Logo Design for an Online Retail Store

Logo Design for an Online Retail Store 848 310 Nick Saporito

The Eskota Exchange will be a small online retail store that offers a wide variety of items made from earthy materials, such as rock and wood.

Goal

To design a logo for The Eskota Exchange — both a typeface and iconic mark, that can each stand alone and/or be combined as needed — that also incorporates a harmonious balance of elegance as well as a Native American theme. The company will also go by the abbreviated name of ESKX, which is a possible angle to approach the design process from. In addition, the logo will be burned onto wood materials (such as bamboo) and will also be printed on packaging, so a design that offers versatility is required.

Building From The Ground Up

As with most logo projects I pursue, I like to start the design process by perfecting the typeface for the logo, then building the rest of the logo around it.

Most Native American style fonts I came across in my research were either too detailed or a little too cartoon-ish. This project calls for an elegant look in addition to the Native American theme, and I just wasn’t able to find a font that met that specific criteria.

na_fonts1

lazydog

Because of this, I decided to go with a custom typeface, inspired primarily by a sleek style to communicate elegance, along with a few very subtle elements that suggest a Native American vibe.

typeface

As depicted above, it was simply a matter of slightly altering a couple of the letters. I shifted the middle arm in the letter “E” over to the left, then removed the connecting arm in the letter “A”. I think these changes, although subtle, communicate a hieroglyphic vibe. It’s not boldly apparent, but it’s enough to get the idea, and a logo should suggest an idea instead of literally depicting it anyway, so I think this works.

I made sure that “Eskota” was the dominant word that jumps out and grabs your attention, and delegated “The” and “Exchange” to secondary importance. I think all three of the words would fight for attention otherwise.

Iconic Mark

Once the typeface was finished, it was time to design an iconic mark that matches the typeface in style and can be paired with it.

After several hours of trial and error and experimenting with various ideas, I arrived at the following two designs…

icons1

Both designs utilize the company’s abbreviation placed within crossed arrows, which subtly suggests a dreamcatcher with feathers on the bottom.

What I liked most about the design on the left is that it was a little more distinct, but it didn’t quite pair well with the typeface. The design on the right pairs nicely with the typeface, but looks a little too generic for my liking. Unable to decide between the two, I made a third variation that combines the distinctiveness of the left design with the typeface compatibility of the right design, which seemed to do the trick.

icon2

And with that said, the icon was complete and it was time to pair it up with the typeface and begin producing the files.

Final Lockup (click to enlarge)

Final Lockup (click to enlarge)

Typeface (click to enlarge)

Typeface (click to enlarge)

Iconic mark (click to enlarge)

Iconic mark (click to enlarge)

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Nick Saporito

Hi, I'm Nick— a Philadelphia-based graphic designer with over 10 years of experience. Each year millions of users learn how to use design software to express their creativity using my tutorials here and on YouTube.

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7 comments
  • Praveen Kumar N

    Hello Nick,
    Thanks for the wonderful news letter you are having.
    I have some small doubts about logo creation as I am starting out recently in Logo design.
    Which tool do you use for your clients, Inkscape or Illustrator?
    How many files do you produce in the end for the client, and what are the different formats you are providing him…?

    • Nick Saporito

      Hi Praveen, thanks for your kind words. I use Inkscape for 99% of my design work, including logos. Inkscape and Illustrator are just tools. They don’t make great work; the designer makes great work. Those tools are only as good as the person using them. When looking at a logo, there’s absolutely no way of determining whether it was made with Inkscape, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Photoshop, or any particular software, simply by looking at it. As for having doubts – that’s normal when you’re first starting out. If you just keep at it and be consistent, you will eventually get better at it.

      I’m currently creating a logo design course at the moment and should have it available here on the blog within the next month, if you’re interested in learning more about the theory behind logo design, how to come up with ideas, and basically everything to do with creating a logo from start to finish. Maybe it can help you.

      Regarding which files to send clients, here’s a post I made a while back outlining exactly how I go about the production phase: http://blog.logosbynick.com/design/logo-files-formats-to-send-every-client/

      Hope that helps. Thanks again for your feedback!

  • Anonymous

    Hi Nick, Your Design Insights news letter is the only one I read regularly thanks for the wonderful news letter. I just want to ask you one question though. Are you using Inkscape or Illustrator for all the client based projects you get…? How many files do you produce in the end for one logo for the client….? I generally make .svg format files. Is there any other type of format you use along with .svg file format…?
    Thanks for the Blog post anyway.

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