Logo concept by Rob Torno for the Loaerth Adventure Setting. Read on to see how this logo came was created. See the full L&F logo at page bottom.
One of the really fun aspects of working with Nevermet Press is the process of creating new things that – honestly – you have no prior experience doing. A close second is how our development process works (think herding cats). All too often we are “figuring it out” as we run forward, stopping just long enough to lick our wounds and learn from our mistakes along the way.
My case in point: logo design. Lesson learned? Yes. The point? Let people do what they do best and stay out of the grass unless you know how to mow it.
A few weeks ago I posted to the Nevermet Press Content Developers Forum a call for logo designs for Loaerth & Feywyrd. It took only two hours for one of our excellent artists to volunteer for the task: Rob Torno. The idea gristmill started churning immediately. Emails started flying back and forth brainstorming ideas, concepts, and themes. Rob started in on me with some fundamental questions. Things for him that were obvious, but for me I had not even thought about beyond “Hmmm, Loaerth & Feywyrd need a logo or something…” I threw together a really sucky version of something I had in mind using (cough) Word. See the horribleness below.
Horrible... don't use Word for logo design... LOL.
Fortunately for me, and for Nevermet Press, Rob didn’t run for the hills. He pushed, he pulled. He asked tons of questions. He produced over a dozen concept designs in the process. At one point, I even snapped an iPhone photo of some (even worse) doodles I did on a sheet of paper with a Sharpy and sent it to him by MMS. Feast you eyes on this …
Yeah... that's my horrible Sharpy iPhone Pic - it makes me want to travel back in time to the 1980's... and go to an Iron Maiden concert
GEARS ON FIRE!!! Yeah… that was the result of about five too many double espressos. Nonetheless – Wow! … hats off to Rob for putting up with me. Not all was lost… Iron Maiden and Metal aside, we still managed to home in on something that really worked.
And this is where the beauty of Nevermet Press comes into play – the crowd. The above horrible image (read: my hand drawn image in the upper left) was shared with everyone in NMP’s development forum and recieved tons of feedback – everyone pitched in and shared their thoughts, criticisms, and comments. Eventually, the version in the lower left above image was used as the seed for the next round of logo designing. Rob pushed on.. firmed it up with his PhotoShop magic wand, and in a returned the silhouetted image below.
Rob quickly followed up with this to say in the forums:
… I think it has more to do with the fact that this logo has occupied almost twice as many hours of work then the troll painting did. If the end result works out that’s great and the process has taught me a lot, but I’m clearly more adept at pushing pixels illustratively…… The amount of time had more to do with my limited knowledge of what I was doing, but as i said it, was a good learning experience, so time well spent. Maybe I’ll have to try and tackle another one of these in spite of my misgivings, just to cement a process. I’ll try and have a refined B&W and a color for you soon.
Emphasis mine. After all that – he was STILL on board for more. It also goes to show how much all the back and forth between myself, Rob, Michael Brewer and the other content developers really ends up benefiting everyone involved, including the content developer (in this case, Rob). Not to mention we got a great looking logo to boot! Here’s the colorized version he sent me a few days later:
"Here is a first shot at color. Let me know what works and what needs work." -- Rob Torno.
Need I say more? He’s a class act all the way around. I’ll leave it at that.
The logo(s) alone gets me excited to see what else is in store… how about you.
What do you think? Awesome?! Meh? How could we improve this design? Or is it good just the way it is? Let us know in the comments!
oh, wait – there is more!
Come back tomorrow and check out the Malachrome Gaurd Dog; a new fully illustrated creation by Charles Dickey and Rob Torno for Loaerth & Feywyrd due out Friday, April 2nd!
Written by Jonathan Jacobs.
All (good) artwork by Rob Torno.
Edited by Cassey Toi.
As always, Rob really did some top notch work on this pair of logos! My hat’s off indeed.
NMP really is all about the community – the feedback – the back and forth – and the PROCESS that builds something amazing. I have to say that I for one am happy to be a part of a group that’s creating not just something new, but a new way to make that new thing!
.-= MrLich´s last blog ..Sketchwork Dumpage =-.