The client here is a very smart and sober Washington, DC-based financial whiz (you can read and see him in places like Forbes and Fox Financial Report), and was after something that felt sophisticated, but that conveyed sureness in an era of fiscal uncertainty.  I opted for a compass theme, pointing north-ish.  (I tried true north, but it looked overconfident.)

This small bookstore put up a shingle in a cozy yet affluent suburb of Charlottesville – they were after a logo which felt warm and whimsical, and were pleased with this offering.

Coming soon to a smartphone near you – I can’t reveal too much about this app-in-development, but I was lucky enough to be able to help with the branding at the early stages.  I won’t give you any more hints than the logo already divulges… glub.

I got a rough draft of an idea (pretty much pure text) from one of the co-owners of this northern Virginia t-shirt startup, and was permitted to deviate to my heart’s content.  I was given the latitude to be a bit edgy, and out of four comps, this is the one they picked.  I was glad they did.

Dr. Scotti needed a website refresh, and thought it was a good time to adopt a logo for her at-home pet euthanasia business – prior to this decision, she had been using photographic imagery of sunsets and fading paths, and wanted to keep those themes.  Unfortunately, we’ve needed to employ her services, and it made a world of difference…

Our local Crime Solvers organization is run by a group of really talented and dedicated officers, so when I saw that their logo was looking a little dated, I contacted them to see if I could help. They were very excited about the idea and had a comp all picked put, but ran into some internal resistance to the idea of a refresh. I still dig the logo.

It’s always an interesting challenge to brand a product, because you (usually) need to design within an existing brand framework, yet try to create something that has its own identity. I was lucky on this one– Frontline was the parent brand, and their logo includes a starburst element, which worked nicely with a global positioning product.

This logo was for a talented writer (and a talented teacher as well). She liked the idea of using her first initial as an element (fortunately the letter K has nice spatial balance), so my first iterations were based on old-style typewriter keys. Refinements left us with only the suggestion of a key, which I like much better.

The directive here was to use soothing colors, and the client wanted either a tree (with roots, please) or a lotus flower. I’ve always admired logos that make clever use of negative space, so in an effort to keep things simple, I gave that a try with this one.

When my wife and I started our freelance business after years in the high pressure environment of the DC market, we wanted the business’s name and logo to convey a sense of ease and LOW pressure. What could be more easygoing than whistling? (The word “corps” has given us a little trouble, as some people pronounce it “corpse,” which conveys a very different feel.)

Another top-secret project here, but I can tell you that if you like salsa, I have your next web destination all lined up for you.  Important here were colors and a food industry/restaurant feel.

Hard to take all the credit for this one – the customer is a south Florida artist who creates metal sculptures of local flora and fauna. The silhouette here is adapted from one of his pieces – I wanted to keep the colors earthy and muted.

The president of this company isn’t afraid of risks – after breaking away from the security of a larger firm, he built this company from the ground up, daring to use a plus sign in the business name. Based in Ft. Myers, Florida, they now have four offices in the U.S. that bear this logo.

I don’t know anything about gluten, but this lady’s baking pretty much rocks the house. This small Charlottesville startup’s name started as a different three word phrase (don’t remember it now), so when I heard she was changing up but wanted to preserve the logo as much as possible, I was pleased that she kept her business name to three words. Whew.

Somewhere between Charlottesville and Richmond, a woman named Billie Jo Adsit is helping young horseback riders rack up enough blue ribbons to choke…  well, a horse, thankyouverymuch.  Most people think “Adsit” must be short for something, or an acronym.  I was very aware that I had to mix caps and lower case to not reinforce that idea.  Anyway, she loves the logo and thinks it’ll make a swell western belt buckle!

This Maryland telemarketing firm is no longer a going concern, but the direction I got from the owner (a Baltimore Orioles fan, ironically) was that the bird should be minimalistic, just a few lines. He liked this one, and it’s still one of my favorites.

The client (a Charlottesville e-entrepreneur) was hot on purple and green.  All I can think of when a client lists those as their favorite colors is “the Joker.”  I moved her to a bluer green, and in fact spent most of my revision time (because she liked this design) experimenting with color options.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group hosts three events a year for engineers to come together to test their technologies. For me, it’s an opportunity to create three logos a year to brand tee shirts, programs and other reminders of our sponsorship of these events.

Roberta Krais came to us to give her business a new look – she was mostly looking for a font treatment, but wanted a graphic element that featured her last initial.  She was also keen on an unusual color as part of the identity, and we settled on a cool plum.

This logo was for a Chantilly, Virginia soccer team.  I liked the way it turned out, and I’ll have you know that this logo predated Harry Potter, so the lightning bolt R idea wasn’t ripped off.

This northern Virginia business advisor was looking for a logo that felt a bit abstract, but that conveyed individuals in a close-knit group. He liked this one…

This electronics distributor was after something with a bit of a retro feel, and I’ve always loved the script fonts from the 50’s and 60’s, so I seized the opportunity here to use one of them.

This North Carolina-based international shipping company brought the colors to the proceedings, and also wanted a switch incorporated into the logo, along with the “box in motion.” Not wanting to use too many competing images, I worked the switch into the word “switch,” and tried to keep it subtle.

This was another client in northern Virginia who was after a minimalist approach to an organic form – in this case, a body in motion.