Branding and Logo Design
Case Study
Aztec Systems Inc. Logo Design
Trademark + Branding
Designing a logo for a company is one of the most important and difficult tasks designers can do. We have to capture the essence of a business in a single graphic. Not easy! This image serves as it’s identity, sort of like your face is to you. It’s what people see first and recognize. Ideally, the logo is a unique graphic that looks like no other and once established can identify the company.
Aztec Systems Inc. was a new tech company who’s focus was to install computers and network infrastructure in businesses. For this project, I was asked to create a new logo and a print brochure for them. My concept for the logo and brochure was to combine the rich visuals of the ancient Aztec culture with the modern visuals of the computer tech world.
Early Concepts & Rough Design Directions
The Aztec culture was a very artistic one producing a vast amount of beautiful images. My idea was to combine their style of art and design into a modern logo for Aztec Systems that would somehow convey the companies high tech business. This took many hours of research, brainstorming, sketching and thinking. My concepts were drawn by hand on paper first. Then the ones with promise were inked and scanned into the computer. I would then use an illustration program to draw more refined vector images and print them out to show the client. Below are some of the images I came up with. The client and I liked the Aztec pyramid/computer chip concept best so we went in that direction.
Trademark established, now for a wordmark
The client approved the graphic or “trademark” design, but wanted a typography treatment for the actual name to go with it. I tried hundreds of established typfaces, but didn’t find one I liked. I ended up creating a typeface of my own based off an established one which I made alterations to.
Aztec Systems Brochure
Logo, Branding & Six Panel Brochure Design
Brochure Design + Logo Design + Creative Direction + Print Production
If a logo is like a businesses face, then BRANDING is like it’s clothing. A lady, for instance, might have a beautiful face, but if she is dressed poorly, a first impression might be a bad one. For a business, branding has to do with not just the logo, but also the website design, print design, signage, colors used, paper used and every other detail that a customer might encounter. These all reflect on the business and the impression left on the customer – good or bad. Consider, a business could have an award winning logo, but if the brochure looks like it was printed on a worn out copy machine, your impression of the business would not be a good one. In a competitive market place, impressions are vitally important, especially first impressions. On the web, viewers only give a site a few precious seconds to impress before they move on.
The idea behind the brochure I designed for Aztec Systems, seen below, again was to combine ancient Aztec art with images of modern computer technology. I used colorful illustrations along with rich background graphics to give an elegant yet modern feel to the piece. I used dull and gloss spot varnishes to add depth. This piece is one of my very favorite to this day.
Selected Logos, Trademarks & Wordmarks
These are some of my favorite logos I have had the honor of designing over the years.
