My logo recommendation for a flyfishing equipment and apparel company, though the client went in another direction. A first initial may not often serve well as the foundation for a logomark, but in this case it worked: the drop shadow edge of the B frames the two trout "brothers".

This was an early logo concept for Pelo's, before several rounds of revisions. It's hard to leave my subjective opinion at the door forever — so it occasionally finds its way back to my portfolio.

This faith-based counseling service challenges the stereotypical religious convention that our past is not relevant to our present. While they still see that as “God’s perspective,” they definitely acknowledge the role our past must play in talk therapy. This client initially requested a full tree with roots for the logo. But because tree logos are so ubiquitous, I recommended root-like interconnections in a wordmark, emphasized by an oak leaf and acorn to represent the present and past.

I was so excited to design this badge/logo for PBX as part of my duties with Old Hat Creative, a sports marketing agency in Norman, Oklahoma. The shape is built on that of a pickleball racket, and the X is built on a pickleball (wiffleball to those of us over 40).

Sœw is a marketing agency that helps companies grow (sowing seeds) by interweaving (sewing together) multiple marketing strategies across media.

Motion Factory is a highly versatile and incredibly creative production agency in Los Angeles. I was thrilled to design their logo; I was also thrilled to design THIS logo (which was a close second). Their chosen mark can be seen at motionfactory.com

I designed this logomark for a tech company that works directly with airlines, giving them customizable technological tools to achieve customizable solutions. A Swiss Army knife-as-jetliner made sense with the slightly irreverent and playful aspects of their brand.

This video and film production company based in Altadena, CA, chose its name to honor the unique partnership of the founders, a husband and wife team with two very different sensibilities and skill sets. One of the first doodles out of the box was of a dandelion seed, which perfectly captures both the idea of a beautiful mess, and the notion of equal but opposite forces going in their own directions, each with the same mission to grow something new.

The added concept of mimicking film festival laurels with dandelion leaves sorta sealed the deal.

This swimming pool maintenance company in Pasadena, California, requested an ‘H’ emblem fit for a comic book hero’s chest. The ubiquitous pool ladder makes for a great ‘H’ and honors the humor in the name (though it can be argued that cleaning a pool is a heroic task). Fun bonus: It also has a built-in uncial quality, which harkens to ye heroes of olde.

Take Five Coffee is a distribution business in Sydney, Australia. Or rather, it will be one, as soon as possible. The owner is transitioning from the world of I.T. to the world of Awesome. Once he’s made it, this simple ‘5’ mug in neon orange will be a beacon to anyone needing a five minute coffee break.

2019 CREAMER AWARD NOMINEE

Special thanks to Old Hat Creative for inviting me to design this logo/mascot for the University of Missouri - Kansas City. We placed 3rd for Best New Primary Logo for a University!

This cattle tracking software helps ranchers keep tabs on their herd. The doubled small-to-large ‘M’ forms the profile of a cow, while suggesting maximization.

Of the several logo concepts I presented to this Seattle area church, this was the least “church-like” (a design objective from the pastor himself). It was also one of my favorites. Other objectives included “youthful” and “investing in the community”—these squirrels are selflessly working together to water buried acorns and grow trees full of acorns to share.

Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (aka “Potato Pants”. Seriously.) is a disease that effects the legs by making it intermittently difficult for the brain to send signals to the muscles. The feeling is described as wearing pants full of potatoes. To suggest there’s a cure within reach, the mark illustrates improved mobility from left to right.

Fun fact: a rooster’s profile resembles a raised hand, if you squint. This app (whose name combines “choose” and “rooster”) allows any group of people to take a vote on any subject, from who-should-be-club-treasurer to where-should-we-get-dinner.

This cutting edge music platform allows users to compose ‘living’ music in adjustable, fluctuating segments that recompose themselves (hence the chromosome) according to listeners’ preferences.

AI as “man’s best friend”. Fido is a tech company that focuses on determining all the ways artificial intelligence can benefit humankind. A human silhouette can be seen in the negative space between the dog’s markings.

