The First Designs & Color

The original idea was to make the logo humorous and unpredictable based on our Vietnamese culture. The design team, including me and three other members, tried to find what all the members in the team have in common in order to make the logo. But nothing was found. The project was delayed for months due to our personal deadlines. It was not until the middle of May that the project was back on track.

Because we couldn’t find a connection between us, I thought of another option, which is creating a monogram logo, or lettermark, based on the initials in the team name. Having an image in my head, I immediately worked on the design. I took the letters H, K, D, and F and made a combination from them.

And since the only common thing that I found in the team was that we are all Vietnamese, with the spirit of being “Children of the Dragon, Grandchildren of the Immortal” (Con Rồng Cháu Tiên) and the pride of “red blood, yellow skin” (máu đỏ da vàng), I chose the two colors, red and yellow, for the logo. We also wanted to show that through these colors, we are not just determined to shed blood, sweat, and tears, but we are also determined to fight for the badge and the colors of the flag.

These were the first designs. For the letters, I used the font Neue Plak Text - a subfamily within the Neue Plak font family. I then used the Bulge effect to wrap the logo around the circle.

The Feedback

I was mainly in charge of the design since everyone else on the team was still busy with their assignments and deadlines. My intention was to seamlessly arrange the letters H, K, F, and the reversed D. But they said that they were having a hard time identifying the H and D because they only saw K and F at first sight. The design was not agreed upon between the members, and I had to think of another option.

In the middle of the brainstorm session, one of the team members showed me a reference to another team logo that has a symmetrical design. A lightbulb went on over my head. I looked at the letters H and K and noticed that they had a symmetrical element. Then I thought that I might as well just use the letters H and K to make the logo look cleaner and more minimal. That’s how the second option came to life.