BODECKER CREATIVE FOUNDATION
Full Branding and Identity creation
This was a great project I got the opportunity to lead while at Nike SB. The estate of the late Sandy Bodecker who basically founded Nike SB, is located in NW Portland and is a beautiful complex of living and working areas, from an in-ground Skate pool to state of the art recording studio. Sandy Bodecker's legacy will continue in this space in the form of a non-profit Creative Foundation for Portland Youth and artists in residence alike to use the facilities.
With the amazing architecture and space design to inspire young artists, my first instinct was to hero the building in the branding to try and ground the idea of a creative foundation in the physical space. However Sandy was not the only Bodecker to achieve big things in the artist community, his father NM Bodecker is also a famous illustrator known for all sorts of books from the ’60s through the ’80s. This gave us a treasure trove of artwork to incorporate into the look and feel, and really sent me down a few paths that got a little too invested in history, rather than looking forward to the future which is what the creative foundation should signify.
So after a few starts and double backs, we ended with a mark that the foundation really likes which is a nice mix of color, (Sandy) architecture, (Triangle blocks) NM, combined into a modern branding solution for the foundation.
Work Flow and Process insights: Following illustrations are examples of NM Bodecker's work
Direction 1
Create a mark based on the Signature of NM Bodecker honoring the father and his legacy while Sandy's lies in the structure of the foundation.
Monogram study
Alternate layouts and type
Direction 2
"The Eight-Sided House" was an NM illustration, and seemed appropriate for this setting. The idea was to take the illustrative style of the image and try and tweak it creatively to give it a more now vibe and less '70s fairytale.
Direction 3
Make a mascot of a sketched self-portrait (pictured last) of NM Bodecker to accompany a word mark.
Direction 4
Stylize the structure as it is an amazing building that draws in the eye, and really solidifies the foundation in a physical space.
Final Result
The client ultimately wanted to keep the idea of the mascot, the signature, and the monogram, but condense the idea of the structure into the mark in a more subtle way. The solution was to use the angular peaks of the architecture to create negative space outlining the NM and adding color blocking behind the mark to celebrate Sandy's colorful disposition.
The Mascot and signature were kept in the branding package, but only to be used as embellishment for the core branding until the mark is more established in the community and at some point can be used in stand-alone executions.
Alternate Logo for digital execution
