The Office Solutions 101 Logo Design

I’ve recently completed the above logo design for a company which specializes in, “Bringing structure, logic and control to the workplace by optimizing workflow,” and ...“increasing productivity and devising workplace solutions for new businesses or established businesses that need assistance with growth and organization.” 

In other words, perhaps you recognize that your work environment could stand to have a little order introduced into the chaos. And maybe some optimization or modernization could help you to trim some waste and save some valuable time and money. Perhaps you sense that with a little tweaking, or a lot of tweaking, your office could purr like the well-oiled machine you’ve always dreamed it could be. That’s where Office Solutions 101 comes in.

Click on any image for an enlarged view.

This logo consists of a logomark representing the initials “OS” (in the form of a globe or circle and a stylized letter “S”) along with the logo type in the typeface of Venera, weights 700 and 500. The colors are Pantone 376 C and black. The logo works well in grayscale, single color and reversed applications.

I’ve also designed the logo to work in a variety of formats. The format shown above I’m calling a hybrid, in that it is a combination of the stacked and horizontal formats shown below respectively.

The hybrid version is my favorite but the other two formats can come in handy under certain circumstances. 

I also did a couple of layouts suggesting how the logo could be used in social media platforms.

Designing a logo can be a bit like bringing order and efficiency to an office. You have to research the client’s business, identify what matters and what doesn’t and boil it down to the essence of the business, removing anything that impedes efficiency. In the end you have a clear, concise solution that works exactly the way it should and is flexible enough to adapt to the inevitable and changing factors of time and circumstance. 

A Personal Project: The Wild Wild West

The Wild, Wild, West

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Personal projects are fun. I find it almost therapeutic when I can draw, design and/or paint something where I am my own art director and I can work at my own pace with no specific deadlines. I finished this personal project several months ago. It is a mixed media illustration of Robert Conrad as James West, the lead character from the 1960’s television show The Wild Wild West. The show featured two secret agents – James West and Artemus Gordon – chasing adventure and mystery in the untamed west. Part western, part spy fiction, part science fiction, it was campy and amazingly far fetched. But I loved it.

Every episode title begins with the words The Night of... There was The Night of the Inferno, The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth, The Night the Terror Stalked the Town and so on for four seasons. 

Robert Conrad did all of his own stunts for the show. He has even been inducted into the Stuntman’s Hall of Fame for his work on The Wild Wild West.  In fact he almost died in a stunt involving a chandelier in The Night of the Fugitives. If you have a chance to see this episode watch for the scene where he leaps from a balcony onto a chandelier only to land on his head.

Conrad was also an excellent horseman. In most episodes he could be seen riding a black American Quarter Horse. When the show’s producers realized he was such a skilled equestrian, they replaced his original horse with one possessing a little more spirit. Enter Shadow Trail, the horse he would ride for the remainder of the series. 

It is worth mentioning that the The Wild, Wild, West is credited as the originator of Steampunk. Steampunk is a subgenere of science fiction/fantasy in which modern technologies are re-imagined as steam powered machines of the 19th-century.

James and Artemus travel from adventure to adventure aboard their custom locomotive. Each episode begins with the train delivering them to their mission (some time early in the day) and ends with the train steaming them off into the mysterious night. 

I completed this illustration in graphite pencil, water soluble oils and colored pencils on a gessoed masonite board.

A Color Value Illusion!

I do not claim credit for this post. I first saw this at what I consider to be the best illustration blog ever and I just have to share it and the original blog The Gurney Journey, a blog by master illustrator James Gurney of Dinotopia fame. Anyone who is interested in learning technique will absolutely love James Gurney’s blog. If you want to see Mr. Gurney’s original blog article where he explains the below phenomenon click here. While you are at his site, bookmark it and explore to your heart’s content.

The illusion:

Believe it or not, squares 1 and 2 below are exactly the same color and value.

Don’t believe it? 

Here is the proof:

Is art fun or what?

Again, if you are an artist you must visit The Gurney Journey! It is an absolute treasure trove of studio tips and insights on the visual arts. Enjoy!

Dimensional Form and Stylized Letters: A Logo Design

A local contractor asked me to create a logo for his commercial business. He wanted the icon to be a stylized letter “C” positioned above the name of his company. 

This stylized “C” forms a solid, sturdy, building-block shape in bold colors which holds up well on both a white and a black background. It will look sharp on business cards and other stationery and business collateral as well as on hats, shirts and vehicles.

