Liquid Fitness Logo Design

It's been a while since I've talked about logo design on the blog, so having just completed a very fun and satisfying logo design for Liquid Fitness, I thought I'd share the process.

Liquid Fitness LLC, is the personal swim training consultancy of Roberta Challener who has spent years coaching in swimming — from children and adults to members of the USA Swim Team. Roberta had read Ian Landsman's blog post on Creating a Business Logo, and inquired about logo design services at MakaluMedia. After a proposal and some email discussion, Roberta hired us for the project.

As with all logo projects, I began by sketching pen and pencil concepts in my trusty Miquelrius sketchbook. I ended up with two pages full of ideas, numbered them and forwarded the sketches to Roberta for her comments. Of the various sketches, one concept in particular stood out on both pages — that of a stylized swimmer:

I liked the feeling of these sketches, though there was something bothersome about the single arm. stylistically, it works, but I felt I ought to try a version with an entire swimmer as well. So, I tried a few more ideas (this time in pencil) exploring the full upper bodied swimmer:

These seemed just right — and Roberta agreed with my thoughts in her comments. From these sketches I began drawing in Illustrator, turning the pencil concept into a stylized, black and white logomark:

In the end I opted for a flat look rather than the “liquid” look for the mark, as it would be clean and sleek, as well as not trying too hard to convey the liquid theme with 3D styling.

Next was the challenge of finding a typeface and type treatment to compliment the logo mark. I wanted to show emphasis with bold and regular fonts, so explored several font variations with Roberta. She especially liked the modern-looking font, Futura, so we had our font:

Not how nicely the mark blends into the open spaces on top of the letter forms. I am always challenged with LLCs as they feel like add-ons to logos, so in this case I tucked the LLC in below the type, equally deep as the descender on the “q” of Liquid.

With the logo form settled on, we moved to color. I wanted to use cool blue and green colors for the mark, to help forward the idea of water, liquid and swimming. I created a set of color variations for Roberta, and she chose a two-toned blue as her favorite:

I liked this color version as well, as the dual blue tones seemed to add a bit of depth. The lighter blue helps equalize the bolder 'Liquid' part of the logotype and downplays the LLC as well, without letting it get lost in the shuffle.

Overall I was very pleased with the process and how well the logo turned out. Working with Roberta was great fun — she always knew what she wanted, which helped in decision making especially. I think Roberta was equally pleased with the logo, which always makes me feel great about a project.

I'll try to be a bit more regular about showcasing logo work from MakaluMedia here, along with descriptions of the process — apparently these are popular with readers and those exploring logo work. And of course, should you need corporate identity services, drop me a line!

Technorati Tags: design, graphics, logos, sketches, swimming

Comments

[Collin Yeadon]

Very nice. That might actually look good with a plastic effect added to it if done right. Sort of like one I made. only blue of course. Maybe that would be overkill? The version you have would work nicer for most print, letter head and even a sign or other purposes but a little more style added would fit with your sketch..

Nice read and good logo!

[J�rgen Arnor G�rds� Lom]

Good logo and great article!

I beg to differ on the plastic-look, though... I really think that would be overkill - you have to remember that this is the sort of business that is likely to have way more promo material in print than onscreen...

[Nola]

Awesome! I love it :)

[Anonymous]

Collin, thanks for the encouragement on the water/plastic look. My thinking was to first establish the flat version, because as you say, the majority of the logo use initially is for print applications. Maybe the water option wouldn't be that much overkill -- and with 2 blues to work with it might be not too difficult to pull off. But I still do tend to prefer the flat, clean look. :-)

J�rgen, you are right in that for this application it made some sense to stay flat and clean for the client's needs. She was quite happy with the results, so I think it was a good decision.

Nola, thanks for the encouragement!

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

[kosta, logo designer]

Though I do like that flat, clean look, some shading could probably do it good, at least for some applications, just like on your last two sketches.

Nice design.

[Mike Rohde]

Kosta, the client had a limited budget for producing the logo, so the clean look worked best, and was most liked by Roberta. :-)