Re-branding Undersea Productions
I recently had the privilege of working with Undersea Productions, an undersea imaging company based out of Australia, to re-brand their visual identity. They felt there old logo was blah and they wanted something more clean, creative and memorable.
First off, let me show you the old and new logo.
Old Logo:
New Logo:
The Journey
The journey began with studying the underworld animal kingdom. I enjoyed watching several of the company’s own video footage for a lot of this. Once I felt I had a good grasp on their business I started the sketching process. I filled several pages with various ideas.
Sample of some of the sketches along the way
I experimented with dozens of ideas integrating cameras, different sea animals, etc.
Here are just a couple of the ideas that were developed along the way:
Integrating a whale into the type.
The client had originally hoped to include a humpback whale into the logo. This was one of the concepts that integrated that idea.
School of fish forming an eye.
Similar thinking to the winning logo but not as much unity in the two design elements.
The Winning Concept
The eventual chosen concept was developed in later on in the project. We wanted to combine an aperture and fish together in a way that would be recognizable while keeping the fish on the realistic side as apposed to the stylized side . Early executions of this had me doubting if the concept could actually fly. After several re-iterations and sketching, re-sketching and fine tuning in Illustrator I was finally able to get it where we wanted it to be.
Evolution of the icon:
As you can see, the early executions of the concept were quite rough. But thanks to a faithful client and some hard work we were able to evolve it to something successful.
For the type I used slightly customized version of Avenir Book. It’s a nice rounded font that matches the icon.
Horizontal/Web layout version with tag line.
Vertical version.
Black and white icon.
Overall, the client and I were very pleased with the final design and feel it fills their visual identity very well. Looking forward to seeing in use on DVD spines, uniforms, etc.
Once again, always love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers,
Siah
45 Comments
This is lovely! The process and evolution you went through to create the final logo was really fascinating.
Thanks for sharing the design process, Josiah.
Very cool work. Nicely done 
Nice work, thanks for sharing you process and sketches with us!
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Lovely work, man!
Superb.
Amazing work buddy.
Very nice logo, Josh! Great job…
Great work. I’m a designer, but I kind of suck at logo design. I love hearing the explanation and seeing the sketches of the concepts that went into the design process! Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for the kind words, all!
@Cam: Maybe subconsciously.
Lovely work, I’d definitely love to see more posts like this detailing your ideas and process. Very interesting to see, especially from someone with an obvious passion and talent for what they do.
Thanks.
Thanks, Liam. I’m hoping to do this more often. I’ve done a couple other logo design processes before. Fresh Fruit Baskets (http://siahdesign.com/archives/648) and Peter Hylenski Sound Design (http://siahdesign.com/archives/867)
Nice work dude! love this
Josiah, amazing work my friend:)
too good for your skin mate – keep it up!
Logo Of The Day | 2010-02-19 | Undersea Productions
February 19th, 2010
[...] Website coming soon: http://underseaproductions.com Design process found here. [...]
Thanks Andrew, Fabian and Nathan! Cheers
GREAT WORK AND DESIGN…!!!
Great design process. Awesome logo.
博主高手，学习了！
Awesome project!
Nice work! Like others are saying, I like to see the process! I’m sure it helps for other people, too, to see how serious you are about doing quality work and, as Jacob Cass says, “Why logo design does not cost $5.00″.
What a wonderful story, Josiah, with a perfect ending.
Thanks Peter, Jovan, Tandberg, Michael, Julie and Raja! Appreciate the kind words.
[...] 8. Undersea Productions Rebrand Process By Siah Design [...]
halidon2
March 1st, 2010
But I thought clients could get great logos at CrowdSpring for $250?
Couldn’t be better! Congratulations!
K
March 2nd, 2010
Great negative space work. Absolutely love this logo.
(and honestly… I never comment on stuff)
absolutely genius!
Logo Of The Week: Undersea Productions | The Roxor | Design blog for resources and inspiration
March 6th, 2010
[...] you want to know more about the creative process behind the creation of this logo, you should read this article on Josiah’s blog. It explains everything from the first sketches to the finished [...]
Wonderful job.
I really loved the way you mixed up the two main concept: underwater and image = fishes and a camera eye.
really great
i love this work. really, the first step to make a good logo is whith a pencil and paper before Photoshop or Illustrator.
祝您新的一年里：万事如意。身体健康！！
Beautiful – love it !! Love the school of fish forming an eye as well … either one would have worked but love the final! Nice work!
Nice work man, really like it.
Top dollar, like it big style.
Wow! some really good logo design work.
good work,so its how you designed it,great
looking very nice
Excellent Concept
ok thanks
thanks alot of
I loved seeing the progression of ideas and your sketches especially!!! This post is why I knew you were the designer for me!
Congratulations Josiah! Great is final work!
Rae
July 5th, 2010
Great concept and design! Thank you for sharing your process. Congrats on the final product.
incredieble wonderfullllll
Great work Josiah. I love how you displayed the icon evolution. Digging the way you tied in the aperture and fish.
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About Siah Design
Josiah Jost, nicknamed Siah (sigh-ah) by his friends, is located in Alberta, Canada and freelances under his business Siah Design. He specializes in logo design and has won various awards for his work as well as been published in multiple design books. He serves clientelle locally, nationally and internationally. He is also a Christian and is very open about his faith.
“ Josiah was personable and flexible to work with. His logos had meaning behind their design, and he worked with me to create a logo that was both memorable and well-branded. I hired him again to design our stationary and he over-delivered once again. ”
Dev Basu, CEO Powered By Search
Is that some old Hartford Whalers influence I see in the early sketches?