So I guess I don’t really know what this is about. But with the London Olympics around the corner, this patriotic soul was just wondering about some kind of small, simple design to sit around the neckline or hems of Team GB’s uniforms.
Whilst I was mulling that over, it dawned on me that the flags of each UK nation’s patron saints bear such a striking resemblance and symmetry - crosses, saltires, light on dark, dark on light. Then it was just a case of stylising the flags a little and bringing them together. Bosh.
So at the top is the ‘final’ version. I love it, but it’s not very ‘Leeds United’, is it? I drew a lot of inspiration from the style of badges used in American football - maybe that’s why it doesn’t sit quite right. As a badge in its own right, I do really like it though.
Second is the development piece (way too complicated) and last is the initial sketch version I did.
EDIT: Thinking of placing the final illustration in a shield, rather than a roundel. Thoughts?
Inspired by Leeds United’s nickname (well, pretty defunct nickname now… I wouldn’t mind seeing ‘The Peacocks’ make a comeback), I suddenly wondered what a new roundel peacock badge could look like.
This is only a really, really rough version, but what do people think? If it’s worth it, I might do some more work refining this.
This is in response to the (now not-so-)new HP logo created by Moving Brands. And I like it. I do. But if that’s a ‘p’, then surely that ‘h’ could be interpreted as a ‘b’? Probably best to avoid any association to the letters ‘BP’ at the moment.
So I thought, well how would I do it? Like I said, I like the overall simplicity of what Moving Brands have done, so I didn’t want to completely start afresh. I took the four slanted vertical lines and played around a bit.
First, I added some serif-like curves, just to echo the letters ‘h’ and ‘p’ a bit more literally.
Then I thought, ‘what about rounded corners?’ This second version strongly hints at ‘h’ and ‘p’ shapes, but the large, gentle curves lost the logo’s overall feeling of being rooted in technology.
So thirdly, I played with diagonal cuts in place of the curves. Introducing these cuts at the extremities of the ‘h’ and ‘p’ seemed to enhance this particular logo’s effect.
I looked back at Moving Brands’ version, and while I’d gone for an 8-degree slant, they’d referred to the original HP logo’s 13-degree slant. So I tried this on my three versions, and found that reducing the height by 80% gave each logo a very welcome compactness.
Ultimately, I thought the most effective logo overall was the third version, in its compact, 13-degree form. Dare I say slightly prefer it to what Moving Brands have come up with..?
Front cover design for The Saint, plus poster design for the launch party.
Sources of inspiration/resources: Natty Paint / Umbro GT Boot / cardboard texture / woodfloor effect / magazine vector (used as a template) / Impact magazine
Thought I’d go all-out and actually make a good version of a 21st-century Smiley badge.