a logo for papa key west

Papa Key West has some big ideas.
He wants us to design a logo for one of his newest entrepreneurial adventures, a website to help promote the production of MMA events.

I don’t know squat about the sport of fighting…
my graphic design style is usually pretty and soft and simple with a twang of the fine arts.

This is not a good match for the very clear image Papa Key West had in mind.
Big muscles, aggressive, bold, conservative: an Earth, with North America front and center, MMA fighters, big clear letters rotating around the planet.

So, here is the process in photos. We collect photos from the internet that resonate with our ideas for the logo. I make mock ups, using these images and some of my own drawings from paper and pencil and using Photoshop. We send each other emails, talk on the phone and sit in front of the computer together talking about what he wants and what I think works for font, color, image from a design point of view.

This was a team effort with Papa critiquing my drafts with love and honesty and my trying to understand the “client” without letting my own sense of design go astray.

And of course, the boys work along side, sharing their own ideas.