Personal Logo design and branding
Exploring in brief, the process of designing a personal logo for myself as well as the foundations for personal brand identity.
When designing my personal logo, I knew I wanted to create an artistic, monogram style logo. I started with the basics, replacing my middle initial "A" with a "V" rotated at a 180° so that the center legs of the "m" would form a v-shaped crossbar for the "A".
I then modified the "M" by raising the center point of the middle legs so that they didn't touch the baseline. The next step was to find a place for the "B". I wanted to avoid a cluttered look and with a little experimenting, I found that the "B" made a handsome base for the other letters when rotated 90°. Finally, I modified the serifs on the "M" so the lines would flow better with the shape of the "B".
After finding a combination that I liked, I noticed the “A” and “M” formed what looked like a rudimentary crown or a mountain range. I decided to add a star above the “A” to give it a little extra magic, the cherry on top if you will. All of this rests on a transparent background.
I liked the clean, simple look of black and white but wanted to tone each color down a bit, so I pushed each slightly towards gray. I named the black, 'Charcoal Black' for its similarity to the color of charcoal, which isn't really a true black. I named the white, 'Phantom White', in part due to its ghostly color, as well as its hex code, which reminded me of the F-4 Phantom Fighter Jets that my father worked on when he was in the military.
The vertical signature is comprised of the monogram logo centered above my name in a slightly modified trajan pro 3 font, resting on a transparent background.
Similarly, the horizontal signature is comprised of the monogram logo situated to the center right of my name written in a slightly modified trajan pro 3 font resting on a transparent background.
I needed a simple icon for use in browser tabs, bookmarks, etc. Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of a design with such thin lines is that they become hard to see when reduced to a small size, especially with a transparent background. Rather than use a white background, I chose to create an inverse version with rounded corners. This served both form and function as it increases the visibility of the monogram and creates a sleek, classic appearance. The icon is finished off with rounded corners to compliment the fluidity of the font as well as adhere to modern trends.
The inverse vertical signature is identical to the first signature other than having the inverse color scheme and the rounded corners on the opaque background in the style of the icon above. This is to be deployed when on a background such as a pattern or a photo so as to protect the logo's integrity.
Similarly, the inverse horizontal signature is identical to the first signature other than having the inverse color scheme and the rounded corners on the opaque background. As above, this inverse logo serves the purpose of protecting the logo's integrity on a patterned background or photo.
