I always advise clients to update, rather than redesign if possible. Where there is existing brand equity that works, build on that, rather than start from scratch. Griffin Bank approached me update their logo, originally designed by Johnson Banks, and it was clear there was a solid idea that just needed some refinement on the execution.
Original Griffin logo, designed by Johnson Banks
The start of the process is to identify what works about the current logo, and what needs to change. We knew we should keep its friendly expression (tricky to achieve with such a potentially fearsome beasts!), and the warm, inviting colours. Avoiding the traditional conservative blues was important to Griffin.
I identified the areas to look at were:
- Reduce the number of feather lines and detail to help simplify
- Change the proportion of the bottom feathers, which were more dominant than the main features
- Make the eye transparent. The white eye was lost when the logo was shown on a dark background and it’s an important focal point for the face. It’s the eye that draws you in.
The first simple change of making the eye transparent immediately improved its impact on dark backgrounds making it a focal point.
The key was to concentrate on a monochrome version of the logo first, and move on to colour once the team at Griffin were happy. In order to do this, I sketched profusely, experimenting with cutouts to show areas of depth, such as separating the two ear tufts.
Working on the iPad, I could try all sorts of head variations very quickly.
I considered various approaches, from very small changes to a more radical direction that echoed the shapes of the Canbon typeface used in the logotype. This ‘heraldic’ approach (option #3 below) was too rigid however.
Taking the client from their current logo (on the left) and showing steps from small changes to large ones
It was in the second iteration (below), where the whole head was redrawn from scratch, that the right shape appeared. This pose, where the Griffin is ‘looking back’ was the key to making it work, and from thereon, it was a matter of iteration and refinement. This included a couple of Iive painting sessions over Google Meet with the team at Griffin. Using my iPad, I could quickly create a live preview of the changes we’d just discussed, allowing us to move quicker through the iterations.
Retaining the expression was tricky, but the key was to show the highlight on the top of the beak, allowing the shape of the ‘mouth’ to be subtly suggested. The eye became slightly more curved, to further convey friendliness. Finally, the colour was re-introduced, using the same colours from the original, but keeping the darker purples for the throat area. Here are the final monochrome and colour versions:
