We met Bill Johnson at an Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce Function. He needed a logo and a stationary system to support his efforts as a recent arrival to the Pioneer Valley. Johnson Woodworks and Remodeling specializes in custom furniture and hand sculpted elements. Because woodworking is a skilled craftsman's trade it was important to us to visually imbue the logo with a hand made character.
As part of our original conversations about the Johnson Woodworks brand Bill shared his painting of his grandfather's saw with us. Everyone agreed that this would be an excellent piece to incorporate with his branding as it brings in some personality and taps into other artistic mediums that Bill works in.
We sketched out some concepts that used the saw element, and a few that were more typographic treatments so that all avenues could be explored. We were all very fond of the seal concept that incorporated the saw. The shape and format of a seal really brings to mind simpler times, before everything became mass produced by machine and a piece of furniture could last generations.
After trying several different approaches to the recreate the original sketch of the seal we just weren't getting the end result that felt authentic and unique. Starting with precise fonts and warping them into the basic shape of the concept was creating a cold and antiseptic effect.
In order to visually capture a hand made aesthetic if was necessary to build from scratch.
We created a basic set of individual shapes, adjusted line thickness, hand set curves, and spaced each element visually in the space. This less rigid approach created a more visually pleasing and successful logo that captures the original artistic character of the early design sketches. We like to take the appropriate amount of time to carefully consider our designs, down to the smallest detail. Bill let us follow our process so this project was a lot of fun for us and we really enjoyed working with him to build a logo for Johnson Woodworks.
Whether it's logo design, stationary systems, brochures or a sophisticated website we are here to help you succeed. So give us a call and let's get started.