Say you want a revolution?

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Last month I worked with a friend on a new branding project for a local solar company. American Solar was asking to separate themselves from the competition. They wanted something outstanding, bold and revolutionary so it had to start with the right logo.

Allegra and BravoForte had defined the direction to reflect a bold propoganda style.

With Cuban Revolution and Russian Constructivism rattling around in my head it led me to turn out some early concepts that weren’t always on track, but are part of the “process of refinement” for any good logo project.

I cast a wide net. Here is a sampling of the logo concepts i turned out for this project.

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After reviews with the firm and client we kept the bold communist visual style but narrowed our concept focus to Greek mythology, Prometheus bringing fire to man.

Initial sketch concept. Looks a bit like he’s throwing slider but you have to start somewhere.

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Refining the look as distinctly American was important for obvious reasons. This formal torch concept was working for me, but it’s not about me now is it?

I liked the simple styling on the Torch hand, it carried forward into the final illustration.

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2-tone fist. Oh my sweet giant fist. Maybe i can cut this out of steel in my upcoming welding class? Viva Revolución!

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Though a giant fist was a bit too heavy handed (pun intended) it’s still cool enough to share.

I labored over wrapping sun rays around the hand in a natural and ordered way. A symmetrical design was a pain to get right on these but it worked out on the chosen final direction. Many type treatments were considered, here are a few.

Top right logo here was the clients choice to refine.

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Committees tend to take over the end of the design process, some final design choices are committee driven but those are the breaks for a hired gun 😉 I must say overall this project had a few key people fighting the good fight and the final logo was much better for it.

Here are a few lockups and color variations of the final chosen logo design refined through collaboration with BravoForte.

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Check out more logos in the portfolio.

This project was created in collaboration with Allegra and BravoForte.