How to Write Guy – Logo Design

How to Write Guy – Logo Design

written by Charlie Pabst

Finished the site and logo for the How to Write Guy a while ago, but wanted to say a couple things about the logo.

First, it’s unfortunate but I lost all of my napkin sketches for this, which I love show for process. Needless to say, most of the early versions were a “W” and a “G” in various layouts. I’m sure you could imagine some. Put a W next to a G. Put a W on top of a G. Put a W sort of behind a G. Now play with colors.

It was no good.

The main problem with these W/G configurations was that they deemphasized the “THE Write Guy” part of the site. The client wanted the branding to lead away from “how-to write” and more towards him as the writer.

Because I love type fonts and typography in general, I decided to keep the W but then have an actual guy standing there, instead of some stupid insipid G. The letter G sucks anyway. Everyone knows that.

We didn’t want to go the route of actually having his own body be part of the logo, so I started looking through stock photos. Right away I found a guy leaning and knew he’d be perfect to lean up against the W. He’s cool, calm, collected and standing at a jaunty pose. And when I made a silhouette out of the photo he became mysterious as well. I added the reflection and shadow and ten minutes later it was finished.

The client loved the idea and it turned out to be, at this point, my favorite logo I’ve ever done. Here it is…

How to Write Guy Logo