About two months ago, I advertised that fact I was giving away four free hours of studio and design time to any charity, anywhere that needed it. To say I was overwhelmed with the response would be an understatement.
At one point I had it in my head that we had, in Canada, over 60,000 registered charities and nfp’s. But according to Imagine Canada, we have over 161,000… that’s incredible. We all know about the big ones of course, they act big, they spend big, and well, they are big. BUT, using the 80/20 rule we can assume that the majority of those 161,000 charities are small. They are run by volunteers, they have no budgets, and are being run by people just trying to do the best they can.
I’m not pretending to be some sort of charitable Robin Hood, as striking as I would look in a leotard, but I take great satisfaction that I work with some of the best agencies and fundraising consultants in the world, and every time I work with a new client, especially the small ones, I can bring all the knowledge and resources I have to the discussion. If they want it.
Mark and I have discussed many a time, that we would love to be able to donate all of our time, resources and knowledge to charities anywhere for free – basically operate as a nfp design studio – but we need to make a living somehow right?
So – anyhow, back to Blue Beauty.

As I went through all of the emails that I received, one was from a woman named Candy Silvasy from Cincinnati.
“Spa4Diabetes is partnered with the United Nations’ Int’l Diabetes Federation, we raise money and awareness for the global diabetes epidemic. Our BlueBeauty initiative seeks to encourage recognition, prevention and self care as the pink ribbon does for breast cancer.”
Candy needed some help coming up with a professional identity for the Blue Beauty initiative.
The problem for me is that it is impossible to design a logo in the course of four hours. I’ve discussed my process before here and here. But I liked the challenge, the cause and Candy had a real passion for what she was doing.
After reviewing her answers to my questionnaire that I use for new logo design projects, I sat down and got to work.
Two key things that stood out to me were Blue Beauty’s target market and demographics. She was targeting spas, beauty manufactures, upscale hotels and women who would generally partake in Blue Beauty spa treatments or buy the products. Age range of 18-35, upper middle class.
Candy explained: “BlueBeauty has taken off so rapidly that companies, including beauty manufacturers, are contacting us to participate. We need a high impact, recognizable logo for BlueBeauty that will motivate companies to create and customers to buy BlueBeauty branded goods. I want it to be the young, fresh, modern look of diabetes. Someone told me recently, that diabetes is not a glamorous disease – the pink ribbon, the Red Dress campaign of the American Heart Assn. have done that for their causes. Though no disease is glamorous – I want this logo to put our BlueBeauty Initiative on the map as the way that diabetes stays top of women’s minds and gets them excited to do something about stopping it.”
So the challenge was clear.
Doing some research was in order.
Candy was right. Breast Cancer has the pink ribbon, Heart and Stroke has their heart, Lung Association has their cross… what does diabetes have? What sort of visual clichés did that section of the sector use to represent themselves.
Well the colour blue kept coming up (which was going to work well considering the name) and the circle also kept popping up. I also discovered that the International Diabetes Federation has started a global campaign to come up with a symbol for diabetes.




So that was settled. I knew I couldn’t ignore it for the sake of being different. As a logo designer I have acknowledged that fact that visual clichés are clichés for a reason. It would be stupid to ignore it. The challenge is always using the cliché in a new, original way.
But there was second piece to this. Giving the logo a upscale spa look.
We’ve all seen those before.



I had the colour blue. I had the circle. I had striking type. I had water.
Now what? Well as usual for me, I started with the type.
There were two faces that stood out pretty quickly. One was called Sparrowhawk and the other was called BauderieScript. They had the qualities I was looking for. Soft and feminine shapes, uniqueness, upscale but not perfect.

Ordinarily I would present two to three ideas, all in black. But in this case, Candy and I knew that we would always have to use the colour blue, so using these two faces I presented Candy with two concepts:

The first one I wanted to keep keep that idea, or cliché of calming water, as well, the roundness of the characters worked to the round circle of diabetes. It was striking and upscale.
The second one, I really wanted to do the blue circle but – not the blue circle. The type was great because it was imperfect. It had flow, it was natural… and I wanted it to feel like it was part of a pool of water.
Candy decided pretty quickly that she really liked option number two and I went ahead and finalized the art direction and cleaned up the concept to work in a number different formats.

“John created the logo for our non-profit’s main initiative. What impressed me so much, was John’s thorough and enthusiastic interest in what we’re doing. His research and creativity meshed to produce the ideal logo that’s not only aesthetically beautiful, but also on target with helping Spa4Diabetes reach it’s goals. Thanks so much John and we look forward to working with you in the future!“

Last year, I was approached by Cheryl Breukelman and Simon Geoghegan of CBA Coaching to help them rebrand their coaching company. As I’ve blogged before, I had already been working with Simon to help me redefine and express what Idea Design does, more clearly.

I approached good friend and colleague Dan Banko to assist me in this exercise. Dan has a lot more experience in rebranding exercises and him and I like to work together whenever we get the chance.

We had a number of meetings with Cheryl and Simon to determine what they wanted out of this rebrand.

Ultimately, Dan and I came up with a list of about 30 potenial names for their new company which we shortlisted down to 4.

Cheryl and Simon picked “Epiphany!” out of the shortlist, which worked on many different levels. In a coaching experience, there are many aha! moments. Moments of clarity, of surprise, of inspiration.

As we started to move forward on designing the logo and collateral materials, I wanted every piece to capture that “aha” moment.

As I’ve mentioned before, I like to start with the type. If I can find a typeface that is expressive and works with the name, then in some ways I am already half way there.

In the case of epiphany, I need I wanted something bold and strong with an element of playfulness…

After I take a look at the name set in a number of faces that may or may not work, certain fonts really start to call out to me which I highlight to use as I move to the next stage.

I often sit down brainstorm/sketch visual ideas that are coming to me as well as other words that may lead to or be part of the final logo. Just like the font selection, every element that is part of the logo should express something.

We came back and presented four logo concepts to the clients. I present the logos in black so we don’t get distracted by colours. Like I say, if we can make it work in black, then adding a colour will be easy.

Simon and Cheryl laboured over the decision somewhat but came back with their selection. It was time to add some colour, which I knew would also keep in line with the original idea that every element and design touch should say “aha!”.

As I added colour to the logo and worked on the materials, I could feel it all coming together.

I applaud Cheryl and Simon for trusting in my abilities and letting me provide some solutions that were a little out of the ordinary. But as I showed them a mock up of their business cards, letterhead and envelope and explained how everytime they met someone and passed their card along, they would have the opportunity to tell their story. And watch as they go – “aha!”.

“Working with Idea Design was the best decision we made when deciding to rebrand. John took us through a thorough process that helped translate our work, vision and values into a new identity that we love!” – Simon Geoghegan