Scooby Doo and Shaggy

Final Artwork

Initially I was going to post these within the text of my story but I didn't want to break up the paragraphs with these pictures and accompanying commentary.


I think the final piece turned out pretty well.  I was never a big Scooby Doo fan myself but I enjoyed making this for Andrew.  Read on to see how I made this!

Happy Birthday Andrew

I realize this post has nothing to do with design, but I promise I will put up pictures of my process to make this all mildly relevant.  But, even if you are only here to read about and see designs, I ask that you take the time to read this post because Andrew was and still is a very special person to me.

Andrew loved Scooby Doo and Shaggy; he used their names in his AIM screen names.  So as a birthday present to him, I created this drawing.

A Nourished Life Design Contest - Gold Medal Design

The contest is now over and my design won!  This is actually quite exciting because my first couple entries for this contest were not well received and were frankly not very inspired.  So I'm quite glad I continued to work on this and produced a logo the client wanted.

And this is the final, winning design!

A Nourished Life Design Contest - UPDATE

We are coming to the end of the contest (about 1 day left!) and the client and I are trying to decide on color options!  This can be the hardest part.  Once you find a graphic you like you have to decide on what colors you want to represent your company!  The original green/red/yellow kept leading to green and red combinations, which reminded the client of Christmas.  I began trying some blues instead of red.  Here are some color scheme options I have come up with.  I think I like having three colors in the name or when "nourished" stands out more than "a" and "life".  I also am starting to feel that the red is too overpowering to be part of the text.

A Nourished Life Design Contest

The Company: A Nourished Life provides customers with weekend retreats where they can learn how to eat and cook responsibly by using sustainable and organic ingredients.  Participants will also learn about allergy-free cooking and alternatives to eating a conventional diet (examples: raw foods, sprouting, juicing, etc).  The retreats offer a combination of lecture and hands-on cooking classes.  There are also activities such as yogo, tai chi, hiking, biking, etc.  Customers will learn how to change the way they eat and improve their lifestyles and health.

The Project: shouts green, sustainable an conscious cooking/eating, subtle incorporation of fitness/activity, fresh and clean design, prints well in black and white/color

My Thought Process: I originally came up with ideas that incorporated a cooking utensil (spatula, pan) and some green aspect or food.  These ideas were not what the client was looking for.  They wanted something that implied cooking without using a pan with food.  I doodled a little and tried to draw forks and spoons (images that the client seemed to like) with curved lines (to imply movement).  After I was happy with some doodles I moved to my vector program (Artboard) and played around with the shapes until I settled on the logo you'll see posted below.

Business Hive Design Contest

The Company: Business Hive is a brand based in Slovenia and owned by a non-profit student organization.  It is an international business crowdsourcing competition allowing students (both foreign and domestic) to take part in current, real-life business challenges.  These are currently "offline" events but Business Hive is developing an online crowdsourcing platform!

The Project: recognizable and attractive to both businesses and students

My Thought Process: This contest had already been going on for a couple days when I looked at it.  There were many many logos using hexagons to incorporate the bee hive idea.  The client/contest holder (CH) had requested that designers try to use something other than hexagons to add variety to their options.  I chose to use a stylized bee hive.

plusaqua Design Contest

The Company: This contest is for a new company, plusaqua, producing an effervescent tablet you put into a bottle of water to receive a multivitamin drink.  They will be marketing different tablets for a variety of needs (hangover, jet lag, etc).

Project: hip and recognizable logo, the client asked for the logo on both a white and on a black background (which is why some logos are on white and some on black), the client also asked all designers to submit with the same colors in order to make their decision

My Thought Process:  I wanted the design to be very simple and incorporate both the letter "a" and a plus sign.  I used a droplet of water but since it is an effervescent product they preferred the bubbles.  I like my second attempt at using a water droplet (the third design I've posted) because it is simple and the droplet is contained within the "a".  I also tried out using a plus sign and including the bubbles in the plus sign but the client liked my design with the letter a and the bubbles the most.

Please feel free to leave comments on both my and my fellow designers' logos!

Welcome to Midnight Orange!

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting my design blog!

I am a graphic designer currently based in Pittsburgh, PA, USA but I have worked with clients in the United States and international clients.  I hope this blog gives perspective clients (and family and friends) a more in depth look into my logo creation process and the breadth of my artistic endeavors. 

This first post is simply a display of past logos I have designed (some with descriptions).  The first logos were created early in my designing career and the last logos are the most recent.

Thank you again for stopping by my blog!  Enjoy!