New Work http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/newWork_viewer/rss jon 2008-05-21T19:26:48Z New Work: Longhorn Fabrication Logo http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/newWork_longhornFabLogo Longhorn Fabrication (& Design, Inc) is a metal fabrication company based in Dallas, TX who has never had what one would call a "proper" logo or identity system. The material they have produced (business cards, t-shirts, etc) has relied heavily on stock art provided by vendors. What they've had instead is a convoluted identity that infringes heavily on The University of Texas' materials...something that any design or marketing professional would recommend heavily against. An added challenge in designing a logo for a company called "Longhorn" is that the word is so closely tied to the UT Longhorns, whose symbol has been co-opted by hundreds, if not thousands of other organizations (like the city of Fort Worth, TX). It's so commonplace in this area of the country that there is almost no way to avoid it. So, from a practical standpoint, we set out to create a logo that traded on the expectation of what a longhorn logo will look like, while still differentiating it from the UT Longhorn enough to make them unmistakeable. jon 2008-12-01T23:20:24Z New Work: CMB Logo http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/newWork_CMBLogo CMB Construction is a steel/hybrid construction contractor based in Fort Worth, TX. The challenge in designing this logo comes from the client's need to include some subliminal messaging into the mark. CMB is a Christian-Owned company and is named for a specific piece of scripture. Because of that the client wanted to use colors somehow affiliated with the Catholic calendar during the period of the epiphany, and wanted to somehow incorporate the mythical star. Although we worked with lots of different versions of stars, and lots of different ways of incorporating them into different typefaces, we ended up going with a version that substitutes the "Steel Star" (or hypocycloid) from the American Iron & Steel Institute's SteelMark™ for the star of the epiphany and integrated it with a custom drawn M. jon 2008-09-29T19:12:05Z New Work: walkerWellness.com http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/newWork_walkerWellness Walker Wellness Clinic is an eating disorders treatment center located in Dallas, TX. We're very proud to announce that their new website is up and running, and looking pretty darn nice if we do say so ourselves. When Philip Walker approached us originally it was to take their existing site and recode it into a standards compliant version so that it would be compatible with browsers other than Internet Explorer. In its original configuration (produced using the perennially evil FrontPage) it was completely unreadable in any non-IE browser, and it was getting complaints from the growing number of people who use compliant browsers like Firefox, Safari or Opera. What evolved in the long run was a new design based on the old site, built on a content management system (hosted by KeepOpen.com ) and completely standards compliant; not to mention designed for easier reading, smoother navigation, and clear and concise communication. We congratulate Walker Wellness Clinic on their new site. jon 2008-09-29T18:19:27Z Process Essay: The Dracul Logo http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/draculLogo I was recently asked to design the logo for a new comic book based on the real life childhood of Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad "Count Dracula" the Impaler. It's the first logo in a really long time that I have done where I hand-lettered the type and developed a custom logotype without using an existing font, so I thought it would be an interesting case for a process essay. Now, let me begin at the beginning: In order to design the logo I started out by reading the script for the first issue. It introduced me to the main themes and historical context of the storyline. I then took some of the reference material that the author (Steve Snyder) sent to me and the artist and used them as a springboard for my own research. As it turns out, Vlad Tepes lived from 1431 to about 1476 or so, which was also a pretty interesting time in the history of typography/calligraphy. It was during this period that the movable type printing press was invented and put into use for the first time in Europe. The story takes place during the period in which the Ottoman Turks were invading, like, everything. That means that gothic typography as well as turkish calligraphy is in play for a historically accurate logo. jon 2008-06-25T02:43:11Z New Work: KeepOpen.com Site http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/NW_keepOpen_site As some of you know, Jon is also a partner in KeepOpen.com , a hosted content management system based on open-source software. It's been over a year since KeepOpen started taking clients and, although they've designed and launched sites for their clients, they had not tackled the design for their own site. Jon was fond of saying "It's a 'the cobbler's children have no shoes thing'." Well, no more. The site went live two weeks ago. The design is very simply geometric and built around the idea of flexibility, so hopefully it'll last for a long long time. jon 2008-06-06T20:54:53Z New Work: Southwestern Services http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/newWork_SWS Southwestern Services is a Retail Contractor, meaning that they build-out, renovate, and maintain physical facilities for retailers. Their client include some of the best known brands in retail (Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's, PetSmart, GNC, etc...). Their new site features a piece of technology that we're very excited about, a job map using a Google Docs Spreadsheet as its database, and using the Google Maps API to illustrate where and what SWS does. Why is that so cool? Well, simple. Using a GoogleDocs spreadsheet allows mere mortals to edit the data in the map without needing to build a user interface. It also lets you import data for the next year by importing an Excel file. Way cool! Check out the site, but especially the job map . jon 2008-05-29T22:19:22Z New Client: Phelps Stokes Fund http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/newClients_phelpsStokesFund ohTwentyone is pleased to welcome The Phelps Stokes Fund to our stable of clients. We'll be designing the graphics for their Plone-Based S.T.A.R. web platform. Plone is a product that runs on Zope, the foundation on which KeepOpen.com 's own CMS is based. We're looking forward to creating something really great for Phelps Stokes Fund. jon 2008-05-21T22:17:33Z New Work: Alliance Business Ins. Logo http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/newWork_allianceLogo  ohTwentyone was recently asked to develop a logo and business card for a new company called Alliance Business Insurance. Although the name of the company is a reference to an area of the DFW Metroplex called "The Alliance Corridor" we decided that a more apt meaning of Alliance for an insurance broker would be the relationship between them and their clients, or the assemblage of various parts to form a cohesive unit. The final logo ended up being an assembly of triangular forms to create, what the client describes as, as tent. We used Bauer Bodoni because it has the ability to be both modern in the historical sense and in the contemporary sense simultaneously, which gives the mark the look of a "contemporized" version of a traditional financial logo. We also used Bank Gothic, almost purely for its legibility at small sizes...although it is also a really great face to set things on top of. Its squareness makes it feel very stable. jon 2008-05-21T17:40:59Z