It's funny how some of the things I absent-mindedly enjoy end up somehow turning into a little design exercise. For example, the other day I thought it would be neat to replace the holiday avatar I used on some of the forums I participate in with an updated literal representation of my moniker, Seapony. A forum habit mascot, if you will. What started out as a little two hour (maximum) recreational activity turned into a day long obsession. Fortunately I didn't have any pending work at the time, quite frankly I shudder to imagine the implications if I had.
After one hasty (and rather ugly) comp in my spiffy new sketchbook (courtesy of my HOWie Secret Santa), I was inspired by the smooth, streamlined drawing style inherent in Disney's Sleeping Beauty to mimick a similar effect in my own little creation. My aim was to emphasize simple, clean and fluid stroke lines. At some point in my early rendering, as I was pondering the best action pose for the little critter, I noticed that with a little tweak here and there I could curl it's little tail up into a letter C, the first letter in my maiden name and the spelling of the earlier incarnation of (my now "retired" design name) Seahorse Productions. It didn't quite end up that way, but then again I'm getting ahead of myself.
As I fiddled with the stroke thickness, I began to notice that the curl of the back, along with the C letterform I was refining, started working itself into another letter, which happened to have been the first letter of my married name. I was excited at the prospect of subtly implying these two letterforms into my moniker, sort of a marriage of my past and present. What better way to infuse a bit of myself! It was beginning to form into a neat little branding package that also hinted my illustrative and typographic training. I could almost feel my blood racing to meet the demand of my fueled creative juices.
I considered adding color at some juncture, but I felt that doing so would muddle these nuances and thus harm my budding brand. There was already too much subtlety at play to complicate it with another dimension like color. However without it, the silhouette was too flat and lacked punch. After a bit of pondering while I continued to refine the angles of the lines, I concluded that the color would have to be somewhere in the webbed fins of the creature. What fins, you ask? Good question. I knew that at some point I had to make the fateful decision to possibly scrap that direction, because adding fins, colorful or not, would obscure one of the letterforms for certain. The issue of how and where was mounting.
My "simple" little design excursion turned into a complicated struggle to maintain the integrity of my symbolism. However rather than "go quietly
into that good night," I continued to balance my lines and weights in the hopes that an answer would come to me. Taking a quick forum break, a reference I read in a post reminded me of the little egghead illustration I did for one of my online colleagues, Chris Tomlinson of Gon Ink, Design and Print as a drawing exercise aid. That was yet another little distraction that ended consuming more of my attention than it should have, but the end result was worth it. The rendering of the eyes would add a perfect splash of color to my seapony. Moreover, without the whites of the eyes it really looked like a fish eye of sorts, bonus. I dug it up and proceeded to consume even more time than I expected deciding on a good complimentary scheme that was also somehow reflective of my personality.
Initially I thought the answer was obvious, it simply had to be blue. Anyone who knows me is well e
nough acquainted with my affinity for all things azure and my "disapproval" of most things green (except in nature, where it belongs). However it was coming out too dark overall. I had to add at least a bit of a white eyeball in there for contrast. Even then, the scheme I picked just wasn't working well enough for me. So on I fussed, changing from orange to gold, even lapsing in sanity long enough to entertain the notion of just keeping it in it's original "egghead green" color. Thankfully, I managed to slap myself back to my senses. At the last possible moment I finalized a blue palette that gave me the punchy effect I was looking for. I was weary, but victorious. In hindsight I determined that if I so chose, I could always change the eye color, adding a refreshing twist to my little mascot.
And Voila. Amazing how a little half hearted distraction can turn into something more. Just goes to show how important understanding and communicating creative principles (as well a bit of some honed talent) can even subconsciously help fuel your design's development towards it's final end. Moreover, this is another reason why any artistic design is two parts creative development and one part execution.
There was also one other serendipitous bonus to reward my thoughtful development. It wasn't until after I was done that I noticed it subtly formed yet another extremely appropos letterform. Any guesses?
Disclaimer: Creative preferences are up to the personal discretion and perspective of the reader...athough all things considered it ended up looking pretty snappy.
