Approximately a month ago a friend of mine, who
is in the US Air Force, contacted me and asked if I could design a patch for
his squadron. A few things he requested for the design was to include a grim
reaper, a B-52 Stratofortress and a few other details. Almost immediately the idea for this design
below came to mind. I wanted to create something
you might see on a heavy metal album cover. This patch went through a number of changes before
I achieved the final design. Initially I
had bombs dropping from the plane but decided that visually it was too busy,
and the lightning enhances the impression of a heavy metal motif. A few constraints I had were the final size of
the physical patch, 4” round, and the level of detail the stitching machines can
achieve. Overall I am satisfied with how
my first commission turned out.
Update: Well, it turns out my friend’s squadron
never had the patches produced. However it’s not all bad news. My friend went
to a store on the base and had them produce a single patch. The patch you see
below is made by hand. The colors are different from the original design because
the shop had limited color options. Honestly, I think it turned out really good
all things considered.
When creating a logo
I enjoy coming up with variations on ideas, and utilizing different historical art
periods for inspiration. This time the subject of my new project was a local Italian
restaurant. I posed myself the question, if they hired me to redesign or create
a new logo what would it look like? For my first design (starting with the top
row, far left) I wanted to create a logo in the style of a Victorian
advertisement. I don’t often get the chance to make drawings that elaborate and
I feel like it would work well with the current interior of the restaurant
(wood trim and glass chandeliers). With the next logo I wanted to exude the
look of classical roman art with a bit of art deco thrown in. It is a relief sculpture
of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, which is offered at Red Rose. The last logo
in the top row I wanted to relate to the physical look of the restaurant. In
the front of Red Rose Pizzeria there are brick arches over each of the windows
and I thought what if there was a stained glass sign inside one of the arches. Moving
to the next logo on the bottom row (again viewing left to right) I wanted an imperfect
look, the look of an ink stamp. It’s simple enough to be printed on employee
shirts and pizza boxes. The next logo I wanted to tie into the new casino being
built next door and emulate a 1960’s Las Vegas feel. Plus neon signs are pretty
good at grabbing people’s attention. The last logo is supposed to be a simple
graphic design; I imagined it possibly being turned into a sticker that could
be put on pizza boxes or handed out. It’s a similar idea to the ink stamp logo.
