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
Great work in showing us the process of how an awesome looking/meaningful logo is born.
I’m sure undersea productions were really happy clients!
Very impressive logo It’s so simple and smart… Loving it!
wow…amazing.. this perfect logo..
Thanks for posting the design process. It was well worth it due to the aesthetic and concept of the final product. I actually found it on Wolda, under the category of 2010 professional logo winners.
Also, it’s great to know that your a Christian and that your Siah logo stands for pointing all the praise to Him.
All the best, and keep being the “head and not the tail!”
Could not be improved upon. Glory to our King that He blessed you with His vision…..amen
very very nice creation
It has been really delightful to follow the progression of this project from initial ‘vague’ perception to the final sublimely simple and elegant result. Can’t help but get associations to M. C. Escher when viewing your final LOGO (agree?). Anyway, thank you for sharing your ‘journey’ and best of luck with your future projects.
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Your work seems Inspired, but from this post it is clear that perspiration, as well as Inspiration, sparks your work, Siah.
I love this logo. Simple ~ but effective.
God bless you.
Julia Stone
Awesome logo design tutorial. I love the revolution of the logo and the reflection you have made. It’s a perfect result!rnrnMaybe the eye made of fishes could have been made even smaller, did you try that?
Awesome work! The school of fish forming an eye is also a great work.
Wow!Amazing technique used and the idea exploration if very subtle and the outputs really awesome…surely the client were very happy to have that kind of logo.!
That is really interesting at the final stage to get the symbol with fishes! Thanks for sharing its really inspiring!
Really interesting design. Keep it up!