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Graphic Design
Skylife Industries
Here's the thing when you are a freelance graphic designer, sometimes you get stung. I am fast learning my lesson that you just don't answer posts in forums to get work. People who don't search for a designer (web or graphic) the conventional way are usually looking to do something on the cheap or have some massive personality disorder that means that no one will take their job on. Forums are the hangout of this kind of customer.
Skylife Industries was a lesson learned for me. The job itself sounded like a lot of fun. Skylife were looking to launch an adrenaline sports brand. They get up to all sorts such as base jumping, skydiving and paragliding. They wanted an identity to work with as they developed their business. I'm not an 'extreme sports' kind of guy. I'd like to claim that this is because I am too old for all that now but, honestly, I've never really been that adventurous!
I was happy to take on my own extreme challenge of getting some visuals together for the team though and I started work. Unfortunately, things soon went south and there are many details that I am not prepared to go in to here but, the upshot is that I have some great looking logos to share and no one to share them with. I guess this is one of the many reasons to have a platform for my work that does not make it past the fledgling stages and out into the big bad world.
First attempt
It's good to get a feel for a job and a client by simply getting as many rough ideas down as you can (without busting a gut of course) so this is what I did.
This first concept takes the idea of a stylised 'wing' (or parachute to the rest of us). I wanted to keep it as clean and plain looking as possible just to gauge how the client would react to a very corporate image. I used a subtle dark blue gradient to give the design some interest but the concept and font choice were very safe indeed. The reaction from the client was pretty favourable but I was asked to try and develop something a little more 'grungy'.
Just a touch more grunge
Concept two has a more grungy feel to it. I stuck with the blue colour scheme for this one but went for the stencil style font, which I feel had a simpler quality to it. The figures were taken from a real photograph and then traced and rendered to give them a stylised 'drawn' look. I used a lighter gradient for the blue than I had done on the first logo attempt so that, at its lightest point, it could be considered a true 'sky' blue.
This concept also went down very well with the client. It is at this point the alarm bells start ringing. Do they really know what they want or am I going to be churning out concepts forever? I guess that is the way with extreme sports enthusiasts, always wondering if next time the rush is going to be even better.
Give it some movement
The next idea was to give the logo some movement and to think about how it might translate into a wider set of t-shirts, DVD covers, business cards and so on. Time to take some 'photo real' ideas and try and work them into a logo.
I understand fully that this breaks a lot of the golden rules when it comes to logos. Will it work in silhouette being the main one? Well, no, it won't work in silhouette but most logo ideas can be broken back down into their composite parts to create a simplified version for printing on cardboard cartons etc. I really like this variation as it takes the 'Skylife' theme very literally indeed.
We need a symbol that will be instantly recognisable!
Oh Christ. They really haven't got a clue. When someone uses these words I tend to employ the 'duck and cover' method and get out of there fast. The reason for this is that they believe in the 'power of the logo' without truly understanding what goes into creating a world-class brand. OK, a good looking logo is a part of it...but a very small part of it. The idea that a logo alone will launch you into being world renowned in your field is a joke. Look at the great brands in the world today. Apple, Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas and so on. You may not like them, you may not agree with their corporate policies, but they are fantastic, world-beating brands.
Is Nike's world class brand status down to the tick? Frankly, no. It is down to the fact that they are aggressive, they make sure that their sports wear is available all around the world, they sponsor world-class sports people and teams and they screw their manufacturing costs down to the ground to make it all work. Their logo could be a tick, cross, exclamation mark or even a full stop. The reason you recognise it is because it is everywhere!
Searching for a symbol
As I said earlier, I should have bolted by now but the project still interested me so I had a crack at a symbol for them.
What I finally settled on was the dual 'wings' that you can see over the logo to the left. I returned to the concept that a logo whould work in silhouette as well as nicely rendered with gradients etc. I also think that the font choices here are inspired (if I do say so myself). The 'Skylife' is slick and modern whilst the 'Industries' has a far more classical feel. Almost 'runes and Warcraft' in another world. Combined with the return to the blue that was so well received earlier I really thought we were on to a winner.
It even looks great in a variation of colours!
I think we are on the right track
Then the penny dropped I'd probably be creating designs for these guys for the rest of my life if I didn't push back now. 'So what is wrong with what I have produced for you? Can we choose one of them that we can develop and work towards getting it exactly right?' Bearing in mind I hadn't been paid for any of this work I thought this was a fair question. The answer was 'well, nothing. We really like it. We just need lots of 'variations''. The blindingly obvious struck me then. They were never going to be able to settle on a design, no matter how good it was!
Conclusion
I haven't heard from them in a while and I guess I should stop now before they do make some money and chuck a slander law suit at me. I must stress that I was never paid a single penny for the work I did so the designs remain all mine to show you as far as I know. All in all I hope that you enjoy them and learn a little from my experiences. I certainly learned a valuable lesson with this one.
