Recently a friend on Facebook posted a status looking for a logo design. He said, “I need something bad a**. Something that can be used on business cards, shirts, web design, Etc.” So naturally, I jumped on it.
After some back and fourth with my friend about his soon-to-be firearm company, I developed multiple rough sketches on paper of what I felt logo should look like. After scouring the internet for firearm industry logos inspiration, and even searching what “Code 4” would mean (Ultimately a code used by Police officers to mean “All Clear”), I felt I had a good idea on where I should take the logo.
I initially began with a circular badge shape that had a “4” inside the center of it, as shown below:
I threw the typeface on the bottom, using a typewriter font that felt like it would be an official looking font. I presented it to the creative director from my partnering agency, and he told me to stray away from the badge. He noted that the badge is a celebratory object and said I should consider using a shield or something more sharp and militant. He helped my realize that this logo and the objects comprising it needed to suit my friend’s industry.
After a quick reassessment, and more online searching, I developed an idea based around a theme always associated with firearms: death. Keeping the general idea of the badge, I came up with this treatment:
As you can see, the badge was placed onto the skull’s helmet. I felt I had truly nailed it this time. I sent this logo to the client and received this feedback:
“The name is based off of law enforcement and ‘back the blue.’ Any way (Sic) you could incorporate that?… Can you use the color blue instead of red?… Do you think you can use a really aggressive font, maybe put a blue line through it for the ‘blue line flag’ thing. And honestly that’s good for me!”
So back to the drawing board I went. Receiving the extra information and confirmation about the logo and police relation, I knew I had to make this logo police friendly and still keep my friend’s idea for an initial “bad a**” design.
After exploring Font Squirrel for “aggressive” looking (and commercially free) fonts, and trying to find the best way to incorporate the blue, this is what I developed as a final product:
My friend loved it.
So I quickly made alternative layouts for him to us, along with separating the type (different font faces included) and skull and passed it along to him. He is currently planning on using it for his business. Here are the final logo treatments I developed:
Keep an eye out for this awesome firearm company, and remember, firearms are tools – not toys.
