DISCLAIMER

Hi Everyone, here is an example project if you're ever curious about what to post. A lot of this is included in the videos themselves but I wanted you to see it in project form too. Critiques, thoughts and comments definitely welcome!

IDEATION

There wasn't a lot of concept to picking my initial idea. I just knew I wanted to draw an elephant and so I chose a cuisine that worked well with that. A lot of elephants can be found in Thailand and they have a storied cultural history in which they are held in very high regard. This step shouldn't take much time and you should be able to start sketching ideas quickly. If you have more than one idea sketch both of them out for a while until one seems to have more potential than the other.

SKETCHING & IDEATION

I start with a quick mind map to give me some ideas like utensils, other cultural symbols, key ingredients in the cuisine, etc. It's just me jumping from word to word as quickly as I can and making word associations on the fly, it looks something like this:

After I have a few ideas, I start sketching, exploring each of the different gestalt principles, trying different angles of the elephant and different combinations of elements. Again, this is a quick process over several pages in a field notes sketchbook.

After I've chosen the sketch that I am interested in digitizing, I do a higher fidelity sketch with a little bit more detail and try to think about the shapes in the logo.

If you are not sure about which sketch to choose, try doing 2-3 different ones at a more refined level, that should help you make a decision before spending lots of time in the computer working on it. 

DIGITIZING THE SKETCH

After scanning the sketch I start using basic shapes and the pathfinder in Adobe Illustrator to create the elements that comprise the elephant as well as his blanket, bowl and spoon. The process loosely looks like this:

Once I'm decently happy with the basic structure I add a few more details and start experimenting with type:

FINAL TOUCHES

Before calling it done I go back and work out more of the minute details, never being totally satisfied with the product until the very end. I tighten up the shape of the trunk and ears, look at details like the spoon and toes and make sure the type has a little bit of customization to tie it together with the shapes in the elephant and is sitting next to it in a way that it interacts but is still a slightly separate element. 

In the end I have a lot that is primarily inspired by the gestalt principle of continuation but also uses similarity and figure ground and looks like this:

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions about the process!