On a recent holiday to Melbourne i wandered into the ( soon to be branded as ) Red Robin book store. After chatting with owner Robin ( who has red hair, who’d have guessed… ) about an author we both liked, she asked what i did for a living and after discovering i was a designer, revealed she didn’t yet have an visual identity for her up and coming business.

So much for the holiday, hey?

Robin had already decided she wanted her logo design to incorporate a robin, this is a bird in case you were wondering, various breed of which often sport a red chest, face or head.

After developing some ideas the choice for imagery came down to the bird itself, or a blue egg. Though clever and memorable, it was worried that the fact robins eggs are blue might be too obscure a fact and the logo design would seem nonsensical.

Ultimately Robin loves her red and so a stylized robin was chosen instead to perch on the typeface. A serif typeface was chosen as literature is typically printed in a serif font for ease of reading, with the final selection being Bodoni.

Here is a handful of sketches of some alternate ideas, the final logo and stationery is finished in 2 colours.

a,b : using robins egg as graphic element.
c,d : a book used as robins wings.
e : a book used as a birds nest.
f : a birds nest holding a book instead of an egg.
g : a birds nest made from books rather than twigs.

What are your thoughts?

Do you feel this logo design is effective? Would you have done anything differently? Your comments are always appreciated.

Posted here are a few really unique, though possibly impractical business card designs. People often get caught up in such ideas setting out to create something innovative and unique and end up forgetting about the functionality of the card.

The photo above for example is for an asthma and allergy centre. It’s a clever demonstration of the importance of health lungs and great for someone to be able to blow up a balloon having conquered there asthma, but what happens when you’re having a chronic asthma attack. Do you blow up the balloon to get the number to call for help ? I doubt it.

This is more to my liking. Just as memorable, probably fits in a rollerdex with a little effort, gives you something to poke at while your on hold too.

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Here is a small collection of interesting business cards I’ve fished off the net featuring dies cuts and embossing.

There’s a couple that might be a bit flimsy for my liking, but definitely some memorable cards. I thought bite impression above was a great touch for a dentists business card.

Die cut and threaded dog tags for the National Greyhound Adoption Program.

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This logo was designed for Sydney clothing outlet Allioop. Proprietor Alicia wanted a simple, minimal logo design to clearly reflect the business, the above was chosen from various ideas.

Pieces of thread, stylized womens figures and outfits, a variety of logotypes and various other ideas where explored before finalizing the above, a single page of some alternate ideas is show below.

What do you think?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

You might think that using black couldn’t be simpler. After all, black is black right? Wrong. Depending on what printing/ink system is being used their are literally dozens of choices when it comes to choosing a black, each with distinct differences.

Fellow designer Andrew Kelsall recently posted a designers guide to using black over at his U.K. based graphic design blog.

The aim of this article is to document every conceivable type of black that is destined for print and web.

It is my aim that if you are a designer, you can find some information here that you didn’t know―and if you are learning about design, I hope you can educate yourself from this post.

Andrew goes on to list both the mix, provide examples of and suggest the best uses for over a dozen possible black selections including, process mixes, flat black, pantone, warm, cool and even Hexachrome black mixes.

Check it out.

Whether your a greenhorn or a seasoned designer, Andrews comprehensive write up will be a great reference for your future projects.