color that NO ONE ELSE is using. Impossible. The color spectrum itself may span as wide as the universe, but I mean when comparing Pantone 3262 and 3272- it's stinking TEAL for pete's sake. Thalo blue and Cerulean blue are both B L U E. So to sit and think of a color that is unique to the corporate world is a complete waste of time. Use a color that fits your brand and expresses it's nature and emotion.

I'm using orange. Preferably a burnt, rust orange that holds sentimental value to myself and my partner since it reminds me of my Nana (my mother's mother. My mother is my business partner if you don't remember). She is the source of our crafty and artsy nature, herself being an artist and her favorite color being orange I thought the color befitting our crafty and artsy handmade shop.

This is just the beginning, I still need to work on a type style that is as close to unique as possible. Just not satisfied with anything I've encountered yet. Time to break out my graph paper...

Been scouring the web for inspiration and I've been sucked into Pinterest.

Oh yes Pinterest you have lassoed me and made me your slave. Not really though. I like getting on board and window shop. I re-pin items that have already been pinned, I very rarely (ok well never) pin original items because of their Terms of Service. But you know. Whatever.

What frustrates me the most about Pinterest is not being able to find the original link of an item pinned. I was on a search to find this because I thought it was awesome and sums up a designer's dilemma when dealing with logo design and clients who just don't understand. When viewing stuff on Pinterest it's super hard reading the small print and since the poster was pinned from this site which is just a scrapbook of cool sh!t, I couldn't find the original link.

After pulling out a magnifying glass I was able to see the url on the poster and I found this guy. He's been at this for a long time and I appreciate his style and keeping his designs classic yet updated. Will definitely be following him for inspired pick-me-ups.

Drop me a line or two if you've found something cool and snazzy that pertains to logos!

I've also been stalking Logo Design Love for inspirations and articles, they rock. If you are having trouble designing a logo that *doesn't* look like someone else's- this is a good article and also encouraging, because everything HAS already been done. We just need to try to do it differently.