Background

The client was a referral who was starting an entertainment company. He came to me with the name, First Story Entertainment, and requested an identity that is unique, but not flashy, and referenced George Washington. In 5th grade, he had made a movie about George Washington and his teacher praised it and told him that was how Steven Spielberg started. He said, “That was the moment I decided to go into film (my "first story").” I was really inspired by this and excited to tackle a less-simplistic approach that is outside of my typical style.

 Process - Brainstorm

After an in-depth meeting with the client, I begin by sketching/brainstorming before, during and after research. These are a few examples of sketches from my notebook for First Story Entertainment.

Process - Round 1

Rough drafts of sketches in Illustrator

Process - Round 2

After a meeting with the client to discuss Round 1, I revise and refine options and add any other requests/ideas that come up during the meeting

Process - Round 3

Continue to revise and refine and add new ideas as they come up. The client had requested to see what we could do with the famous “Crossing of the Delaware” painting.

Process - Round 4

Round 3 or 4 is when I recommend my clients choose an option that we will focus on revising and refining. If after Round 3, I don’t think we’ll land on one design by Round 4, I’ll have a call/meeting with the client to make sure I’m hearing them and get to the bottom of why I’m missing the mark. Luckily, First Story Entertainment felt pretty confident on Round 3 and we were able to move on to the feather quill and inkwell design to explore layout and coloring options. The client only wanted red, white, and blue.

Process - Round 5

The client wanted to see the feather quill with a variety of options with a box around it. While I was exploring different layouts, I wasn’t happy with how this design would work on different scales and materials. I continued to explore the layout and offered a couple of new options here that I thought would scale better. However, the client chose one design and one typeface to continue on with.

Process - Round 6

This round, I provided multiple coloring options per the client’s request and also finalized the inkwell design.

Process - Round 7

After finalizing the inkwell design, we just needed to confirm which color the client wanted “First Story” in.

Final Design

Finally, the client was excited about the blue “First Story” option. I also provided this standalone logo with no text.