Shepherd logo & brand

6 Dec 2016

Shepherd brand

Shepherd is a platform for business owners to build communities and peer groups so they can better face the challenges and opportunities they share (launching soon!). I designed the brand with supervision from Shepherd's lead, Ben. The main logo depicts two crossed shepherd crooks forming an S.

The alternate logo is a dog, an Australian shepherd. Shepherds still use dogs to herd and control their flocks. Dogs are a great symbol of companionship and loyalty, qualities central to Shepherd. Herding breeds like the Aussie and border collie are the smartest.

Erin loves Aussies. Even as her husband, I'll always be second place in her heart, behind her family Aussie, Tess. She was thrilled to find my screen like this:

Aussie desktop

Designing an Aussie logo was a fun challenge. Blue merle Aussies have striking coloring, with gray and black patchwork and tan points. My solution was to stylize the whole image: use a striped pattern for the patches, punch up the colors to blue and gold, and stick to an angular grid. It's a dog you won't forget.

Logo Pizza Delivered

2 Oct 2016

Logo Pizza

After shipping Flickity v2 thus wrapping 2016's huge development project, I didn't have it in me to write another line of code. I discussed my state of mind and motivation in this 3 min podcast.

New thing, shortsightedness on Bumpers

Looking to change things up, I started making logos.

Man, I love logos. A little piece of imagery that represents the ideal you want your project to be — that's design magic right there. I've been able to work on some great logo projects, but I've been itching to do more. Rather than wait for projects to come my way, I gave myself a project of my own: design 50 logos. 50 logos in 30 days.

Fifty logos is a lot. At least one or two a day for an entire month. I tried pushing myself: exploring different styles, subjects, and techniques. It was like design boot camp: working all those muscles you never use.