I’ve always loved swords. It’s a thing. So when the chance to brand a sword fighting gym popped up I absolutely pounced on it! Bridge City Blades is a “European Martial Arts Studio” located in Portland, OR. It’s a brand new business and they needed a nice visual identity and after several back-and-forth emails with the client we were off to the races! He wanted something geometric that reflected the history of Portland, hence the “Bridge City” part. I did some research on the city and came across a few really interesting bridges - mainly Steel Bridge, Hawthorne Bridge, and Fremont Bridge. The shape of these bridges immediately made me think of the crossguard on a sword and, after some sketching and experimenting, I settled on using Fremont Bridge as a reference due to it’s curves that allowed me to use it playfully with the sunset. Then the rose pommel came about as a reference to one of Portland’s other nicknames - Rose City - and the colors were chosen based on Portland’s flag. The client was onboard and from there I just went nuts making tons of variations and options (I’m partial to the tertiary logo myself!).
Overall this was one of the best experiences I’ve had working on a new brand. The client was communicative and involved i the creative process in a good way and we came up with a good mark and a good, if not simple brand system. Not to mention a ton of logo options we ended up not using… but hey, maybe they’ll show back up on a t-shirt or two! Who knows?