The making of a logo
When Terry Tyson asked me to create an original logo for him, I jumped at the chance. Terry is a mentalist, and my mind immediately filled with images from a bygone era, such as Alexander the Man Who Knows, who is buried here in Seattle. I began sketching out ideas, and settled on the classic eyeball icon. I scanned my sketches and set about the work of tweaking them in Photoshop until it felt right. To me, the important part of this step is not to clean up the image too much; the imperfections give it character.
I liked the idea of lines radiating outward from the eye, and remembered seeing lightning bolts on manhole covers in Sweden. They are part of the Rikstelefon logo, used by the now-defunct Televerket telecommunications company.
All that was left was to choose which fonts to use. I wanted to evoke early 20th century show posters, but update that look for a more contemporary feel. I ended up using Ren Shadow for Terry's name, and Silverfake for the title.