![]() The trick is to find the best way for the letters to overlap so that the word becomes a single object-but each letter is still immediately recognizable. It needs to be bouncy and lively, but also easy to read. Here, my comic-book lettering skills came in handy: When drawing a sound effect (like WHAP! or BRAKKADOOM!), I want the word to appear like an object coming at you from the source of the sound. I didn’t want to have to tweak them much on the computer with brush-type lettering, too much fussing sucks the life right out of them.Īfter choosing my favorites, I scanned the pages, autotraced them in Illustrator, and assembled the letters into a rough logo. I drew quickly, without thinking too hard. I got out a Sharpie and a stack of printer paper, and focused on developing each letter until I had at least one of each that I liked. But the way the letters overlapped made it difficult to read, and I thought a larger first letter in each word would create a more recognizable silhouette. It had a ragged, lively feel that suited the game (I did my research by playing on a friend’s phone). So I went back and looked at their original logo again. They said, “We like the direction, but we don’t want too big of a change from the current logo.” They had decided to drop the “2″ from the game title and were going to just market it as an upgrade from the current one. ![]() I also mocked them up over images from the game, so the clients could see how these logos looked in context:Īlas … I’d gone too far. ![]() Then I scanned and autotraced them, adding “comicy” outlines and drop shadows: I tried two fonts called Monster Mash and Battle Damaged:īut they seemed a little stiff for this job, so I went back to pen and paper and drew some ragged-looking logos with different pens: This is usually when I go to the computer, choose some of my fonts and start re-creating my sketches in Illustrator. The Rovio guys loved the “comicy” options, and asked me to keep going in that direction. The strange thing-OK, one of the many strange things-about working in comic books is that clients from outside the industry come to us looking for something “comicy,” while comic-book creators and publishers often want something serious and typographic: “like a movie poster.” I thought it was a pretty clever solution, but I always provide a few options. So I sketched some comic-booky logos, too, with jagged ends, bursts, and drop shadows: I downloaded screen snaps of the game and started sketching logos based on the bricks and blocks pictured in the game. There’s something about brainstorming on a computer that makes ideas look finished before they’re really thought out, while pencil and paper lets me erase and be a lot freer with my ideas. I almost always start with pencil sketches. So I expected this one would take a while.īut I enjoy the opportunity to branch out from the usual comic book work-so I took it on. Their existing logo was typed out in a free font they’d found online and they simply said they wanted something … “better.”Ī lot of times when clients aren’t sure what they want, the design process can go on and on as I try to pinpoint exactly what they’re looking for. I’d heard friends talking about the game, but I’d never played it believe it or not, I didn’t even own a smartphone to play it on. He contacted me through my company, Comicraft, told me they were releasing the next version of their app “Angry Birds,” and asked if I’d like to design the logo. ![]() Here’s how I designed the Angry Birds logo:īack in 2010, I got an email from the president of the Rovio video game company. It was an unexpected request that came from a couple of Finnish video game designers with a hit app.Īnd it came together pretty quickly-using a Sharpie and some scratch paper. I shared this step-by-step process with the blog.Īs a graphic designer working in the comic-book industry, I’ve created hundreds of logos over the past 20 years: Spider-Man, The X-Men, Daredevil, The Avengers …īut the most well-known logo I’ve ever designed wasn’t for a comic book at all. It’s true - I designed the Angry Birds logo! And it required very complicated technology: a Sharpie.
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