Introducing Powder7.com - Part I - The Logo
It’s pretty amazing where you can start at the beginning of the creative process and where you can end up. I’ve been working on our new website’s image and branding since February and it’s fun to look back and see what I originally planned for it. Since I haven’t posted about anything work-related in a long time I figured it would be fun to take you through the steps of launching Powder7.com, not only the website, but all of the branding and imagery that goes into it. Though this blog doesn’t reflect it often enough, there’s way more to me than running/biking/swimming/talking about my dog.
So, here is installment one in a series of building the brand. Enjoy!
Before you can have a logo, you have to have a brand. Jordan and I spent many winter weekends cozied up in the Windy Saddle, our brains brewing with all sorts of ideas. I filled pages and pages of my notebook with every word that reminded me of skiing, no matter how obscure.
My notebook, filled with all things skiing related as well as winter animals and snowy adjectives.
Eventually we settled on Powder7.com, and secured the domain name. Then I moved forward with creating a logo. I came up with some stuff on my own before consulting with some trusty resources. I wanted to play off the symmetry of the ‘P’ and ‘7′ and also build up the snow theme.
Some very random 'doodles' were followed by some more focus with the P7 outlines and snowflakes, both of which I was very keen on.
I emailed my favorite rough sketches to my brother, Tim, and sister-in-law, India. India responded with a cell phone photo of a doodle on a napkin, where all brilliant business ideas are born!
India's sketch.
Another variation.
Immediately I knew we had our logo. Turning the ‘7′ into the mountain - brilliant! Tim didn’t even get a chance to send his submission in…next time!
I got to work on sprucing up India’s idea and turning it into vector artwork.
One of my first digital versions of the final logo.
At first I used gradients for the mountains, fading to a whitish, snowy peak. Then I thought the better of it, realizing this would be a big pain to always maintain this exact gradient and really limit reproducing it in other colors. So I opted for a solid color and changed up the font and word placement. I also put a cross in the ‘7′ that India initially had. It adds a little more dimension to the ‘mountain’ and makes it more recognizable as a 7.
The slightly edgier and cleaner final product.
Next up: Part II - Building the Website
