Hello! My name is Jon Fischer, and I am the designer of the “We Are Stronger Than Censorship” logo. My fascination with logos probably started when I was around 7 or 8, as I would find myself trying to draw and duplicate my favorite sports logos and uniforms. To this day, designing a logo is definitely my favorite part of being a graphic designer, so when I was approached to design this logo, I was ecstatic about the opportunity to work on such a unique project! I’d like to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what went into the logo, the thought processes behind the design, and how we arrived at the final logo!
Step 1: The Creative Brief
The Creative Brief is usually a few bullet points or sentences that give the designer or design team an outline of what the client is looking for in the finished project. It may include the overall message, the target audience, and other details like tone or inspirations, that can help the designers and client align their goals.
For this project, there were four main objectives that the final logo should meet:
Optimistic
Punk rock/indie spirit—an “in your face” to the people who ban books
Hopeful
A celebration of the power of books centered on marginalized communities
For this project, there were four main objectives that the final logo should meet:
- Optimistic
- Punk rock/indie spirit—an “in your face” to the people who ban books
- Hopeful
- A celebration of the power of books centered on marginalized communities
Step 2: Rough sketches
In this step, I always start out with three main tools: a sheet of paper, a ball point pen, and my brain! Rough sketches should always be just that: rough! By using a pen, I allowed myself to make mistakes, and not being able to erase is a good way to continually build off of an idea or concept that I might not have liked at first. The rough sketches are probably my favorite part of a design, because I can just let my mind go, and not have to worry about anything being a “bad idea” or a “good idea.” Nothing in this step is wrong, and there are no set amount of sketches that you need to achieve to come up with a concrete idea.
Step 3: Revised sketches
After I felt like the rough sketches were in a good place, I started to look for the concepts that I felt might be the strongest and had the most potential to move forward. Again, there was no set amount of sketches that needed to be achieved. After selecting a few that I liked the most, I moved them to a sheet of graph paper so I could start to refine the sketches. I used a pencil in this step, as it is key to start cleaning up lines and shapes, and start to work towards making elements more proportionate to each other. These are the sketches that I then sent out for review.
What Happened Next?
See how these early sketches evolved into the final logo and learn more about the We Are Stronger Than Censorship campaign by clicking here.