It's All Fun and Games

I've worked with Darcie Davis off and on for more than a decade and she never ceases to amaze me with her enthusiasm and intelligence. She's the type of person every smart business owner should be on a first-name basis with. Her latest venture is called Games and Team Building, which uses games and other activities to build better business teams.

I designed her logo (as well as the Huddle and Fortune Ice Breaker cards she sells on her site) with all the elements needed to capture the fun and dynamic products she offers. Have fun! www.GamesandTeamBuilding.com

Above: Darcie's business cards were designed to be like a game card with a question on the front and the answer (Games and Team Building) on the back.

Beautiful* Logos for the Beautiful Game

I've been playing soccer since my elementary school days, but only in the last few years have my athletic and design lives intersected. Soccer logos are a funny thing. Most European club teams have very traditional crests or seals that I don't find terribly appealing. On the other hand, MLS (Major League Soccer) logos blend old-school European with a slicker, more American style.

My first soccer logo was for the Phoenix, my indoor team at the time. A flaming soccer ball seemed to fit the bill nicely and I chose type that had a funky, retro-futuristic feel. Definitely not traditional. I had to stop playing due to a series of injuries, but I hope the logo lives on.

The Blackhawks were my son's first team and my first opportunity to dip my toes into coaching (I was an assistant, but yelled like I was the real coach). After I designed it, I was bothered by the V-shape formed by the wings, but rationalized that it was a V for "Victory." Not that that helped us much.

I've been coaching the Reston Legends for the last couple years. The name is rather ironic since we haven't been very good (though we always seem to rise to the occasion come tournament time). I really like the way the soccer ball resembles a globe emerging from the dark of night.

The Wreckers are my son's - and my - futsal (a type of indoor soccer) team. I messed around with this one for weeks in my spare time, fussing over the chain and the type. At the last minute, I found out that the image area was more square than the rectangular shape I had been working with and I had to come up with something new in a few days. In the end, I love the way the ball emerges from the shield, blending old- and new-school sensibilities.

I'm currently working on a soccer league logo that is in the development stages. Fingers crossed, I'll unveil it soon.

*Beautiful might be stretching it a bit, but I couldn't resist it for the headline.

Dad & Mouse

One day, I was looking through my daughter Aster's sketchbook and I fell in love with her sketch of a girl with a balloon. I scanned it, added color and, along with a bunch of others, turned them into greeting cards. Of course, I couldn't make cards — whether or not they're ever going to be sold — without creating a logo to go on them.

Since she was only a few days old, Aster's nickname has been the Mouse (or Mousie) and I liked the idea that this was a collaborative effort between us so I used the name A Dad & Mouse Collaboration. I found a typeface that had a soft, whimsical feel to it and I made a small tweak for a finishing touch. When I showed her the cards she responded by saying "Now I'm famous!"

How it All Started: Logos to Go

For the longest time, I knew I wanted to be an architect, but a Commercial Art class I took in high school opened my eyes to the world of graphic design. I enjoyed it so much that a friend and I opened up a "business" designing logos. With a fondness for whimsical names, we named it Logos to Go and created this business card using press type and chart tape (a flexible tape used for creating information graphics back in the day).

We had it printed at one of those places that did thermographed (raised printing) cards dirt cheap, but only had a few colors available and only on certain days. The circles were filled in with markers to look like traffic lights to create a 4-color look. My mom — yes, my mom — came up with a tagline for us that we used on flyers: "Creative Genius for a Paltry Sum." I think we sold one logo — a stylized water buffalo for an importer of goods from Southeast Asia — for $50. Not a glamorous beginning, I know... : )

For Fun: The Happy Home

I designed this while working on a project at Freddie Mac. After a while, you run out of interesting ways to depict houses so I was really delighted when I combined a house and a smiling face in a way I hadn't seen before. It turned out that it wasn't right for the job I was working on, but I kept it and hope to find a home for it at some point.

For Fun: Baby

I recently had the opportunity to spend a rare day alone with my 7-year old daughter. She loves art, so much of the day was spent drawing and painting together and one of the things we did was contour line drawings (where you draw without looking at the paper or lifting your pencil) of each other. At one point, I drew her beloved Baby, a pink stuffed bear with a blanket for a body. It was fun to be able to just draw for fun and later I ended up turning the drawing into a logo (of course). Not sure what it would be for, but if you have a line of kids clothing or accessories and are looking for an identity, let's talk!

For Fun: Fuller Kids

Not only do I enjoy designing logos for clients, I often do it for fun. In this case, I designed logos for my kids after they had seen me working at home on some freelance projects. They were curious about the process so I came up with some ideas while they sat with me. Caton (Caty) looks pretty much like his logo (when he's smiling, that is), Winona (Winnie) is our oldest and definitely acts like a first child and Aster is a type of flower so that was kind of a no-brainer. They seemed impressed and started making logos of their own that night. Later, my son (he's 8) said he was going to make logos and sell them to people, kind of like a lemonade stand, I guess. If only it were that easy... ; )

Fun: Three Donut Coma

One of my "hobbies" is creating band names from words and phrases I overhear during the day. I probably have more than 100 names of imaginary bands collected over the years. There's something about the odd combination of certain words that just makes me grin. Occasionally, I'll turn one of the names into a logo, t-shirt or the beginnings of a full-fledged identity.

In this case, someone brought in doughnuts to work one day and, against my better judgement, I ate three before lunch. Later, I told a colleague I had no energy because I was experiencing a "Three-Donut Coma." My hope is to someday make a series of 3DC shirts, stickers and other rock-n-roll paraphernalia. The irony in all this is that I don't have a musical bone in my body...