Family Crest Project: Davis Edition
Over the past weeks we have discussed the importance of design in creating the identities of companies that communicate their brand. In particular we have discussed the importance of the logo as the “face of a brand” and the role that good logo design plays in forming a company's identity and marketing their brand. Some of the earliest historical examples of a graphic identity campaign date back to the medieval European tradition of creating and presenting a crest (or coat of arms) to herald the status, achievements, and family name of a nobleman. Samurai in Medieval Japan also carried out a similar tradition of crest designs known as Mon. Crests have become incredibly popular in modern design for their traditional feel, rich symbolism, and unique character. Or maybe they are popular because FIFA has become so big, and most soccer teams sport a crest on their Js. Regardless of why they are popular as new designers crests offer the opportunity to approach a variety of design problems in a single assignment. Consideration of shape, symbol, type, layout, color, and SMART design all go into creating an effective crest. For our crest designs we will be using our own family as inspiration for style and symbolism. Consider your family’s history, heritage, hobbies, dynamic, sayings, traditions, etc. Talk to your parents, siblings, grandparents, and other relatives to help generate a list of ideas of how your family sees itself and would like its “brand” to be perceived. We as always will be working in partnership so take this as an opportunity to learn about a fellow classmate's background and life outside school. Each group will be responsible for creating a crest for each group member’s family.
As the first step of the project my dad, brothers, and I sat down one night after dinner to brainstorm a list of symbols, styles, sayings, traditions, and themes that represented our family. The concepts that stood out strongest came from two more general ideas: one being my grandmother's swedish heritage and traditions that defined most family functions during her life and the other being the fact that the Davis' have been in Arizona since 1954 and are all die-hard "Zonies".
The next phase in the game was to seek out inspiration from a variety of sources. My dad and I pulled up google and behance and began thumbs upping and book marking any designs we thought would be useful. We looked at coats of arms, soccer teams, badges, icon sets, traditional Swedish imagery, Arizona designs, Native American artwork, corporate logos, photography, etc to create a vision of where this project could go. A sample of this research can be found in my behance collection here.
thumbnails left. Roughs right.
Based on these concepts a unique mix of images began to reoccur in my sketches that expressed the history and contemporary state of the Davis clan. Particularly imagery of saguaros, navajo rug patterns, crowns, and the saying Uffda (from my grandma) found its way into most of my roughs.
This is a screen shot of my workspace in Adobe Illustrator. It is kind of a mess but exactly how I like it. When working in AI I like to have reference images right next to my art board for continued inspiration while working. Additionally because AI is a digital medium there really is never any reason to erase an idea even if it isn't turning out. The ability to copy and paste allows me to create iteration after iteration of the same idea and be able to track progress and compare versions.
I call the comp above the "meatball." More of a badge than a crest this design uses a circular shape to represent our families famous meatball recipe. Once upon a time I ate 25 in a single sitting to claim the record. This comp succeeded in bringing together Arizona and Swedish imagery, but felt overly simple and not "crest" enough.
This comp represents a more modern and trendy approach to crest design. The mountain range with the saguaro represent our Phoenix as well as Flagstaff roots and the three crowns pay homage to the swedish crest. Additionally the idea of 3 crowns relates to the concept of three boys in the Davis household. My grandfather was one of 3 boys, my father was one of 3 boys, and you guessed it I am one of 3 boys. I didn't end up loving the way the type needed to warp to fit the shape of the crest and I began leaning towards a more "coat of arms" look.
I iterated a variety of "coat of arms" more traditional feeling crests using the same general imagery to create my different designs. I finally settled on the version pictured below in both B&W and full color.
Though not the simplest of my designs I ended up selecting this crest as my final because it most wholly captured the traditional nature of a crest by using a grid system to incorporate a wide variety of seemingly disjointed symbols to create a unified whole. For a typeface I selected Klinic Slab because it worked well in both light and heavy weights and because the geometry of the serifs give it solidity and the style is reminiscent of the west. The shape of the crest borrows both from a traditional shield form and is also similar to the interstate sign representing my families love of travel. The three saguaros represent the three boy concept discussed earlier and the most recognizable image of Arizona. Having passed away less than a year ago much of the crest is a homage to my grandmother, the matriarch of our family. The bottom left quadrant is an element of a Navajo rug with a silhouette of the San Francisco peaks representing both my grandma's and my love of Native American artwork and our shared love of Flagstaff as the heart of Northern Arizona. The saying uffda has roots in Sweden but also is widely used in Minnesota where our family moved from during the 50s. The rays behind it represent the Arizona flag and the combination of the two cultures. The bottom left is a cross the represents both the strong christian faith and tradition of Jesuit education in the family. Additionally when presented in the full color yellow and light blue version it creates the Swedish flag. The colors were picked predominately for their use in the Swedish flag, but are also fitting because all of the Davis' have blue eyes and at least when we were younger had blonde hair. Overall I think the design, though far more complex than my usual approach, is a very usable and compelling illustration of my family.
