Graphic-iti

I work in the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao as a Graphic Designer. My boss came up to me and said that the Student Attorney Office of the institution wanted a logo. The director of the office was there so I sat down with her and talked.

I asked all the usual questions such as, what does your office represent, any specific colors and what was my time frame? She answered every thing very specifically. The Office of Student Attorney has 4 core principles: a. Accessibility, b. Confidentiality, c. Neutrality, d. Independence

An element that she was sure she wanted was a hand. She had seen other Student Attorney logos in the UPR system and they had hands. This was in order to have something in common with the other institutions. The other thing was time; there was no time frame which always gets me anxious. Call me paranoid, but I tend to do jobs with “no time frame” as soon as possible. This is because the client usually asks for it the day before they are going to use it in a meeting or presentation.

After the briefing I began brainstorming. A few ideas came up, so I fired up illustrator and began to create my work flow. Every concept I worked with had 4 elements. This was to represent the 4 principles. After the concepts were made I began to work with color. This is a challenge in itself. Not only must I choose colors that represent feelings and concepts, but I also have to stray away from colors that may have political views. This means no red or blue (Puerto Rico is a very zealous when it comes to politics). I also wanted to use a pastel color pallet; this was to appeal to a large group of people and to atone to the seriousness of the office. Once the color version is done, I translate it to grey scale.

At the end of a few days I had three very different versions and one that was a variation. I create a jpeg with the 4 logos, each set of color and grey scale numbered in order to make it easier to identify. The next day I got a call telling me that number 4 was the winner. The director sounded very pleased with her logo. She was laughing as she told me the winner.

That was the best feeling ever. To have someone so happy about their logo that they actually laugh, it never happened to me before. I had this tingling in my stomach; I kept thinking “A logo I created made that kind of impression on someone”. To hear that kind of satisfaction made the job completely rewarding.

Written by: Juan Rivera