Some may argue that I spend far too much time worrying about logos and text, but I really believe that it is vital to building a strong brand and identity. My problem, however, is my inability to make up my damn mind. I’m constantly thinking, tinkering, thinking and tinkering some more, often forgetting that the constant changes are a detriment to the very brand and identity I feel so strongly about. My solution to this annoying habit of mine is to more or less get the logo and text design out of the way early on.
While thinking about how to represent Phonemic, I went back to the meaning of the word itself to get some ideas flowing. First thing I decided on what the use of forward slashes before and after the P and H in the word. These slashes1 are used to indicate phonetic sounds, such as /f/ and /r/. Instead of changing the PH to F to properly represent the phoneme, though, I elected to keep it spelt as /ph/onemic as opposed to /f/onemic simply because it looks less ridiculous.
I did feel that the initial text looked rather plain, so I tried distorting the letters P and H to add a little extra emphasis and make it more interesting. I also decided to try out a different colour scheme.
As I often do, I quickly grew tired of that font and those colours. I wanted to create something more compelling, so I tried out some more modern text in contrast to a somewhat aged look, colour-wise. I also felt the need to switch the forward slashes in favour of vertical bars2 simply because the slashes felt very awkward with the new font.
I wanted to expand more on the colour palette and also explore some actual logo possibilities. I ended up just isolating the |PH| because, really, how the heck does one illustrate a phoneme or something phonemic?
I like the sort of “cut out” look of the last image, but I thought I’d try to go for something that would work better at different sizes and I figured I may as well try expanding that colour palette even more. I really like this style as it creates some interesting depth and gives it more power. This is important as the lack of an actual logo/shape with the text kind of empties it of the stock it needs to stand out.
The text design is sure to change as time goes on, but I’m actually quite satisfied with what I have at this point in time. I’ve still got to get some kind of symbol or logo of some kind together as well, so expect follow-up on that in the near future.
I’m still very much a novice in the way of design, so I’m always learning new techniques and methods to recreate the images in my head. If you have any suggestions or ideas, please feel free to let me know!