I was approached to design a logo for a new committee…

Our executive director came to me and said, "We need to have a design made for this new program." I was honored that he was going to pay me for a service that I could have promoted in our local chamber. Part of my design process is to learn more about the direction and how it is to be used. I have been telling quite a large number of contacts, "I could design you a pretty logo but is it going to be functional and are you going to question the design in 6 months to a year down the road."

I sat down and discussed more about the project with two women that were on the committee. I went through my creative brief questionnaire with them and found alot of holes in the project direction. I submitted a proposal to the director and followed up with a phone call. He said, "Mike, I just need a logo!" It sounded like that he wanted something inexpensive and created immediately. I begrudgingly said, "Terry, I can make you a pretty logo for $XXX.XX!" I wasn't happy about my response but deep down inside I didn't feel like I was going to be proud of my task at hand. In the end could I really say, "This design was well thought out and very functional."

Needless to say, Terry never called me back. This is the design that they came up with:

and here is one of the places that they are using it:

Personally, this doesn't work for me way too much going on and too many colors. I thought that I would share this beautiful web site layout by Baker and Spice Bakery. Very clean and beautifully designed. I would be proud to show this in my portfolio.