Bradley Honors Program
I took it upon myself to create a logo for the Honors Program on campus since they didn't have one originally. I felt that with all that the program provides for students, it needed a new mark to represent itself.
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I worked with the head of the program to discuss what she felt the program represented and what she wanted students to get out of it. My goal with this project was to take that information and turn it into something tangible and usable. Throughout the process, I had multiple meetings with her and the advisory council along with university staff members to gain input and stay on course.
The final iteration of the logo turned out great and all involved agreed. Further work will be done to finalize its actual use for the program to make sure there are no leftover branding and marketing errors that need corrected. The final looks quite different from where I began, though:
I started out by doing some warmup designs I knew weren't going to be used. I thought of all the ideas I could that symbolize honors like graduation caps, serif fonts, and laurels of many varieties. Other universities use these for their programs and I wanted to make sure we didn't follow suit.
Next, I made a list of things that make Bradley "Bradley." Gargoyles, Lydia, and Kaboom! all are high on the list, but I needed something that I could translate type onto and possibly use alongside the university logo, so I went with Bradley Hall, perhaps the most iconic building on campus (well, besides the new shiny glass one).
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This met with some mixed feedback, some saying it was good and some saying it looked more-so like a ship coming to port. Needless to say, I got back to work. The next iterations were more "Bradley Hall" in their likeness, utilizing the shape of the whole building as opposed to just the central piece.​
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So close! But a bit too dissociating and distracting, with the elements fighting for the top spot. With this iteration the final really started to take shape and the direction was fairly easy to follow.
Here is where things got nit-picky. This version needed some housekeeping before it could be declared finished. After shrinking the design down to a 1"x1" square, it was obvious that the crenelations (the square bits on top of a castle or academic building, in this case) and windows needed to be simplified down in number. This was essentially the final step.
Much better! The last few changes made to the design were some unifying changes. The width of the windows and crenelations was made identical, and the space between them as well. Gaps in the building's architecture followed suit and soon we called it done.
