Started by Matthew Mitchell as a neighborhood event called, “Lights of Apopka,” it quickly evolved into “A Country Christmas” at Elrod Acres. With logo in hand, Matthew partnered with Flightless to create a variety of digital and print materials to market and support the 10 acres of festive wonder.

The signature design piece was the event map. Starting with the logo, we took inspiration from event and amusement park maps to create an engaging map that could be used for marketing, as well as navigation.

Not satisfied with the success of, “A Country Christmas,” Matthew wanted to go even bigger and better. During a debriefing we discussed what went well, what could have gone better, and his goals and aspirations for the next year. With a change in venue, the time was right to rebrand the event, and Flightless was honored to be trusted with this rebrand.

There were a handful of words and phrases that were used as a starting point for the design:

• Unforgettable
• Joyous spirit of the season
• Enchantment
• Reignite childlike wonder
• Magical time of year

Every logo design starts with an idea. Those ideas usually come from phrases and words and feelings. They are nebulous emotions looking for a solid form. They swirl and merge and try on different shapes until the right form is found.

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”

Michelangelo

The art of logo design is very similar to Michelangelo’s approach to sculpture. The “right” logo is there, waiting to be found. The skilled designer experiments with form and shape until it coalesces into the logo it was always meant to be.

For “A Night of Wonders” we started with the magic evoked from the “Enchanted Forest.” Could a single tree, sparkling with lights, recreate that magical feeling? Although the idea was hopeful, the drafts made it evident that this wasn’t the right form.

The next direction was more typographical. Imagine “A Night of Wonders” sparkling and swirling with magic. Although in most places the full name would be spelled out, a typographic logo still needs an avatar variation. Bringing the “N” and “W” together as a monogram became the starting point. We experimented with a variety of connections and interactions between the “N” and “W”.

As is often the case, the right form became obvious once it was discovered. From there, it easily lent itself to a more fleshed out and complete logo sketch.

But it was still just a sketch. Turning a sketch into a high quality logo can often be challenging. It needs to maintain the original artistic quality, while being converted into vector line art. When done correctly, there is no need to sacrifice quality to move between mediums. It will look great whether it’s on a website or embroidered on a shirt or enlarged for a billboard. A logo that is grounded and steadfast typically converts to vectors easily. Maintaining the artistry of a fluid and dynamic logo is much more difficult to achieve.

For this logo, the first step was perfecting the shape of the “N” and “W”. They couldn’t just look good spelled out in “A Night of Wonder,” they needed to nest together as a monogram. Curves that looked fluid sketched out by hand looked lumpy and misshapen when converted to vector lines. This is because of the way humans are conditioned by nature. When we imagine “organic lines” we think of swoops and curves and swirls. However, we often forget how perfectly geometric nature is.

When humans see “sketchy” lines we expect the imperfections a human hand, but once the lines become clean and solid, we expect the geometric consistency of nature. Flightless was eventually able to achieve swirls that passed the geometric test. Unfortunately, it quickly became a challenge to make the swoops and curves of the letters evoke swirling magic and not waves at a waterpark.

More experiments continued. We tried feathering the swoops, but they still looked like water. We also tried “hiding” the swoops under sparkles and even tried “dissolving” the ends into sparkles, but those didn’t work either.

It took many more rounds of refinement, but we eventually settled on swoops of the “N” and “W” that didn’t immediately evoke the idea of water. Finishing it with sparkles and settling on a primary version of simulated silver on a dark blue gradient completed the magic.

After completing the logo and initial look of the brand, the map had it’s own set of challenges. We needed to create a map that was full of information, but readable. It also needed to evoke joy and magic in full color, but be printable at home, on a regular sheet of paper in black and white. Fortunately, we had already learned a few lessons from the “A Country Christmas” map. We were able to translate those lessons to a new and exciting map “A Night of Wonders.” Even though we designed it, Flightless was excited for the event once we saw the finished map!