The Love Agency & Just Creative Group Logos

For my Advertising Campaigns class were split up into groups of 6. As a group we whittled our potential agency name down to two, The Love Agency & Just Creative Group. We ultimately decided to go with Just Creative Group. Here are the executions of the logos I created.

Since our Agency will be based in Philadelphia, PA, I thought that The Love Agency was relevant as well as a smart name for an advertising/creative agency. With Love, anything can be accomplished. As an agency, everything we do and provide for our clients, we do it with love, and so the results are always positive for both the agency and the client. I felt that the color choice of red & gray and typography (Clarendon) gives off a professional feel. And the subtle tilt of the "O" in Love pays homage to the famous Love Park logo.

Above is the color choices for the Just Creative Group logo execution. I created the logo with a variety of different colors and as a team, we decided to go with the light blue on a darker blue. The team liked Just Creative Group better as a team name, and also found the logo more visually appealing.

And so we went with Just Creative Group for our agency name. The typeface used was Futura Light and Medium. Above you can see what the logo would look like mocked up on a business card.

Hell, Michigan Advertising Campaign

An assignment for my Art Direction II class, I created this multimedia advertising campaign for a small town called Hell, Michigan. The assignment was to choose a city, neighborhood or town, and create a campaign based on the UNEXPECTED. We were to find out something odd about the place, discovering random facts that may draw our target audience in. Furthermore, we were to increase brand awareness, targeting a younger market, ages 25-35 through various advertising mediums, and to entice them to check out the town for a weekend, or even potentially move to.
















Before getting into the campaign, I wanted to give a peak into some of my ideation process. During this process, I pretty much go wild with thoughts and ideas. I try to put everything down that I think of so that I have a record of it all.

A moodboard is meant to inspire designs. It's apparent where some of my inspiration came from just by taking a quick glance at my moodboard.

















The identity above features a devil's pitchfork creating negative space within a heart. The pitchfork spells out an "h" for hell and also spells out "m" for Michigan. Simply put, Love Hell, Michigan.

















This traditional billboard is saying that you'll have a "HELLUVA GOODTIME" when you visit Hell, Michigan.

















This traditional billboard is says that you'll have a "HELLUVA GETAWAY" when you visit Hell, Michigan.

















This street billboard is says that you'll have a "HELLUVA RUN" when you visit Hell, Michigan. Texting "gotohell" provides additional information regarding ad.

















This bus shelter is says that you'll have a "HELLUVA STORY" to tell when you visit Hell, Michigan. Texting "sureashell" provides additional information regarding ad.

















This bus wrap is says that you'll have a "HELLUVA RIDE" when you visit Hell, Michigan. Texting "roadtohell" provides additional information regarding ad.

















Those who texted in will receive a direct response text message detailing more specifics about the street billboard, bus shelter, and bus wrap.

















This ambient media tactic will be placed on the steps leading down into city subways. Targeting couples specifically -- when you're in love, you're in heaven. And so, "THE STAIRWAY TO HELL IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK," implying that Hell, Michigan is close by.

















This interactive banner works when the user rolls his mouse pointer over the ad. The word connection will begin to connect together and then take the user to the Hell, Michigan homepage. I used the word connection because we go online to connect with other people. You'll have one "HELLUVA CONNECTION" with your lover when you go to Hell, Michigan.


















This is the Hell, Michigan homepage. It is my hope that through the various advertising mediums that the target audience will ultimately end up visiting the Hell, Michigan website to find out further information, and plant their trip.

Vietnamese Student Association Logo Design

[This logo will be the official logo of the VSA starting Fall '10.] The Temple Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) decided that it needed a new identity that is simple and communicates the mission of its organization. The VSA is "dedicated to increasing cultural awareness and diversity on campus and in the community." It "hopes to provide the necessary interaction between those of different backgrounds to build cross cultural bridges and foster acceptance and awareness." As a "dynamic and open organization, VSA prides itself on its diverse and unified membership, and persistent dedication to decreasing cultural tension on campus."

Given this information coupled with my research of other VSAs in Universities across the nation, I came up with this unique logo design.


















In researching, I found that a lot of VSA logos had included a visual of Vietnam from a map. People know what Vietnam looks like geographically, and so I decided I would not follow that trend. Instead, I decided to take a more modern approach in using the typeface, "Gotham Ultra" for strong impact. The logotype of "Vietnamese Student Association" uses "Gotham Thin." Between the two typefaces, there is lots of contrast. I trimmed some of the "V" and "S" to create symmetry between all three letters. Lastly, the decision to use doves, masked within "VSA," was aesthetic as well as symbolic of the VSA's mission. To "build cross-cultural bridges and foster acceptance and awarness," the doves are all connected, acting as a bridge as they fly across the logo. Symbolizing peace, and unity, the doves act as a great representation for the VSA.

Kensington Community Food Co-op Logo Design

The Kensington Community Food Co-op was looking for an identity for their new food co-op that would distinguish themselves from competitors. They are committed to healthy neighborhood living. Their mission is to provide a grocery store in the Kensington area that will provide healthy, quality food, products and services to its members and the community. They encourage each member to contribute and participate in all activities they undertake as a cooperative.

For this logo design, I first did research on trends in the industry and competitors. I realized that many trends included: fruits & vegetable visuals, produce, lots of sun, mountains and track imagery. Drop shadows and gradients were also very common among other food co-ops. All in all, the competition had one thing in common, there was too much going on, or nothing going on at all.






















