Ficklewood Ciderworks is a cidery and taproom in Long Beach, California, and one of my favorite projects. I led the development of this brand from the ground up, starting with the name and logo design. My process is very traditional—I began with name brainstorming before branching off into logo sketches. The final logo was hand drawn and converted to vector using a combination of live trace and meticulous refinement with the pen tool.
Next, I established a cohesive visual identity that tells a story of craft, care, and creativity in every detail. I composed surrealist photomontages from a combination of stock and historic public domain images which were used on coasters and other collateral pieces. The Library of Congress is a fantastic resource for sourcing royalty-free Americana and vintage ephemera.
The taproom features a hand-painted mural using the air balloon cyclist I originally designed in Photoshop using a combination of stock and historic photography. Similarly, the apple graphic painted on the outside wall came from a small, hand-drawn sketch. I converted the original drawing to vector to be used for this large-scale application.
Robin by ListReports is a real estate platform that provides tools needed to browse properties, collaborate with your agent, and stay organized while searching for your next home. I combined the concepts of a map pin, a “favorite” heart icon, and a bird to create the logo design for Robin. Then I designed and illustrated tiles to highlight the unique and appealing features a home can offer. These were also combined to create a brand pattern.
You can also catch a glimpse at some ideas I had knocking around for my personal brand monogram on the left.
Rock, paper, scissors... nothing beats paper when it comes to logo design. I love the tactile feel of pen on paper and I prefer a grid to give the logo some structure. This is also useful when translating to digital—I usually work with “show grid” and “snap to grid” toggled on.
Over the years I've filled up several Leuchtturm1917 sketchbooks. Sometimes, they look like the scrawling of a madman, and maybe there's some truth to that. After all, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet (the eggs are my sanity).