Mattson Creative

360 Performance Driving

Most days, being a graphic designer is fairly mundane. Long hours in front of a computer. Searching for just the right Pantone color. Deciding between 6pt. or 7pt. type. But every once in a while…if you’re lucky…you get to do 360′s in a Lamborghini at 200mph.

A while back I designed the brand identity for 360 Performance Driving Academy, an elite training program where pros teach clients high-speed driving techniques. The logo was a simple, type-based solution, but the applications were very cool.

I designed a metal business card, similar to mine – which is two color (black & white) printed on die-cut aluminum, with embossed elements. I wanted the visual system to convey speed and motion but also the idea of control. So I tried to balance these dynamic, diagonal shapes with very structured type encasements and containers.

The same visual language was applied to a simple website concept, as well as vehicles and merchandise below.



I had the opportunity to actually go to one of the 360 programs, where world-class drifting champion, Samuel Hubinette was instructing. Here are a couple pictures and videos from the academy.

Samuel is known as “The Crazy Swede”. Which makes sense after you watch the videos above. Here is a logo I designed for his brand, Toxic Drift. I loved how this little mascot turned out.

Discovery Kids Rebrand

Discovery Kids started in 1996 as an extension of Discovery Channel but has since grown into an international retail and entertainment brand. We worked closely with Discovery Kids to align its new look with the Discovery Communications parent brand while still reflecting its unique character. The new identity encompasses a new logo, a packaging system, and a comprehensive style guide.

C.S. Lewis College Logo

A little while back I had the opportunity to work on brand identity concepts for C.S. Lewis College, which is currently scheduled to commence instruction in Fall 2012 in Northfield, Massachusetts. I’m a big C.S. Lewis fan so this was a fun project. Ultimately they went with a typographic solution, but here are some studies that I thought were interesting.

I collaborated with my good friend and illustrator, Luke Daab, on these last two concepts. As a reference to Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia books, we incorporated a secret lion into the illustration. Can you see it?

Mattson Creative in LogoLounge 6

The winning entries have been announced and 14 of my logos will be featured in LogoLounge Volume 6! I’m honored to have so many designs included in the best-selling series. The book will be out in early 2011, but you can see the selected logos below.

New Logo: Josh Elliott Photography

Here is a recent logo I created for Josh Elliott Photography. Loved the simplicity of this idea. Josh is a great photographer. Check out his new site here.

Metal Furniture Tags for Pocono Modern

Just got these custom metal tags back from the printer. They turned out great! I designed these for the new Pocono Modern furniture. Each piece in the line is custom-made and will feature these logo tags.

Mattson Creative Featured in LogoLounge Master Library

LogoLounge just put out a great new book and Mattson Creative is proud to be included! We have 5 logos featured in what is called the Master Library. We’re honored to have our work selected for this impressive collection.

Mattson Creative in Communication Arts

Mattson Creative is honored to be featured in the Communication Arts 2009 Design Annual. My logo for the Counting Crows/Maroon5 tour was selected as an outstanding trademark by the juried competition.

CommArts is the leading journal in the field of visual communication and the design competition is the most respected in the industry. Out of 2,700 submissions only 200 entries were selected to appear in the annual. I’m proud to be one of them.

New Hope Brand Identity

Last week I had the privilege of spending the day in Portland with the leadership team of New Hope Community Church. Last year we redesigned the New Hope brand identity and the church has since asked me to serve on their advisory board. We meet a few times a year to discuss vision, trends, technology, community and branding. It’s always an inspiring conversation and I love being involved.

Over the years, I’ve worked on branding projects for several faith-based groups. For me, the most exciting engagements have been with organizations who seek to transcend the typical or expected religious expressions. I love working with groups that interested in blurring the line between the secular and sacred.

New Hope is unique in that they’ve purposed to radically transform their church environment and their church experience in order to engage their local community. Through strategic partnerships they are in the process of a complete redevelopment of their land to realize a vision for a new, vibrant community gathering place that will be more accessible to the public.

Currently called Eagle Landing, the new development will be a mixed-use lifestyle center with retail, residential and hospitality components. The project will comprise 35 acres of new development containing 450,000 square feet of retail space, 750,000 square feet of office space, 700,000 square feet residential area—including a five-star hotel, lofts, senior active living and assisted living.

When complete, the center will offer an array of world-class restaurants, entertainment experiences, activities and community gathering areas.

What will differentiate this particular lifestyle center will be the integration of the church—the intentional fusion of a faith-community with a commercial environment. It’s a very exciting project for me to be a part of. I’ve worked with New Hope over the last year to help them redefine their brand as they redefine their environment. We started with a Brand Ideation engagement where we worked together to craft a verbal articulation of the New Hope brand. Then we addressed the brand identity.

This was the original logo. The mark was outdated and it did not represent the church’s new vision.

We looked at multiple concepts, but quickly gravitated toward the concept in the bottom left.

This is the final identity. Inspired by the colors of stained glass, the symbol is comprised of multiple overlapping quadrants. These forms converge to create both a cross – the central icon of the Christian faith – as well as an intersection, which represents the community it seeks to engage. We chose a lowercase, sans serif type to communicate modernity and approachability.

I also designed a new stationery system to show how the look-and-feel from the brand identity could extend into other applications.

We did an initial exploration of how the identity might look within the context of the new development – applying the mark to banners and posters. I really like how clean and vibrant the visual system is. It will be exciting to see the how the new identity continues to roll out for New Hope. They are heading in a very exciting direction and it’s been great working with them through the process.

Studio 1200 Brand Identity Development

Studio 1200, an architectural design firm, wanted a visual communication program that would accurately reflect their team’s versatility and personal, collaborative style. Mattson Creative worked with the firm’s principals to develop their vision of a vibrant and dynamic new brand. The following is an inside look at the creation of the new identity.

First, we engaged in a Brand Ideation project where we defined the unique personality and attributes of the Studio 1200 brand. This verbal articulation serves as a starting point for the visual exploration.



We reviewed the projects that Studio 1200 had completed for their clients and lots of great work they had on the boards. Images of their own office space also informed our identity development – especially the color palette.

Initial concepts sketches for the identity system.



The concepts above represent the initial presentation to the client. Because the name “Studio 1200″ is unique, the logo exploration was more typographic than symbolic. The numerals are so interesting and expressive, they become the primary design elements.



After the initial presentation, we narrowed the selections and explored the three directions above. Ultimately we decided that the middle column was the most visually interesting. The conglomeration of multiple architectural elements to comprise a single logo was an exciting concept.



I got really interested in the idea that the logo could rearrange into different configurations using the same kit of parts. The concepts above show multiple arrangements of the same pieces to create unique versions of the mark. This direction had a real mid-century modern feel to it, which I liked a lot.

This was a rough animation concept of how the logo might dynamically reconfigure itself.



Ultimately, we decided to go with this logo. Although we liked the mid-century aesthetic, we felt this direction was bolder, more dimensional.



We kept the kit-of-parts concept and created multiple variations of the mark using the individual pieces that comprised the logo. We used these variations on different applications, so the logo is never exactly the same. On the website, the transitions are animated and you can see the pieces disassemble and then come back together to form a new version of the logo. You can view it here.



The Studio 1200 stationery system.

The business cards gave each employee multiple options for the color, configuration and pattern on their individual cards.

The cards were also designed to interconnect using four die-cut slots on each side. So the business cards themselves could be used as playful, structural tools to build and create.