I've been working on a logo for a photographer. This is an example of a mash up of two ideas. I really liked the circular badge look of the design on the left; however, the design on the right is far more proper (which is what the client was looking for) and elegant. The result was a design that kept the circular badge feel, and kept a proper / elegant look with typography and mark.  

When I meet with a client ( who I'm doing a logo for ) for this first time I ask them lots of questions. I listen to their answers and ask lots and lots of follow up questions. Why do I ask so many questions? See I just did it again. I do this because I want to build trust and show that I am truly interested in them and what they do. The other reason for all the questions is because I need lots of information from them in order to create a logo that will fit their needs, and communicate the message they want it to. These are just a few of the questions I ask my clients. What are your favorite questions to ask?  

How do you inspire people? How do you inspire people to trust and buy your product? We watched this Ted Talk that discusses this important question. It was very inspiring and I hope you enjoy it. 

I'm pulling back this term at PNCA and only taking one class. That class is Creative Marketing. The instructor is Steve Diamond the Executive Creative Director at R2C Group here in Portland. We talked about strategy and tactics in the first class. For example lets say your starting a chip company. Your strategy for gaining customers could be taking them from other chip companies; or you could make chip eaters out of people who currently don't eat chips. If you went with the first strategy your tactic could be to undercut your competitors on price.  

One more thing that Steve said that stuck with me was that,

He said aim for great and hopefully you'll get something that's at least good. As a freelance designer I think this is a very smart philosophy to have, and I will be following it going forward in my career.