SoMaFusion :: travelogue

It feels a little bit like a dream come true. I’ve always been of the opinion that a logo needs to evoke emotion – trully great logos should inspire people to act. (Well, ours already inspired the Codesmith to act, he wrote his first blog post about it yesterday).

In my first post about it I said that designing the logo is a journey that your designer helps you take.

It is impossible to do justice to our designer Lefteris Koulonis who was with us every step of the way and nurtured our every idea (yes, even the really bad ones so that we would take them up to a point and see how bad they really were).

Myself, Manolis and Lefteris managed to swap a good number of e-mails, messages and telephone calls in the process. In one memorable occasion I interrupted a phone call to ask what that annoying sound in the background was. It was the cicadas. Lefteris was on holiday and he didn’t think it too important to mention when I called to discuss colour combinations.

That’s the kind of guy that he is. Check him out on flickr, tumblr, twitter and LinkedIn.(Kudos to Miss Konstantina Zoehrer for introducing him to us)

When we arrived at the final version (I was seriously dancing around) it felt like the end of a really enjoyable journey. We knew every curve, we knew every thought and we could stand behind the logo 100%

So – what do you think?

Our logo is ready and obviously we are more than excited.

(If you stumbled upon this page and are a bit lost check out how we started and what the name means and our principles).

Sofia will update later on in the day with more details of the history but I couldn’t resist uploading this.

Let us know what you think.

We are working on a pitch for someone creative these days (more details to follow – promise).

When dealing with a creative person (say for example a painter, a photographer, a singer, an actor) I think we all tend to go design crazy – just because we think it suits the identity of the product/ person. What we seem to be forgetting is that a website is not there for the client. It should be there for the user.

User – centered design is a phrase that I seem to be hearing from absolutely everyone these days (and I have to say that most work I’ve seen lately is very well- researched beforehand in terms of audiences and usability). However most comms and design studios – especially when dealing with clients that don’t have a lot of web experience – have the hard task of convincing their client that the user comes first.

I had this chat with Manolis – the other half of SoMaFusion – and we both think that a website is a tool and not a vanity project. It’s down to us to educate clients and help them understand their audiences and their needs.

Getting a bit cheeky as we were chatting I pushed him in the end to tell me what he would do if the client just refused to understand and pushed us for an over-designed website. “We can’t do that”, he said. “It’s not us. We do simple – smart – sensible. They should find someone else”.

Which pretty much explains why we work together.

Arched people
Originally uploaded by Miodrag Bogdanovic

I wrote about being in London the other day and pointed to an interesting discussion about creativity in the City (I would recommend listening to the discussion wholeheartedly – it’s from a Design Museum event). In that blog post I refrained from explaining our attachment to London too much – mainly because it’s such a difficult place to explain in words. Each Londoner (whether born here or not) will have a different take on the city – which is one of the things I love about the place.

Well London doesn’t only lack a clear definition it also lacks a clear brand and visual identity. That’s what our Mayor thought and gave out a tender for the creative development and design of a brand for London.

Moving Brands decided to pitch and they took their quest to the outside world. They’ve been blogging and using twitter - asking what people think of London, what are the great characteristics, how London makes people feel.

This tells me that the people at this project are genuinely interested in doing a good job and they consider research part of that job. Too often we seem to forget to ask the audience – and what better way to engage with them than going out there and just asking? Already they have received marvellous feedback and lots of good stories and experiences.

This has sparked a whole lot of thoughts and discussions over here at SoMaFusion – I promise I’ll soon blog about them.

Our best wishes to Moving Brands and anyone else pitching for the brief – we are waiting with excitement the outcome of the whole process.

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I found out via London Interesting on twitter

Originally uploaded by J!mbo

Being in London matters to us. It is difficult to explain exactly how London can help with your creativity but for us it’s a city that just works in terms of being inspired and staying that way.

I tracked down the other day a marvellous discussion (the link points to an .mp3) hosted by the Design Museum and it helps explain why being here makes sense.

