Logo Design: Daedalus Howell
A few months ago, I was contacted by Daedalus Howell, a man of many talents who seamlessly balances careers in writing, radio and producing / directing / acting in films. He was in need of a logo that summed up these various forays yet also managed to symbolize his name (which could be complicated to grasp for some upon the first viewing).
One of the final logo options for Daedalus
As you can guess, this was not an easy challenge, but Daedalus (being a writer) was able to communicate exactly what he has looking for through detailed emails. The consensus we eventually came to was that he wanted a logo that was timeless, open-ended (could easily be used for representation in all of his professions) and also stood for his name.
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by Daedalus for King Minos of Crete so it made sense to reference it in his logo.
Once the labyrinth piece of the logo puzzle was figured out, I moved onto deciding which shape could hold it yet contribute to the overall message. I decided to use a talk / thought bubble to symbolize Daedalus’ writing and radio careers.
When designing a logo, I try to keep these thoughts in mind:
1. Can the logo be repeated to create a pattern? Focus on symmetry in the design if possible.
2. Are the shapes of the logo simple enough that it’s easy to interchange colors and other small details if necessary? Below, I made subtle changes with dark and light grays and the typefaces:
3. If there’s text accompanying the logo, does it have the potential to look dated really fast? I try to stick with classic Serifs and very basic, clean sans serifs. My favorite sans serif options are Avant Garde, Helvetica Neue and Avenir.
Also, it should be noted that we decided upon a secondary logo option for when Daedalus needs to put more emphasis on his name:
A special thanks to Daedalus for being a dream client and allowing me to feature him!
Get in touch: 
14 People have left comments on this post
Well done. How did you come up with that shade of blue?
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Annie: It was a swatch in my default CMYK palette.
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Wow Nubby! I have been following yr blog for a while now (a link from Gala) and am so inspired by your clean and supremely stylish sensibilities not only in your design but everything! That logo rocks – I love the labyrinth connection – you are so talented!:)Elly
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Nice!
I really like the labyrinth/bubble combo. Smartly done.
I don’t LOVE the blue, but that is just personal color preference, not a reflection of your design.
Saying that, I really like the way it looks on the more greyed out version. The grey makes me like the blue more.
Love the fonts you chose!
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You just made me google CMYK. I feel smarter now. :]
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Bex: I like the grayed-out version, also. The blue was a specific request. I feel like I learn so much from doing freelance because it’s completely about making the client’s vision a reality!
Annie Spandex: Haha, love it!
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that is Awesome! you should be very proud! I bet he was over the moon with the result, I would be.
rockin.
xxoo
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oooh it’s great! The fonts are really nice too. i especially love the DH in the bubble, the letters look like liquorice allsorts :p
I was looking at a labyrinth maze similar to that the other day in a random puzzle book and thinking what a cool pattern it is and how it should be used more on things!
It’s really good to get an insight into your design thought process
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I love it – I’m a friend of Daedalus and it’s a great logo for the DH experience and a beautiful piece of design. I bet he’s now worried about being out-classed by his own logo.
I have a question about the labyrinth – I noticed that toward the top (or “far”) end of the labyrinth, six of the “pathways” are closed, so that if you were to follow the labyrinth, you would run into dead ends there. I wondered if that was a sort of visual decision or whether it means something, like it’s part of the message.
Anyway, it’s beautiful.
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Nice work! I can’t get Welcome to the Jungle out of my head! ”Welcome to The Jungle, We’ve Got Fun And Games”
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Nice work! Why cant we just keep it simple and talk about the superbowl?
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