Thoburn Design & Illustration

The Bass Coalition is a summer workshop for Bass players and enthusiasts. One of their sponsors, NoTreble contacted me and asked if I could design a logo for the coalition. One of the biggest challenges that they mentioned was that it needed to appeal to both kinds of bass players, classical and electric. I was told that it could be edgy, but not too edgy. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I went to Google images and searched for “bass player” which brought up an array of images including someone playing a fish (humorous but not helpful). Rather than trying to jump the “two types of players” hurdle right away, I thought about music and how best to illustrate it. I saw a smooth flowing continuous line. I decided to create a logo of a classic bass player using that continuous line. Felix Sockwell is THE master of this art form and after my experience I bow to his awesomeness. If you’re not familiar with his work, check it out. I scribbled out at least 6 different sketches attempting to pull it off. I ended up mashing all six together and was surprisingly happy with the result.

For my second concept I decided to once again play with the negative space, by using the player to form the “empty” bass. He looked like some dude you’d see in a smokey club pluckin’ some jazz. Finally for my third concept I threw out the player and decided to feature the bass more prominently. by using the word to form the image.

Feeling confident that I had covered at least one of my bass’ (the classical one . . . dah-dum-CHING) I decided to try a more edgy concept that would appeal to both types of players. Using the universal hand sign for “Rock and roll” I placed the necks of each bass on the hand. Classical on Mr. Pointer and electric on Pinky. I thought it was edgy, humorous and most importantly functional.

While the client agreed and liked it very much, it, along with the others, was ultimately rejected. However one of them did appeal with some tweaking. We took the third concept and replaced the word “bass” by filling it in with a solid image. By filling this in it not only formed half of the bass it also created the first initial “B” in the title. I added the initial “C” where the f-holes would originally be. This concept was ultimately approved.

Here’s a post sure to touch a nerve. For starters, I’m an artist and this is a blog about art, not politics (there’s plenty of those out there). Personally, I think art is much more interesting and is less likely to cost friendships. Within the past two years a movement started sweeping across America known as the “Tea Party.” A reference to the Boston Tea Party. People who are fed up with one aspect or another of government took to the streets and peacefully protested. When I was approached and asked to develop a logo for the Tea Party movement, I had a few reservations. As the movement grew (and continues to grow) certain “groups” and public figures began to latch-on and highjack the movement, calling it theirs or a result of their work. I disagree. I see it as a group of good, honest, regular Americans on both sides of the political isle exercising their first amendment rights. They’re my neighbors, co-workers and friends regardless of political affiliation. The last thing I wanted was to brand any particular political group. After discussing it further I felt confident that we were in fact branding the movement. However they made it clear that they wanted the logo to be able to stand alongside the elephant and donkey. I was given two additional requirements; create an animal that’s native to America and don’t make it wimpy, like the turkey (sorry Ben). We ultimately settled on the bison (or buffalo, you say “toe-may-toe”, I say “Ta-ma-ta”).

The bison fulfilled both of these requirements and offered some real graphic possibilities. I wanted to do something completely different than the elephant and the donkey. Rather than an icon of a bison I decided to only illustrate the head (above). While the overall  feedback was positive, the client rejected them. They felt that it better suited a sports team mascot. So if you’re a the owner of a team owner and you’re looking for a mascot and logo, hit me up, these are for sale. I went back and looked at the republican and democrat logos again and decided to match them a little more closely.

These concepts were very well received. There was much discussion on whether it needed to read “TEA” or not. I felt it was important to add it since it represented a new and emerging movement. I argued it could be dropped once it had been out for a while, but ultimately the client decided to drop it. As we were finalizing everything I mentioned that I had created an additional concept but decided not to share it. Naturally, this piqued their curiosity and they asked if I would show it to them.

Had I completely hated this concept, that would have been a very dangerous thing to say, but I actually really liked the mark. The only reason I left it out was because initial reaction from others had been confusion. They asked if it was a bull preparing to charge. The client however, absolutely loved it and did not see any confusion. In fact they preferred it’s aggressive look to the more passive one. This got the final approval. The colors were specifically chosen to represent both political parties. As I stated above I did not want this to be a republican or democrat logo, but rather a logo for the people. I placed the star in the middle to unify the colors and to represent the common bond we all share, whether democrats or republicans, and that is the spirit of America (are you tearing up yet?). You never thought a logo could say all of that did you? Will my bison ever stand along side of the elephant and donkey? I don’t know, it’s not likely, given our two-party system. But I was thrilled, and honored to work on the project and I’m proud of the results. But more importantly than all of that, I got paid.

When I was asked to design a logo for the “Mechanics” something very different immediately came to mind then the final result (All I need is a miracle began bouncing around in my head). Designing this logo required some digging into American History. In the days before the Revolutionary War, Paul Revere organized the Mechanics, a group of determined patriots that grew out of the Sons of Liberty. The group established an intelligence network that monitored the actions of the British army in Boston, and then sent news of the movements to patriot leaders. It was the Mechanics who discovered that British troops were planning to march on Lexington and Concord on the evening of April 18, 1775, which led to Revere’s famous midnight ride to warn Samuel Adams, John Hancock and other colonists that the British were coming. You can read more about that here. I decided a simple silhouette of Paul Revere on his famous midnight ride would best represent the organization and it’s mission which is to train, organize, and increase networking of the grassroots movement. While looking through several artists interpretations, I noticed most of them rendered Paul facing the viewer. I decided to do just the opposite, having Paul leading us away from the danger. While he’s pointing back towards the oncoming threat, he motions us forward in a call to action.

