Etna Interactive

Boston Marathon Project Heal, Logo Development

Developing a typographic logo is a challenge to express an idea, in this case a cause, thorough the structure and quirks of letterforms. For this piece, the city of Boston provided the inspiration. From its expressive sports team logo marks to the vernacular lettering and rich history, a multitude of display faces were available to learn from.

Paired with this the composition of this logo posed a second problem; to organize the lengthy name and retail legibility at small sizes for the web. While traditional crests and compositions initially drew my focus, I moved towards a structured block of center aligned text. Along with the custom lettering and geometric type pairing, this would set the structure for a bold word mark while retaining respect, tradition & scaleability.

Finally the digital process began, building letterforms geometrically then adjusting optically. Tweaks were made to spacing and weight, reorganization for proper hierarchy, then colors and styling applied. As a designer as well as a runner I was pleased to be able to work on a project for an organization contributing to Boston marathon relief. Here is a peek into my process, enjoy (:


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