TNT Logo Design
Tools: Pen, Paper, Adobe Illustrator
The Challenge
Using an existing jersey design, create a logo for a local women’s cyclocross clinic.
Client Interview
I was put in touch with this potential client through a woman who participates in the TNT (Team Not Team) cyclocross clinics. 2018 marks the group’s third year and Anna, the founder, has started co-sponsoring events and needs a logo for marketing partners. We sat down at Tynan Coffee & Tea to discuss the group, her needs and the future.
I asked her about how the jersey was originally created. The little red guy (“pocket monster”) was quickly drawn up by a friend and has been adopted as an unofficial mascot; it needed to be incorporated into the final design. Otherwise, the outer space concept was a visual pun meaning a “safe space for women in cyclocross”. Outer space wasn’t integral to the brand but the sense of playfulness and humor was.
Initial designs
Sketches
Since we were discussing visual brand identity, I immediately started sketching some loose concepts at the coffee bar with Anna. I talked about how important it is to have a design that’s flexible but also logical and suggested something in a circle that could easily be resized to be square or rectangle or triangle — whatever her marketing partners might need.
She liked the initial concept. I warned her that I tend to create very stripped down, text-driven designs so she should absolutely be honest with me if my initial designs were too simple. We agreed to follow up in a week.
I went home and dutifully researched logo design and working with Illustrator. Luckily Anna was able to get the Illustrator file for the jersey design so I knew exactly which fonts and colors were used, and I had access to the pocket monster.
I found it easier to translate my desired idea to paper than immediately launch into Illustrator so while watching the tutorials, I marked my sketch with tips and best practices for logo design so that I could remember to interpret these on the digital page.
Version 1
I extracted elements from the jersey design to offer 3 initial digital sketches to show her. Overall, she liked the direction but felt that the monster had to have arms (the waving made him friendlier) and felt that TNT had to be spelled out as well.
Version 2
Taking her feedback, I went back to the initial sketches and revised them. I still wanted to give an arm-less option but added “Team Not Team” to give the pocket monster somewhere to live. I ditched the second arm in the other options and gave some variations on the type for “Team Not Team”. For the third option, I played around with the pocket monster’s placement to make it more lively and playful.
Unfortunately, Anna was underwhelmed. While better than the original set, they still felt very boring (flat) to her. She felt confined by the presentation (extracted artboard jpegs) and the stark white background, which would be also be transparent, made it seem like the pocket monster was floating without any reason. I had originally cautioned against including the outer space elements since they were a one-off but Anna really wanted to see more of that incorporated into the design. I completely agreed with her feedback.
Version 3
I went back to the jersey design and isolated a cute set of planets and stars to bring into my logo. This added dimension and a place for the pocket monster to live. Plus, it was still in keeping with the original color scheme. Thankfully Anna loved this direction! She asked that “Team Not Team” have a similar treatment as TNT and I also wanted to improve the quality and size of the output, and confirm that everything was designed to a grid.
Final
After tweaking the lettering as requested and to make sure it was properly aligned (those fake outlines really threw me off!), I adjusted the size and resolution of the final output. I wanted to be sure she had the most high quality jpg and png as possible so she could easily resize the file herself if needed. I also delivered the final AI files as well so she could update the background theme to anything she can dream of.
Reflection
This was a great opportunity to help an organization I believe in and push my design skills. I didn’t have to start from a blank canvas although the original choices clashed with my own personal aesthetic. That constraint was actually an advantage because I learned that I wasn’t communicating visually what I wanted the client to see. For example, I assumed (first mistake) that my client would be able to “see” the resizing of the element (like, she could see the circle for the square) but instead she saw this blocky, chunky square with sharp corners. I quickly realized that if I thought circular was an important element, I better show it at handover. Additionally, even though I told her they were digital sketches (low quality, quick) she seemed disappointed in how unrefined they felt. I definitely need to be much tighter when delivering initial designs to clients as they’ll start from a positive mindset when reviewing all subsequent passes. The fact that she was a personal contact and extremely kind worked in my favor since once I realized my client management mistakes, delivering the third version looked like a HUGE leap forward and she was really thrilled. I will definitely keep this in mind going forward.
Can’t wait to see it on the course! Thank you Anna and TNT for your patience and frank feedback.
I am hugely indebted to Terry White and his tutorials for getting me started! He has an XD overview I’ve got bookmarked for my next project.
