The Red & Black NOW
App Brand Refresh
I was given the task of refreshing the Red & Black's logo exclusively for use on a new mobile app launched in 2021. This app would act as a convenient digital access point for local Athens student and town news, with features for accessing local company deals and We needed to retain the professional feel of a journalism institution while introducing a sleek modern feel to the brand.
As you can see, we went through a lot of ideations. The house, acting as the client, decided upon a lower cased simple refresh that met all their needs.
Logo Ideations for the Red & Black APP brand refresh.
The Red & Black Merch
Who is this distinguished gentleman? His name is Yowzer, a mascot I designed for the Red & Black back in 2020. While the trademark slogan I pitched ("I wish I could read") got vetoed in a heated democratic process, his silly little face lived on through a merch campaign launching t-shirts, mugs, coffee and stickers.
I have worked on many merch campaigns for the Red & Black over the years, including the "5 W" campaign highlighting the principles of journalism, and the "1893" Campaign highlighting the various logo iterations spanning over a century in celebration of the Red & Black's 130 year anniversary.
The Red & Black
Podcast Studio Branding
After the pandemic, the Red & Black repurposed studio space for a podcast studio designed to provide practice and reporting experience for aspiring journalists. Beforehand, students were working off their laptops finding places in the office to hide from the bumps and chatter of their coworkers.
I got the opportunity to create the logo for the podcast studio. I wanted something that pulled the branding together for the company while clearly conveying the general concept of "podcastery". After ideating with some clumsy rough sketches, I put together a digital ideation sheet with three different iterations of two main concepts. Unanimously, the staff all agree that the "RB" with headphones and lettermark was the way to go. Fun factL letters with headgear is always a crowd pleaser!
CYNOSURE MAGAZINE
I have done a lot of merch design and branding over the years, and I am always excited to see ideas come to fruition from sketches to reality. One of my favorite branding projects was for a magazine I founded with Alex McClay back at the Lamar Dodd School of Art called "Cynosure". It was a thematic, submission based art magazine and the first non-class related project I got full reign over visually.
Our goal was to bridge the gap between the art school's graphic design department and the high arts programs that often felt at odds with each other in the university. We wanted to use the graphic design format to best display visual artists from painters, print makers, ceramics artists and even writers to find common ground in thematic inquiry and messaging. It was highly rewarding while it lasted, and while it was cut short by the COVID pandemic we managed to generate a great deal of interest and buzz around the concept.