Hussein Chalayan talks about how London influences his work and why he bases his International fashion business in the vibrant and gritty East End. Chalayan is joined by other key design creatives who base themselves in the city, including writer and journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Foreign Office Architects partner Farshid Moussavi and acclaimed emerging writer Bola Agbaje.
(via)

The Chair starts by giving a quote to the panel, to start them off in discussing creativity and London: “Britain has been forged in the crucible of fusion of hybridity. London is that crucible that national forge the city where no one belongs is where I belong.”

I think the panel make a very good case about how London helps creative people.

My favourite part is when Hussein Chalayan explains that his own background (he is Turkish/Cypriot) enriched his London experience and how the city gave him the necessary distance to understand the richness of his cultural background.

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I would definitely recommend browsing Hussein Chalayan’s ‘Art Projects’ part of his website – my favourite remains Afterwords, even after all these years, it is a fascinating study/ mashup of fashion – architecture – design.

You just know – you know?

The moment you see it there are no two ways about it. Your first reaction – especially if it’s a logo for your project – should be one of “Yes! That’s the one!” All your theorising and comparisons with the design brief will come later but the moment you see the thing you know.

For us it was like this. I started dancing around singing “we’ve got a logo” (honestly). Manolis declared “well since you’re dancing I guess we’ve got a logo”.

Tweaks and colour combination discussions are to follow in the coming days but for now I am just glad that Lefteris is the designer that he is.

I knew it - even though there is nothing I could have done to avoid it.

We got some drafts from our designer and I remained unconvinced. I looked into it, I spoke with Lefteris (the designer), I spoke with Konstantina (the PR girl I can trust), I spoke with Manolis (the other half of SoMaFusion) and I couldn’t figure it out.

Until I went back to the writer’s drawing board (that is, my trusty notebook, yes, they still exist) and I started writing and doodling (very badly may I add) and it hit me.

What I had left out was a prioritisation of characteristics. In other words a list of our key characteristics informing the logo in order of importance.

Why do this? Well, there is always a good chance that fitting all of them in one logo is out of the question.

Doing the list helped me focus my mind on what is important for us and helps the designer focus his mind on what should be more prominent.

So here it is. As I’ve said before a logo is a journey, not a simple tick in a box.

getting closer
Originally uploaded by LeLon Is Idea(L)

I mentioned the other day that we found a designer – the talented Mr. Lefteris Koulonis (see his updates on Less Like More and you’ll know) and we are working with him to come up with our logo.

I finished our design brief, Manolis went over it and he’s happy as well so I’ve just whizzed it off to Lefteris.

I just wanted to blog about what a design brief is all about. I could write a lot but I think the picture above says it all (and what do you know, it’s one from Lefteris’ photostream).

A design brief is all about getting closer to your vision, to your designer and to your audience.

It should be a succinct document (not necessarily short. But definitely very clear) which will help the designer understand who you are, what you do, what’s your vision, what’s your market, what are your design preferences. It is definitely not a document whereby you instruct the designer what to do. It is a document that puts your designer in a frame of mind.

Ours includes

• Introduction to SoMaFusion
• Market Position
• Activities
• Main message/ vision
• What the company name means
• Our requirements (in terms of where & how we will be using the logo

I doubt that’s enough but I think that for now they will introduce Lefteris to what we are all about and we will be able to discuss further and find more areas that we want to explore as we go along.

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Here are some good resources I found on writing a design brief.
- How do you write a design brief? by David Airey
- The Ultimate Design Brief by Shaun Crowley on Freelance Switch
- The Logo Design Process of TOP Logo Designers by Jacob Cass on Just Creative Design

man flowers
Originally uploaded by LeLon Is Idea(L)

It’s true.

This is where having a network of lovely and intelligent people comes in useful.

Lefteris Koulonis was suggested to us by Konstantina Zoehrer.

I am preparing a design brief for him today but you can see one of my favourites in his portfolio above and here is an ingenious banner he did for Positive Voice, the Greek Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS

banner
Originally uploaded by LeLon Is Idea(L)