The Evolution of MRKT Project
Not being a classically trained designer, everything I know about design, every tool I use, every technique I employ, literally everything I do I’ve had to teach myself; with that in mind, it is safe to say that the logos I designed when I founded MRKT Project in 2013 were limited by my abilities at the time…
In this post we’ll explore the evolution of MRKT Projects identity, starting with the “what the hell was I thinking” period of 2013.
When I first came up with the name for MRKT project, I had this idea in my head to create a logo that incorporated a ® (registered trademark symbol) into the logo; it was a while ago, but if I recall my thought process was “we’re creating brands and intellectual property, let’s lean into that…”. The next few iterations of the logo played on this theme.
Continuing in vain on this path towards a “registered trademark” symbol being part of the logo, I started to play around with ideas that for reasons I don’t fully understand included a mirrored R’s and what was supposed to look like a wax seal. Eventually I settled on the reversed R icon on the right, mostly because I liked the font; then inexplicably, this followed…
I honestly have no idea how I got here, but it didn’t last beyond a few failed attempts of designing our first website (if you’re interested, you can read more on that here). Thankfully I saw the error of my ways and went back to the drawing board with the following gems.
I’m just going to skate over these pieces of… something; with one minor exception, as you can see I began playing around with the idea of using a + symbol for the T in MRKT, probably with the train of thought “we’re here to help companies…”. That motif, along with the hexagon shape, seem to dominate my next iteration of designs.
Right. Next.
Right. NEXT! In all seriousness, at this point I started to take bits and pieces I liked from earlier iterations and started putting them together. Eventually I’d throw this all away, but not before one final stab at futility.
Inadvisable use of dark grey on black (with a dark grey outer circle surrounding the black circle) aside, I’m not mad at this design.
At some point I finally designed to throw out all the “registered trademark” and “emergency design help” ideas and after some exploration settled on the tag link for MRKT Project of “Fresh ideas, grown naturally” based on the idea that the market is the place you go for fresh (and often organic) produce as well as, for me anyway, inspiration for that special meal you’re planning. Fun fact, apparently since I decided to start MRKT Project in 2012, I put that as the founded year in this design rather than 2013, when the company was actually founded.
Getting closer to the final design, this is the logo I settled on to launch MRKT Project (for some reason, probably length related) I decided to drop the “Project” in these designs. For the logomark, I wanted something that would invoke the tagline and landed on this design of a lightbulb with a plant replacing the filament. While I didn’t really use the workmark for anything following this design (I don’t think I was ever really happy with it), the symbol has been with MRKT Project since the official beginning of the company.
Alas, we have the final version of the MRKT Project logo in all its glorious pink, gold and blue. The colours chosen for the logo really just reflect years of tinkering which landed on a set of colours that aren’t meant to be taken too seriously (that and I wanted to add a warm glow to the lightbulb, because you know… its on!).
Cheers.
