Aug 24, 2010

Hobbies, Interests & Passions, Part 4: Logos by Patricia Shea

I love type and I love illustration so what better way to combine the two than in full colour illustrated logos.

When I first got out of school I took a year off and decided to work in a commercial art studio before heading off to art college. I spent almost the whole year laying out Letraset and learning about the spacing, leading and kerning of many different typefaces and thus my love for type began.

Pictured here are four logos I was commissioned to create by different businesses and a sketch of the first draft of one of those logos. As you can see “Ambiance” started off quite differently than it ended but the seed of the idea remained, the typeface, the concept was embellished with English Ivy and a more formal, decorative flourish.

My most recent logo for "The Sugar Shack Cupcakery" in Brooklyn, New York was commissioned after the owner, Jill London, saw a design I had created for my own use on apparel and other items in my Café Press store. I baked, iced and photographed the cupcake in order to create a precise illustration of such, which in this instance was executed using colour pencils.

The "Harmony" logo was designed for a company in California who wanted to depict a combination of the Monarch butterfly and the California Poppy, both of which are indigenous to that companies geographic area, along with the name of the store "Harmony" in an elegantly flowing script.
“Panache” was designed for a store in the wine region of California.

“Created by Mother Nature” isn’t a logo per se but has the feel of one. I had so much fun with the type on this one, changing fonts and fading the colour from top to bottom. I added the type about 5 years after I had created the central motif and was pleased with the results.

All of my logos are created with watercolour paints or colour pencils and my beloved Winsor Newton Series 7 brushes on watercolour blocks by Aquarelle. The type is hand drawn with design flourishes added to create a uniquely decorative word. The only time I use a computer is to scan the image in, change any small imperfections and resize the logos to their fit their end need.

I am looking forward to doing more logos in the future and am hope I am lucky enough to be commissioned to do more delicious ones for bakeries, chefs and food writers. I love the look of desserts and enjoy making them too.

Thanks so much for taking a look and thank you Linda for being so kind as to feature my work on your wonderful blog!!

http://patternpatisserie.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Patricia-Shea/102550487197

2 comments:

  1. Beautifully laid out with many thanks, your friend in Maine, Patricia xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  2. I love Patricia's work, she is a lovely lady with a great foodie blog. The undoubted queen of cupcakes!

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