And so, to improve upon competitors, I began mind-mapping for ideas. A few words I came across were community, neighborhood, shared values, togetherness, and helping. Out of these, I really wanted to choose something unique for KCFC's new logo. I decided on the idea of "neighborhoods," being in Philadelphia and all.

I am always inspired by logo designs with hidden meanings, such as FedEx, Big Ten, Northwest Airlines, and Amazon logos. And so I really wanted to apply a hidden message in KCFC's new logo. Above the logotype of Kensington Community Food Co-op is a road with square blocks that represent apartment buildings. Not only does it represent neighborhoods, but it also spells out the word Co-op.






















As for color selection, I chose a earthy green because I associate this color with freshness and growth. The choice of gray was because it compliments green really well as a neutral color.

The typeface I chose is Bodoni. Bodoni is an elegant modern typeface that is also a classic. I thought that the serifs looked elegant, and helps for legibility as the flat serifs help to create a straight line under the words. It's important for a new brand to have a clear and easy to read type, and Bodoni does a great job.


















Whenever creating a logo, there are 5 principles that I think are important to follow:

• Simplicity
• Memorable
• Timeless
• Versatile
• Appropriate

I feel that this logo design falls under those 5 principles.

Temple Advertising Department Logo Design

One of the accounts I'm on as the Executive Art Director in Diamond Edge Communications, Temple University's student-run ad agency, is the Temple Advertising Department. The department came to us for a new identity design, because it has been changing from year to year with no consistency. And so, here are two of my many concepts that I designed proposed.


















The first logo utilizes the hat on geometric shapes of the word AD for Advertising. The geometric shapes are clear and distinguishable, representing experimentation, while the hat represents the many hats (art director, copywriter, account manager) advertisers are sometimes required to wear in the profession.

















The second logo is clean, distinguishable, with the main focus on "AD." The logotype is composed within a rectangular boundary to create a solid and a professional look. Both logos can be easily scaled without losing its effectiveness.

Either design will provide the department with a simple and strong logo that serves as a solution for an identity that will not get lost in the clutter of all of the overly complex logos out there.

Heroes Too Logo/Identity Redesign

This was the final project for my Art Direction I class in Spring '09. The assignment was to design a company logo for Heroes Too which is a start-up social enterprise concerned with global warming and other environmental threats. It is dedicated to encouraging, connecting and channeling the participation of individuals to create a collective and lasting response to the environmental threat facing humanity. They are planning to launch the company globally in the future and so it is our chance to show our design to the world.

The target audiences are environmentally conscious individuals, students and young people, schools, community organizations and corporate partners. The tone & manner is supposed to be inspiring, uplifting, personal or engaging, focusing on the "human element" side instead of just the "environmental" side. One to two colors are preferable, but more colors considered for really good design. The typeface & font are to be light, modern and smart in style. No heavy or bold font. Variations of Heroes Too are allowed such as H2 or Heroes 2. Lastly, professor doesn't want an over-emphasis on 'green', a commercial or corporate look & feel, too fancy or heavy, blunt/bold typefaces.

Logo 1: The font used was Orson Casual, I particularly liked this font because the O's were perfect circles, and so I could incorporate the earth into the logotype. I wanted to execute it much better than the original logo, all the while trying to avoid being cliche. Focusing on the human element, I thought that one hand reaching out to another is a really strong image of helping one another accomplish something really special. As one you can be strong, but together we can be powerful beyond measure, and so I utilized the silhouette of one hand reaching out to another as a part of the O in Heroes.

Logo 2: For this logo, I went for a different, more modern approach, aiming for the future. Particularly I wanted to play with ligatures. By connecting the horizontal bar of the H with the curve of the two, a unity was created. Heroes Too is all about coming together as one and making a difference in the world. The light blue color is refreshing and definitely has a clean feel to it.

Logo 3: If I was to choose one of the 3 logos to recommend, this would be it. I went through the entire design process in the presentation for this logo and I felt it best represented the Heroes Too brand image. The type is Futura LT Book Italic. I felt that this typeface was perfect because it stood out more than the other choices such as Helvetica Italic and Myriad Pro Italic, but it wasn't too domineering. For the colors, I thought the green and gray went together quite well, creating a unity between the Heroes and the 2. The smoothness of the 2 as well as the pointed edges are meant to invoke swift action in the target audience to get up and take action. Perhaps the most important element of the logo is the fading earth below the 2. By fading the earth, it gives the viewer a sense that there is something more to the logo. It gives them something to be hopeful for.

iMotivate iPhone App

This was the final project for my Advanced Special Topics for Ad Majors course in Spring '09. The final deliverables were, 1) Full color logo/branding presented professionally in Illustrator. 2)App Icon, which is the icon that appears on the iPhone screen for our app. 3)Screenshots showing our app in action. And 4)One page magazine ad created in InDesign.

I named my iPhone app, "iMotivate," because essentially the app serves as a motivational tool for whenever the user may need it. We all need a little motivation in our lives, and so the iMotivate features famous motivational quotes as well as user submitted. Motivational clips from popular movies such as Rocky VI are also utilized with the iMotivate. The logo design is meant to be the company that created the iPhone app and so I decided to brand myself. "nbk" are my initials backwards, and Vietnam is my home Country, and so I wanted to combine the two. I went through the logo design process from sketches, to pc generation and to color. For the app icon, I kept it simple, showing the silhouette of a man raising his arms in accomplishment. The screenshots are mockups of what the interface of the iMotivate will look like. Everything on the screenshots were created from scratch aside from the iPhone itself. The magazine ad speaks for itself in that you can achieve your goals with the help of the iMotivate app.