We are delighted to showcase a new project we have designed for Jonathan Siegel, founder of ELC Technologies and serial entrepreneur. Jonathan gave us an exciting brief to design a monogram that was based on his name. It was a challenging brief but a highly rewarding project especially as designing this monogram was a unique and valuable opportunity for us to do a bespoke design for such a high profile client.

To explain a monogram, it is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters to form one symbol. The monogram we were asked to design was to be based on Jonathan’s surname Siegel, which has 6 letters, which obviously increases the difficultly and complexity of the monogram.

To vacillate all the letters in Siegel we decided to use the two ‘E’s’ in Siegel to lock together to make up the shape of the ‘S’. The two ‘E’s’ symmetry make up a shape of a ‘S’ quite successfully, which flows nicely in unison and creates an unique shape that is readable upside down as well as a normal view. For the ‘G’ the ‘S’ & ‘E’ create a suggestive shape of a lowercase ‘G’ and to highlight its presence even further – we added an old style tail top right which can be found on Serif lowercase ‘G’s’. For the ‘I’ & ’L’ we have repeated the symmetry by mirroring their position within the monogram in between the interlocking ‘S’ & ‘E’s’. By placing the ‘L’ on the top half of the monogram it created a more complete looking ‘G’.

In an effort to maintain a distinct look to the monogram we repeated swirling shapes, evident in the ‘E’s’, ‘S’ and ‘G’ outside the shape of the monogram which successfully frames the surrounding area of this monogram into a circle. These thin abstract swirling lines add an aesthetic quality and maintain the strong symmetry.

See our design process for the monogram unfold below;

We were very pleased with the result of this monogram and the creative scope it gave us. If you like to commission us for similar projects like it,  please don’t hesitate to email us at studio@irenses.ie

Peter Maher of Mahers Sports Therapy asked us to transform his sports therapy company from a family named business into an international sports brand that offers expert services in sport therapy, nutrition, orthotics and coaching. Peter already had a name in mind, Areté. Peter even had Areté tattooed to his shoulder under his Olympic rings he earned by competing in the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Areté is a Greek word which means goodness, excellence, or virtue of any kind, to achieve fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one’s full potential. Areté also means courage and strength in the face of adversity in ancient Greek culture.

It was a word that resonated with Peter, as the Areté philosophy of courage and strength in the face of adversity is what he strove for as an Olympic Athlete and one of Canada’s most successful marathon athletes of all time.

We took Peter’s vision on board and got to work. After much research and design development we decided to design a hand drawn font for the name Areté and incorporate Mount Olympus (right) in the logo to show where the origins of the Areté philosophy came from. For the colour we chose an aqua/sky blue hue that is a uniquely Greek colour once more to highlight the Greek origins of the name.

We are currently working on the Areté website and hope to launch it very soon. Below is an image of Peter and a taste of the style of graphics we are putting into the website. Stay tuned for the launch!

Recently came across the Le Cool travel guides. They are a refreshing take on the travel guide book format and cover Barcelona, London, Madrid, Lisbon, and Amsterdam. Definitely worth a look. See examples of the Barcelona travel guide below.

Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones once worked as a graphic designer for an advertising firm of Charles, Hobson and Grey, London.

While working there Watts also played drums occasionally with local bands in coffee shops and clubs. In 1961 he met Alexis Korner who invited him to join his band, Blues Incorporated. At that time Watts was on his way to a sojourn working as a graphic designer in Denmark, but he accepted Korner’s offer when he returned to London in February 1962. Watts continued to work as a designer for  Charles, Hobson and Grey while playing with Blues Incorporated but quit both the band and job for the Rolling Stones in 1963.

Charlie did the graphic art for the Rolling Stones 1967 album Between the Lines, below, and came up with a lot of the Stones publicity stunts and stage design.

Between The Lines – Graphic Artwork by Charlie Watts

Autographed record sleeve of Charlie found here