This my original rough sketch of the idea.

And this was the actual illustration. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out.

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 The mark was outdated and it did not represent the church’s new vision.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

We’re having a baby! I just heard the heartbeat.

Amazing…

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.

I recently completed a logo design for Mottsy – an innovative, online printing company. The client was really interested in the creative process and asked me to record my screen during the development of the logo. This time-lapsed movie is the result. (Be sure to hit the expand button in the bottom right corner to view it full size.)

At first I was a little self-conscious recording my screen…it felt like someone was looking over my shoulder, watching me design the logo. But eventually I got used to it, and it was an fun experiment. I’m not sure how interesting it is to watch me look through hundreds of fonts, scan sketches, plot points, check email, change songs in iTunes, etc. Let me know what you think…it helps that we sped it up. And threw a little music in there. Thanks, Jeff.

The following logos and variations are what I presented to the client. They ultimately chose the first one which I actually didn’t capture on video. Oh well, still a fun look behind the scenes at the brand identity development process.

After we explored a lot of color variations, we ended up pretty close to the original concept.



This is the final logo. We developed the tagline and their brand positioning as well. Keep an eye on Mottsy.com – they should be launching their site in September. Should be pretty cool.

Just got back from press checking the Pocono Modern stationery. Turned out great. It’s always fun to see the design get printed and come to life. Here are a couple shots from the printing process.

Laser prints trying to find the perfect shade of rorange.

Pantone didn’t have a good enough match, so I had Toyo Inks create a custom color for the project.

Here is the big bad Komori that we used to print the project.

Make-ready test of the letterhead.

Final printed sheet of business cards. Kraig and Shawn each have their own color.

Back of the business cards. Each name has 4 different colored backs. The custom envelopes look great too. I’ll post some pictures once they come back from the converter. This is such a fun brand to work on.

With attention to detail and a commitment to sustainable practices, Pocono Modern is building homes in the Poconos with a fresh, modern twist. Here is an inside look into the creative process that went into designing the Pocono Modern brand identity.

This was the original logo that the client was using. It played off of the dynamic modern angles of the architecture and the topography of the Pocono Mountains which was interesting, but we decided that we wanted to explore how we could evolve the mark into more of a distinctive icon.





The aesthetic of The Martindale – one of the first Pocono Modern homes to be completed — inspired a lot of my initial concepts for the mark.





Like every project, I begin by sketching concepts. This process is very freeform. The drawings are quick and loose, and all over the page. I try to generate a lot of ideas quickly, exploring as many different visual concepts as I can. I will play with shapes and forms in multiple configurations until something interesting takes place, or another idea emerges. It’s a difficult process to describe, but I think this may be my favorite part of logo development.

After I create sketches, I evaluate the ideas and then start exploring more refined versions that integrate type and color. This next series represent the initial logo concepts that were presented to the client. This concept integrated the silhouette of The Martindale house with the mountain in more of a retro way.





I thought is concept could be interesting to explore as a seasonal mark that could have different colors to represent different seasons in the Poconos. Ultimately, these felt a little too kitchy.





This concept is a much more graphic abstraction of the landscape. We liked this direction, although we determined that it didn’t work well as a stand-alone logo. The idea of the triangle pattern made its way into the overall visual language of the brand as a supporting graphic element.

I really liked this concept. I loved the simplicity and the transparency. Maybe a little plain, but it has a very modern sensibility which we liked.





This idea was much more playful. The icon is comprised of different elements that combine to represent The Martindale, and the tagline type is vintage and fun. This was a little too whimsical, but we wound up using the wood texture in the final mark.





Another variation on the abstract mountain concept. I thought the relationship between the hand-drawn texture and the solid field behind it was interesting.





A different variation on some of the same themes. Mountains, seasons and amenities of the Poconos.





This was an interesting type treatment, but legibility was a concern — and overall, we felt like the identity needed an symbol element.





After the initial presentation, we decided that these three concepts were the strongest. Pocono Modern is the vision of Kraig Kalashian, who is a really incredible architect and designer, which makes all of our collaborations very creative. He has a great eye for design and we tend to gravitate towards the same aesthetic which is fun. Kraig wanted to integrate the idea of “homes” or “community” into the concept on the lower left.





This was a challenge until saw this incredible cover illustration for Fortune Magazine by Erik Nitche, which inspired the simple geometric style that I used below.

I really loved the way this logo design turned out. We had a hard time deciding between this idea and the one we eventually went with.





Along with the Nitche-inspired logo, I explored this stationery concept for the logo above. I introduced the abstract triangle pattern, which ultimately made us feel that this direction was stronger overall.





So here is where we ended up. The mountains are represented, but are abstracted into simple, strong shapes. There is some interesting positive/negative space created in the middle of the mark by the intersection of the angles. The wood texture evokes the organic nature of the Poconos and the color-fields represent the minimal, modern aspect of the brand.





After we finalized the logo, we applied the look and feel to an array of applications including packaging and stationery.





Currently, we’re working on the interior of the Pocono Modern corporate office and design studio in Jim Thorpe, PA. I will post some photos and updates on this project in the next few days.