Logo ©2015 Tony Fendikevich

This logo shape started out as a cube. From this larger cube I “carved out” a smaller cube. By introducing a second color I can define the space around this smaller cube. This negative space interacts with the smaller cube to form the letter “C”.

2015 RIT Imaging Hall of Fame Inductees

Here are my portraits of this years inductees to the RIT Imaging Science Hall of Fame.

Top to bottom: Carolyn Porco, Bryce Bayer and Gary Starkweather.

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A Logo You Can Bank On

My latest freelance project involved designing the new logo for Rochester Home Equity. Above is the final version chosen by the client. The negative space reveals a house or an upward pointing arrow. The color green represents the financial aspect of their business. The font, Agilita, is sans serif and modern. It has some strength and weight to it without being overly heavy. 

The original RHE logo. By the way, just click any image for a better view.

The original Rochester Home Equity logo was simply the company name completely spelled out in a serif font. As a logo this doesn’t really work as well as one would like. In earlier logo design articles I’ve mentioned the characteristics of good logo design. In my opinion, the original RHE logo does not meet these characteristics in that it is not simple enough to be instantly recognizable; lacking simplicity it is not very memorable; the serif font gives it a very traditional look but it also seems dated thus it is not timeless; the logo is overly long and horizontal so it is not very versatile.

Financial institutions often have to straddle a line when it comes to their marketing. On the one hand, these institutions need to communicate that they are sound corporate entities. On the other hand, they want to present themselves as consumer friendly. As a graphic designer tasked with coming up with a logo solution for such a company you can essentially go in either of these two directions or try to find a way to communicate both truths at the same time. I believe the new RHE logo accomplishes both tasks.

This was one of my concepts which did not make the final cut. It incorporates a fairly recognizable feature of the Rochester skyline. 

Arriving at the final logo design was a long process fraught with many revisions and with several good ideas not making the cut. It is easy to understand why designing a logo can be a difficult process when you realize that for a client, choosing a logo is similar to having a chance to choose your own name or to choose your own physical appearance. And by appearance I don’t simply mean choosing a particular hair cut or style of clothing. Hair grows back and clothing is easily changed. No, making a significant change to your corporate identity in the form of a new logo is more like choosing to have plastic surgery. It is a very personal decision.

Another rejected design, this concept leans toward the more traditional approach… perhaps too much so.

Some clients come with predetermined ideas for their logo. For most others however, the logo design process is a long journey of self discovery. As a graphic designer, one has to keep this truth firmly in mind with a willingness to accompany the client on this journey, be it short and simple or long and difficult. Doing so is one mark of a professional. It’s an exercise in problem solving and it’s just part of the job. Another part of the job is being able to accept rejection and letting some of your ideas fall to the design studio floor, as clearly quite a few of mind did.

Here are some of my other RHE logo designs which did not make the final cut. These are just roughs and not completely finished logos:

This concept hints at the reputation of Rochester as the Flower City. The “R” needs more work so it doesn't look so unrelated to “H” and “E”. But the biggest problem with this idea is that RHE does business throughout New York State, not just in the Flower City area.

The main effort behind this design was to propel the RHE brand toward a more modern aesthetic. 

 This design was actually one of my favorites. It definitely leans more toward the consumer friendly direction. 

Almost there. You can see that it wasn’t a very big jump from this idea to the final design. 


In the end I believe I presented the client with a clear variety of concepts. I'm glad they are happy with the final result.

Football and Photoshop

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I’ve recently move to a new place of employment – still in the graphic design business of course – but before I left my previous employer I had the opportunity to design one final Super Square Off promotional. This photo illustration required extensive Photoshop work. My goal was to create an image that was colorful and energetic.

The stadium light background was a vector stock image I found. 

To this I added a spectrum gradient.

I also added a bokeh pattern to the light beams.

Using a variety of smoke brush tips I painted in these “plasma” beams.

For the football player I chose a stock image that had no identifying markings. I converted the image of the player to grayscale and increased the contrast and sharpness.

I added a spectrum colored aura around the shape of the football player.

Then I added a second, brighter aura to arrive at this final image.

I created the new logo in Adobe Illustrator. In previous years, the logo felt more like a headline with accompanying text. This year I wanted to design it more as an actual logo. 

I've designed the Super Square Off promotional for the past three years and this particular one is my favorite.