‘Empires of Long Island’ – Logo Design
Skills: Visual Research, Design Thinking, Illustration, Sketching, Logo Design, Branding
Tools: Adobe Illustrator
Timeline: September 2024
Overview
Empires of Long Island is a documentary by Anthony Griffo about CEO’s on Long Island and their businesses. Griffo reached out to me to create a logo that could be used in a variety of ways for the documentary – including title cards, posters, t-shirts, etc. He was looking for something with a retro style that undeniably gave off “Long Island”.
Visual Research
In my initial research. I became inspired by “patch” logos. They looked just as they sound: like a patch. These are great because they are inherently nostalgic and pair incredibly well with landscapes. That paired with a good color palette, and I would have a retro-style logo just like the client asked for. The style also lends to my strength of illustration, which will allow me to create something super pretty unique.
Sketching
While ideating for this patch logo, there was one place on Long Island that felt more iconic than anything else: the Montauk Lighthouse. Even if you have never been there, you have at least seen a picture of it. Additionally, the lighthouse is on the water which helps give a sense of place further. So, I created a sketch of the lighthouse based on images online.
Illustration
Since I had a solid sketch to go off of, it was easy to create a solid vector in illustrator. After that, I spent some time dialing in the details and the color exactly where i wanted it. I then finished by creating a separate patch with just the typography as an alternative logo.
Conclusion
This project was something very different from what I normally do for logo design. It was a lot of fun to work on and I delivered two logo variations in different colors to be used as needed, as well as just the illustration itself.
