My personal brand has gone through many iterations with the coming of new trends and a growing understanding of my own motivations and design aesthetic. The previous iteration, now titled the ‘retro logo,’ took inspiration from my earliest explorations of digital technology in the form of analog projections and the MS-DOS command prompt. The distorted cathode ray tube effect takes inspiration from Nam Jun Paik, an artist from the Fluxus Movement. This movement featured artists who made extensive use of new media technology (as well as performance art) and emphasized the artistic process over the final product. While those inspirations remain relevant for my work as a whole, I have since realized that they were more thematic than fundamental.
Much like the decision-making process that led to my choice for graphic design as a concentration, I was again obliged to consider what makes me an artist (or in this case, a designer) in the first place. The answer remains the same - to tell stories. I became an artist to inspire others with ideas, and a designer to convey them with even further clarity.
To me, design speaks of something ancient. Anything that brings order is a form of design, and the most basic constructs found in the universe are qualified to serve as inspiration for design. For the new logo, I found inspiration in the visualization of astronomical concepts. The actual inception came when I was listening to one of my favorite YouTubers, who was describing the history of a star-born civilization. His videos always end with him proclaiming in a sonorous fashion “per audacia ad astra,” meaning “through boldness, to the stars.” This statement struck a chord with me. The heavens have always served as a place of inspiration for those who wish to explore beyond the scope of their limited experience. This is what storytelling means to me.
I am the child of a retired pilot, and tales of the mechanisms that elevate and guide mankind aloft still inspire me and fuel my imagination. While I am not fully subscribed to the theories of predetermined fate, there is also an interesting coincidence which comes in the form of the naming of my own astrologically-assigned birth date: ‘The Day of Lively Precision.’ I have come to apply this to my personality by envisioning my consciousness a guided missile, never straying from target despite how it’s heading may rapidly shift. Thus, the new logo became a fusion of celestial illustration and the aircraft heads-up display theme which is also present in the ‘retro logo.’
I’ve come to realize that my designs are rarely subtle. The more personal ones may have layered meaning that requires some delving to define, but their visual construction is always designed to be striking. The new logo features dramatic contrast between thick and thin shapes and negative space interposed with the positive to create a continuation of form. The influence of these fundamental geometric interpolations is evident in the construction process of the logo, with the phases forming a synthesis of ancient astrologically-inspired pictographs and renaissance star charts.
The construction is intentionally simple, with only two shapes being used - a triangle and circle - used additively and subtractively. Care has been taken to avoid extraneous elements which could disturb the balance of the composition, eschewing a design which leaps off the page in favor of a more tight composition. The point was to be discrete, and draw in the viewer with the intriguing dichotomy of inclusion/exclusion of form. With the goal of being a striking design in mind, a bold red color has been chosen to evoke passion and the audacity of exploring the heavens.