PROJECT - LOGO

creating a logo

sketches and inspiration

my sketchbook page and two concepts in black and white in adobe illustrator

my inspiration for my final design, pulled from the wikipedia page for alchemical symbols- (from left to right) i used fire and water, brimstone (sulfur), and caput mortuum (worthless remains). 

final black and white, and color, versions

artist statement

in order to create a logo for myself, i first started with words that i feel describe me, as well as asking friends for what they associated me with. with that, i created a page of sketches that i then whittled down to about 10 words/concepts (pictured above). my top two designs were inspired by The Fool tarot card, and then alchemist symbols, and i ended up going with the latter of the two. 

in my final logo, i chose the symbols for water (a downward facing triangle), fire (an upright triangle), and brimstone (the ancient word for sulfur), placed in the arrangement of caput mortuum (the "worthless remains" of a chemical reaction). i chose fire and water because i always felt connected to those elements- i enjoy building fires and sitting around them with friends and family, and water because i enjoy swimming and my brother has told me that if i could control an element, it would be water. i also think it's interesting that i have been associated with water when i have a fear of open waters, so i think that paradox is interesting. i chose the symbol for brimstone, or sulfur, because it represents the archaic name for sulfur, and i am interested in the past and history. i also chose it because this symbol is known to be used as an occult symbol, as i also find that interesting and try to incorporate some elements of occultism and darker themes into my aesthetic. i chose the caput mortuum as the overall positioning because it provided a base for the other symbols to rest on. as far as meaning, caput mortuum literally translates to "dead head" or the "worthless remains" of a chemical reaction. this also kind of feeds into the darker theme and keeps with the idea of alchemy. 

i created three different colored versions of my logo. in addition to using color psychology to associate my logo with some of my personality traits, i wanted to have the colors associate with the symbol they made. the top right coloring is fairly basic, with the most simple color associations for each element and and a black base. blue for water, to represent calmness and intelligence; yellow for the color of sulfur, and to represent hopefulness; and red for fire, and to represent passion and love. since i also used all primary colors, it has a very pulled together look. for the bottom left, i used darker toned colors for each element, and used a dark grey for the base. i used blue for water again, and for the same reasons; a deep pink to represent sincerity in a more sophisticated way; and dark purple for brimstone to represent wisdom, spirituality, and creativity. for my final logo, i used a dark red base, and i actually pulled the color for it from a pigment made of caput mortuum, in addition to it being a stable and strong color. i used a dark purple for all of the symbols in this version, again to represent wisdom, creativity, and spirituality.

overall, i used a certain aesthetic to create a logo to represent me. i used alchemist symbols to create it, and used colors that i like and that represent me to create colored versions of my logo.