Awhile back, I mentioned that I teach a design class at Portfolio Center. Occasionally I’ll have my students redesign a sports team identity. I’ve never posted end-of-quarter projects and readers have been asking to see the results, so here is the first post of the sort. I’ll begin posting finished work from my students whenever I feel like it. Last quarter, I asked a 2nd quarter student, Ryan Wood, to redesign a minor league baseball team. I gave him the freedom to pick a team that he thought had a wonky brand identity, so he chose the Erie Seawolves.

10 weeks ago, Ryan didn’t know a lick of Illustrator, so I wouldn’t let him use his computer. I forced him to use what he had: a pencil and a notepad. Hundreds (and I seriously mean hundreds) of sketches later, he was ready to take all his graphic elements into the computer. Rather, I allowed him to use his computer once he exhausted every possibility he could think of. Within a matter of weeks, Ryan earned his Illustrator chops and churned out a beautifully executed MiLB identity for a 2nd quarter design student. There are a few things I’d like to see him to do push his concept further and he’ll have plenty of time for that during his final 1.5 years at Portfolio Center. See it all after the jump. Read more »

One of my students, Addie Courington, sent me this pic the other day. Obviously, she’s having a lot of fun with her KC Wizards logo project. It’s at this point that she’s going to make the breakthroughs to finish-off an amazing logo.

This week, several of my students made significant breakthroughs on their sports logo projects, others are still finding their happy places with their logo marks. Often times, a designer can “have a hard time with the project” and feel stuck; which is often an excuse for not spending enough time on their assignments. Trust me, I had the same excuses as a student.

The way to get unstuck is to get out in the world and experience things that you wouldn’t normally do. Go cliff diving, get in a verbal argument, kick a soccer ball, punch a wall, get wasted, make out with someone, listen to loud music with the windows down, talk to a bum, or walk on a slack line with Mason Poe… Just do something to get out of your comfort zone and start paying astute attention to the world around you. The experiences can lead to lots of creativity.

I wanted to focus on Alyssa’s decision to rebrand the New Jersey Nets as the Brooklyn Beat, since they will be moving into a new arena in Brooklyn in 2 years time. Other ideas she had for names were the “Riders” and “Beats” but it made sense to remove the “s” from “Beats” to signify that all Brooklynites coexist within the same realm, groove, or rhythm.

The next step in her process is to generate imagery that will evoke Brooklyn without falling into the predicatble poor design stereotypes that exist within hip-hop, urban, and graffiti. Remember, it’s important for the new look of this franchise to communicate strongly to a global audience. The NBA is international. Pale-ass Asian bros like me still need to be able to buy into the team’s look and feel. What if I want to rock a Devin Harris jersey?

I think the easy thing to do is to gravitate to the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, and I think that using a singular piece of the bridge proves to be an interesting approach as a logo, although I think she should continue to explore other possibilities. I think that she’s going to have to create some kind of wordmark for the actual Brooklyn Beat name that will lock-up well with the mark. We’ll see how things develop!

Next week, we’ll see our groups’ initial business logos that were randomly assigned out of the Atlanta telephone book. I’m looking forward to seeing how they think outside of the sports realm.

This past week, my students spent a majority of their time doing research on their assigned teams. Some clearly made larger breakthroughs than others. A key to being successful with logo sketches involves narrowing down qualities that you want the logo to communicate. You might want to accentuate the roots of the city and downplay the actual mascot; or vice versa. Does the logo need a basketball or baseball in it? What kind of promotional items do you envision this logo being etched on? All these questions will eventually be answered during this process. Often times, creatives aren’t having fun with the projects and therefore the work suffers. Your quality of work reflects the joy you had in the creative process.

There’s a long way to go, so it’ll be interesting to see how these sketches develop into something concrete.

See more after the jump. Read more »

Top Row [Left to Right]: Stephanie, Addie, Dave, Nichole, Alicia. Bottom Row [Left to Right]: Alyssa & Catherine.

It’s the start of another quarter at Portfolio Center and I have another enthusiastic group that I’ll be working with on Tuesday nights. They come from all over and they’ve had a wealth of experiences in their lives that should help their logo creating processes; including drinking drano, collecting 3D cat posters, and busting their asses in front of Michael Jordan.

When I attended PC, I recall my favorite class was a logo class with school president, Hank Richardson. Imagine my surprise and delight when I received a call from him requesting that I bear the torch he’s carried for so long. I said, “Hank, you need to realize that you’re giving the reigns to a crazy person! Who knows what will become of this experiment.” Nevertheless, he’s down with Larry, and he’s going to let me do what I want (within reason).

If you spend any time with me, you’ll realize that I’m a huge sports fan and I’m also obsessed with the aesthetic of sports. I’ve decided to take this obsession a little bit further by having my students work on new primary logos (and possible brand identity systems) for several sports franchises that have terrible logos, or are on the cusp of achieving greatness, but are in desperate need of a re-brand.

Here’s what everyone will be working on, if I remember correctly:
Stephanie - Bakersfield Blaze
Addie - Kansas City Wizards
Dave - Atlanta Thrashers
Nichole - Oklahoma City Thunder
Alicia - Atlanta Apollos (MLS Bid)
Alyssa - New Jersey Nets
Catherine - Charlotte Bobcats

Sweet stickers Hank! photo by Roger Wong

Congrats to Portfolio Center’s, Hank Richardson, for being the recipient of The Art Director’s Club’s Grandmaster Award. Hank is an amazing teacher and mentor to anyone looking to have a career in design. However, I’m not really grasping what the term “grandmaster” really means here. Maybe it means Hank gets black tees and John Lennon spectacles for life?

Seriously though, (I think I can speak for most people who have gone through the Portfolio Center curriculum), Hank has been one of the most influential figures in my life. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life until I randomly met Hank one day. After talking with him for several hours, I decided to take a risk, leave my job, and go to school at Portfolio Center.

Over the next few years, I was frequently subjected to his unorthodox teaching style which included 6am classes, weekend classes, marathon 12 hour classes, and the destruction of countless sketchbooks. I learned a tremendous amount from him on how to work hard, work smart, develop concepts, talk to clients, draft logos, work with type, and most importantly, believe in my abilities. He even invited me to return to Portfolio Center to teach a class of my own. I’m now teaching the class that I always wanted to take while I was at PC, Music Industry/Album Cover Design, and I’m having a blast doing so.

The above photo of Hank and I was taken by a classmate, Roger Wong, a few years ago when I was working with a live client on wine bottle designs while I was still a student. I have Hank to thank for setting up that experience, guiding me through the initial stages of the project, and letting me fly on my own. That bro totally changed my life!