This spiritually-inspired mark features three balanced iterations of the same shape, spiraling together to form a rabbit playfully bounding away. One requirement of the mark was that it should be able to be recreated as a 3D dangle for bracelets.

This bakery offers a ridiculous assortment of gourmet sweet roll flavors. The Willy Wonka-esque unicycling gentleman can ride atop an ever-changing background of local artists’ flavor renditions.

Wordmark for a CRM company that offered a variety of interconnected solutions for businesses. I designed this mark way back in 2015 (along with a set of accompanying secondary marks) for a contest at 99designs; it didn’t “win”, but I still feel it honored the brief very well.

Here’s a really fun thing I got to make: a logo for an e-commerce record store. The brief was brief: I was only asked to incorporate a record, woodgrain, and a 1970s automotive color palette. Maybe it’s counterintuitive to use a melty, cracked vinyl disc to sell shiny, good-condition ones, but the average intelligence of record collectors all but guarantees there won’t be any confusion.

The brief called for a friendly, modern, feminine vibe. Instead of any literal stationery bike imagery, I chose to focus on the person doing the pedaling. After all, a big part of this business model is the camaraderie you get from exercising in a group. Also, a halo does a nice job of saying “good”.

Long story, but. The short version is this tech startup chose an odd, elk-based name to stand out. Their primary product uniquely featured a completely self-contained solution (vague, I know), so I built the logo out of the letters in their name. Self-contained.

This East Coast vacation rental company hired me to help with their rebrand. The original logo didn’t reflect the flare of mid-century style they bring to their properties, so I set to work exploring screenprinted wall art from the era and developed this mark that combines simple shapes to suggest ocean, seagulls, and the hint of a rooftop.

This was one of those rare projects where I felt compelled to steer the client away from her initial concept, toward a more appropriate image for her patients. Understandably, from her medical psychology perspective, the doctor imagined a brain-related image for her logo. I was able to convince her that the logo was primarily for parents of children with brain trauma, and for those kids themselves. I suggested that seeing a brain could be intimidating or even scary, but that seeing a child at play—fully recovered—might be a stronger foundation for her clinic’s identity.

Several years ago, a crowdsourcing design website held a contest to redesign their logo. The brief was ridiculously lengthy, with literally dozens of descriptive words for the brand identity. From “fun” and “balanced” to “growth” and “potential”, I took the hilarious variety as a challenge and decided to incorporate as many as possible. I ended up with a circus bear on a unicycle, pedaling away towards the horizon, sowing rows of seeds from her satchel. It actually made it pretty far before they settled on a brief-defying corporate look.

I created this simple wordmark (accompanied by one of several proposed branded illustrations) by flipping the shoulder of the lowercase “r” into a subtle smile, with the two “i” dots for eyes. Their slogan “go hire” is set off-center below to draw attention to that spot in the mark.

Back when using initials was a little less common, I designed this mark for a company called “Horizons” that provides real estate agencies with graphics, maps and charts for their presentations to stakeholders.

Pretty straightforward, this one.

This organization is devoted to helping women addicts regain their footing and reclaim their power. The name was derived from different literary pieces (“taking the high road,” and “may the road rise to meet you”). I designed this literally rising road to both suggest a woman’s profile with her head raised to face the future, and also to mimic an “R”.

All they knew was that they wanted something childlike and fun, and that everything else would follow. In my early sketches, I started with a friendly thick script and immediately saw the owl character flying through the middle. Seemed too good to pass up for a first draft. They passed.

It was exciting to discover I was able to create a leaping gazelle from the letterforms “IN”, since a gazelle nicely captures the “spry” portion of the name.

This real estate agency caters to high-end clientele and specializes in finding families that perfect nest.

A script “H” doubles as a streamlined male silhouette. I never use an initial for a logo unless a business is actually known by its initials, or unless the recognition of that initial is secondary to what the shape is communicating.