Last year, the lovely Sonora Review published a double issue (55/56) of their journal with an uncollected story by the most excellent David Foster Wallace called Solomon Silverfish. In this story, our protagonist is guilty of identitylessness. Our culture (and our brains) teaches us to categorize, to separate the world apart, to make decisions about our experiences in order to better understand them.

In design school, as in art school and probably anywhere, an identity is regularly stressed. If you want to be an artist, you’re told to create a consistent body of work; something to be recognized by. If you want to be an illustrator, you need to develop a distinct style. Same for designers.

For a long time I resisted this idea, this decision (fear of limitations), but the time has come. So, to research identities, I used a few resources and inspirations from around the web:

// David Airey’s Logo Design Love
// The identities created by Pentagram
// Freelance Folder’s Press Kit Advice
// Designer Nubby Twiglet
// Designer Jessica Hische
// Designers at Mint

If you haven’t yet checked out Pentagram’s What Type Are You? ) tool, you might want to (Password: Character. It’s a pretty funky little application, attaching a typeface to your personality. Then it tells you what other humans came up with the same results. My typeface: Courier.

After attempting a mark (fancy name for logo) with Courier, I abandoned the idea and went for Helvetica Neue (from Linotype). In general, I’m somewhat wary of the Helvetica family (it’s a little too easily accepted for my liking) but it seemed elegant, quiet even, but clear. Anyway, there it is for now. Ok, enough stalling. Here’s the new identity. Fingers crossed. It might change soon.

The black and white is kind of a default. I imagine I’ll change colors as I like. Stay tuned for a full-on press kit and maybe even some letterpressed things.

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