Scot, a professional drummer well seasoned in multiple styles (roots rock, rock-a-billy, blues, classic soul, old school funk, redneck jazz, contemporary Christian music, all flavors of country – honky-tonk, alt and contemporary) asked me to create a logo for him. We had worked together in the past on some promo posters for his band “Oz Revue”. When he approached me about his logo he mentioned was that he wanted the drum imagery to be subtle. I love logos that creatively use negative space, so I decided to use his first initial as the main mark. The “S” would provide me with two negative spaces to play with. I used a circle to form the drum head and created the letter “S” by placing drum sticks in those negative spaces. Scot was thrilled with this first draft and we moved forward implementing the new mark on his marketing materials. You can find out more about Scot here. A new site to match the logo is coming soon.

Our local paper, the Winchester Star did a little write-up on our design studio.

When I was asked to created a presentation background for a “prezi”, my first response was, “what’s a prezi”. If you haven’t seen it before, check it out. It’s a new spin on creating dynamic presentations. No more fooling around with slides in powerpoint. With Prezi, you can zoom, scroll and pan around one large canvas. After my 3 minute education via Prezi’s video I got straight to work. The theme of the presentation was the “gears of liberty” and after our initial discussion we agreed that the statue of liberty was the best representation. However, after a disastrous first attempt (no, I’m not posting the image, it’s NOT pretty) the client suggested using the United States. I went back to the drawing board with a clearer picture of what they wanted. I found a fantastic photo of a dismantled watch that I used for the gears. I chopped up images of vintage Stanley Steam engines, steam trains and even souped up Hondas. It was like Orange County Choppers, only on the computer in Frederick county, by a geek with lame facial hair. Yeah, I thought 100+ layers was pretty impressive, until I saw this.

I was absolutely thrilled when I found out that Refresh was coming to Winchester. I had previously been driving in to D.C. So you can only imagine how excited I was when asked to design the logo for it. For those not familiar with the area, Winchester is located at the northern most tip of Virginia. At only 15 miles from the West Virginia line, it’s the gateway to the Shenandoah valley in Virginia. It’s also well known for apples They grow in abundance here. Whitehouse Foods (the apple sauce company) is headquartered here and every spring Winchester hosts the Apple Blossom Festival. So it was no surprise that an apple had to be a part of the concept. The instructions I received stated that the refresh logo must contain the word “Refresh” along with the city name, and the refresh icon.

The hardest part of designing the logo using the apple theme, was trying to set it a part from Apple. While working on the logo I kept wondering if audiences, not familiar with refresh would think this was only geared towards apple users. I have no idea if this played into the decision to scrap these initial concepts by the client. While they were well received, the client was a bit leery of using the apple, and even seemed to think twice about centering the logo around it.

Round two saw the apple pared down to only a slice. These concepts were overwhelmingly well received as it negated the apple concerns and looked like it belonged among the other Refresh chapters. However there was the issue of the refresh “icon”. Since they were happy with the apple slices as they were, adding the icon to them was not an option. So, I decided to play with the text. I choose “Rezland” for the main font because of it’s clean, round, modern feel. The “E’s” made perfect circles, so I chopped the diagonal line and added arrows to form the refresh icon. Another clean san-serif font, “Engravers Gothic” was chosen for the secondary font on the city name. I pulled in the red from the apple and left the “e-icons” black.

The final apple slice was decided upon with one minor tweak; loose the shadow. With that change made, the new text was added and the logo was complete. You can see the final logo in action here: www.refreshwinchester.org

I recently posted the logo I created for the 2010 conference held in Chicago. Below is the promo poster I just wrapped up for display at this years conference.

When I approached the design for the 2010 Leaders Conference host city logo, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to work Chicago’s unique skyline into it. After several failed, “Frankenstein-esque” attempts, I decided to form the letters from the negative space created between the buildings. This worked really well for the “H, I and A” since they have straight or angled lines, however the “C’s G and O” posed a problem. Adding depth and detail to the buildings allowed me to tie those into the curved forms of those letters, with the exception of the “O” which was left hanging out on the end. I decided the best option to tie it in with the rest of the logo was to “link” it with the “G”. I went with a cold color scheme to match the city skyscrapers and added a touch of “grit” and shading.

I’ve long been a fan of high contrasting black and white design. When done properly they can create an optical illusion of sorts as our minds begin to fill in what’s “missing”. They’re stark, bold and make the statement: “I will not be ignored”. Add in a splash of red and you’ve got a guaranteed captive audience. Recently, I was asked to design a logo similar in style to the Oceans Eleven poster. While researching, I noticed this tried-and-true formula has been used for years in designing movie posters. Below are some of my favorite examples. Feel free to add any suggestions I may have missed!

Amazing poster, for an amazing film!

I love the way this “updated” version plays off the original but using simple “cut outs”.

Not the official movie poster, but I loved how it tied all of the Bond movies together using the iconic swirled circle “eye” and silhouette of 007.

Love the hint of red on the small red rose.

Ok, not red, but in the same family.

Quite possibly the best example of them all.

Frank Miller is a master artist and storyteller, and his masterpiece is Sin City. I would race to my local comic store to pick up the next issue. I couldn’t take my eyes off his artwork. The movie was a nice homage to his work.