As I fiddled with the stroke thickness, I began to notice that the curl of the back, along with the C letterform I was refining, started working itself into another letter, which happened to have been the first letter of my married name. I was excited at the prospect of subtly implying these two letterforms into my moniker, sort of a marriage of my past and present. What better way to infuse a bit of myself! It was beginning to form into a neat little branding package that also hinted my illustrative and typographic training. I could almost feel my blood racing to meet the demand of my fueled creative juices.
I considered adding color at some juncture, but I felt that doing so would muddle these nuances and thus harm my budding brand. There was already too much subtlety at play to complicate it with another dimension like color. However without it, the silhouette was too flat and lacked punch. After a bit of pondering while I continued to refine the angles of the lines, I concluded that the color would have to be somewhere in the webbed fins of the creature. What fins, you ask? Good question. I knew that at some point I had to make the fateful decision to possibly scrap that direction, because adding fins, colorful or not, would obscure one of the letterforms for certain. The issue of how and where was mounting.
My "simple" little design excursion turned into a complicated struggle to maintain the integrity of my symbolism. However rather than "go quietly
into that good night," I continued to balance my lines and weights in the hopes that an answer would come to me. Taking a quick forum break, a reference I read in a post reminded me of the little egghead illustration I did for one of my online colleagues, Chris Tomlinson of Gon Ink, Design and Print as a drawing exercise aid. That was yet another little distraction that ended consuming more of my attention than it should have, but the end result was worth it. The rendering of the eyes would add a perfect splash of color to my seapony. Moreover, without the whites of the eyes it really looked like a fish eye of sorts, bonus. I dug it up and proceeded to consume even more time than I expected deciding on a good complimentary scheme that was also somehow reflective of my personality.Initially I thought the answer was obvious, it simply had to be blue. Anyone who knows me is well e
nough acquainted with my affinity for all things azure and my "disapproval" of most things green (except in nature, where it belongs). However it was coming out too dark overall. I had to add at least a bit of a white eyeball in there for contrast. Even then, the scheme I picked just wasn't working well enough for me. So on I fussed, changing from orange to gold, even lapsing in sanity long enough to entertain the notion of just keeping it in it's original "egghead green" color. Thankfully, I managed to slap myself back to my senses. At the last possible moment I finalized a blue palette that gave me the punchy effect I was looking for. I was weary, but victorious. In hindsight I determined that if I so chose, I could always change the eye color, adding a refreshing twist to my little mascot.Finally came the fins. At this point I was largely satisfied with the overall look of the shape and letterforms and didn't want to obstruct it with appendages of any kind. Because it was largely in silhouette, the little fin predicament was an easy remedy—just create a stencil cut out of them in it's body. Of course it wasn't enough to end there, I tweaked it just enough so that the positive 
and negative space implied the form of it's protruding tummy. Finally came the defining moment, the head fins. As most live seahorse breeds don't really have fins on their heads, I could've gone either way. I wanted to imply it's namesake as well as that of it's other association of a sea dragon, but wasn't quite sure how to pull it off, until I made the rather lazy decision to place the side fins on it's head. I immediately saw the potential in my judgment—it created a serpentine "bony" protrusion that complimented the overall style very well. I quickly rendered the rest using as a blueprint the vision that was already completed in my noggin.
and negative space implied the form of it's protruding tummy. Finally came the defining moment, the head fins. As most live seahorse breeds don't really have fins on their heads, I could've gone either way. I wanted to imply it's namesake as well as that of it's other association of a sea dragon, but wasn't quite sure how to pull it off, until I made the rather lazy decision to place the side fins on it's head. I immediately saw the potential in my judgment—it created a serpentine "bony" protrusion that complimented the overall style very well. I quickly rendered the rest using as a blueprint the vision that was already completed in my noggin.And Voila. Amazing how a little half hearted distraction can turn into something more. Just goes to show how important understanding and communicating creative principles (as well a bit of some honed talent) can even subconsciously help fuel your design's development towards it's final end. Moreover, this is another reason why any artistic design is two parts creative development and one part execution.
There was also one other serendipitous bonus to reward my thoughtful development. It wasn't until after I was done that I noticed it subtly formed yet another extremely appropos letterform. Any guesses?
Disclaimer: Creative preferences are up to the personal discretion and perspective of the reader...athough all things considered it ended up looking pretty snappy.
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