“How would I have done it?” 001

Every so often, I do this thing where I’ll see a logo for a local business or service and I’ll ask myself, “How would I have done it?”

I’m not really sure what to call this particular kind of self motivated project. It’s kinda rude to out and out call it a “Re-Do” because no one asked me (or paid me) to do it.

Similarly, calling it something like “Before and After” also smacks of arrogance. So, instead I’ll just abbreviate my first statement as ‘HWIHDI.’

A few days ago I stumbled upon this site for a children's school uniform company that also does hemming and patch embroidery. I glanced at their logo and thought, “How would I have done it?”

My solution was to use a patch instead of a crest, put the work ‘club’ on the ribbon, go with a typeface that screams ‘uniform’ and keep the lowercase ‘i’ because it looks like a kid standing next to those ‘adult’ uppercase characters in a row. And hey, the store outfits kids, so that makes more sense in my book.

I chose to color the thing in good old patriotic Red, White and Blue. God bless America :) The use of a dashed like also mimics a ‘sewn on’ look indicative of the kind that would be attached to the uniforms.

It’s important when creating an identity for a business that whatever you create be able to work in one color. Doing so allows you to cover your bases if you don’t know what you want the logo to go on. It also adds boatloads of versatility to the logo mark which increases is utility value to the business.

I’ve not show it to these fine folks just yet. I’m still trying to figure out my approach. Another huge reason I get a kick about redesigning other folks’ logo marks is there are zero client revisions. That’s the kind of luxury and freedom you get when you remove the money obligation/obstacle.

If they don’t like it or don’t want to use it, it’s no skin off my nose because hey, they didn’t pay me to do it. I guess I do this for my own peace of mind. I can sleep better at night knowing that, at least in my sub conscience, their identity has been reconciled with what it is and what I think it should be.

It’s just another pulse of soothe on living with my designers curse :)

So, what about your self-guided projects? Have you ever re-designed something for your own peace of mind? Please post your helpful comments and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your time :)

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