The lovely lady I am proud to call my friend, Tanja Kocman has asked me to help her with her logo. Of course I couldn't resist her.
She's a radio host, writer, stand-up comedian and 120% awesome. It got me thinking how I could transfer her quirkiness and adorable nature into a logo that would do her justice.
I started with some keywords I thought would be appropriate for her:
quirky
adorable
clean + simple
personal
perfect in its imperfections
A thought hit me that with her being a recognized figure initials and some sort of autograph would be a nice way to represent her. I went to work and started drawing up some initials in all sorts of varieties, but ended up creating a clean, playful lower case "tk" with an upward direction - additionally representing her fun nature and positiveness. She's saying it like it is or in slovenian "tk kot je" (the initials emphasize that : ).
I kept it simple in concept, but with tiny details that would shine through if you pay a little more attention:
The symbol with the initials work awesomely on its own; the circle, the most perfect of all shapes, is edited to be less perfect, but that makes it more natural, more real life - this idea transferred perfectly to Tanja (and basically any human, regardless of what they might tell you). It makes it more relatable, more real and less static and sterile. The wordmark is simple and very legible, with no unnecessary flimflam.
Additionally, there's a little mouth with a smile hidden in the negative space between the t and the k.
The colours have a certain quirkiness, whimsicalness to it, but are still very feminine and hard to miss.
The logo works in many variations - as just the symbol, a horizontal variation or one-coloured. It is highly recognizable and suits Tanja just right.
The additional patterns feel handmade and personal as well, complimenting the logo in a nice way. The first one was used on her business cards and cards for autographs.
In all the countless applications the logo can appear - either as the symbol or as the handwritten initials themselves, it is absolutely on brand and represents it appropriately.
