So, I really wanted to take Tecknicolor to the next level. The semi-success of my Space Jam tees got me all excited, so I decided to continue on with the sneaker complimentary tees. I get really excited about sneaker releases so the ideas are kind of an extension of that. Although I discovered that some think sneaker related shirts exemplify one that’s trying too hard, I don’t really care and I’m going to continue to make the shirts. I don’t think things should be half done and although I don’t have much in the way of resources, I’ve decided to do as much as I can in creating the best possible brand that I can……Starting with a logo. I’m no graphic design expert but I’ve learned a few things here and there over the past few years and have even done some freelance work with my self-taught skills. So I’ve been working on re-branding Tecknicolor to make it………. well, complete.

I started out as a customizer and if you weren’t aware, customizers all have custom “names”. I can’t remember how it all started, but I’m pretty sure it had to do with Methamphibian: the pioneer for sneaker customizers, online forum screen names, and the fact that we saw ourselves as an extension of the graffiti art movement (or not). Regardless of the reason, I became known as Tecknicolor (duh). It was from my love of classic movies which were colored by the company Technicolor. If they put movies in color and I added color to sneakers, then….uh huh, yeah, you got it, pretty clever right? Maybe not, but I like it. I was a not-so-advanced Photoshop user at the time so I messed around with this Mars photo until I got this and have been pretty much known by this logo ever since. Do you care though? I don’t know, I shall continue…..

So I decided to focus on the glasses and to make the logo more universal by not having such a product specific focus. I thought that the 1930′s styled font would fit the fact that Tecknicolor is vintage based. I didn’t use the exact pair of glasses that are on Spike and if you’ve ever read this blog you’d know I love vintage Cazal’s. I even made my own signature for the upper corner of the lenses. I like the logo, but for a reason I can’t seem to remember anymore I decided I wanted an official mascot for the brand. It could be incorporated into designs making the brand more consistent and well-rounded, not that unrelated shirts don’t work, they do. I just wanted to have something or someone I could use as an identifier of the brand.

My slogan and the name of the this blog is I DREAM IN TECKNICOLOR and has been since the beginning. I had always focused on the color portion of the concept, but never really paid too much attention to the dream aspect of it. When coming up with a mascot I went through several ideas and ended up coming up with a sheep. When I was telling my friends about the sheep they all laughed, which is understandable. A sheep isn’t seen as tough, cool, fast, strong or anything that most mascots usually are. That’s cool with me, I’m none of those things either (but I am awesome lol). However, a sheep  is synonymous with dreams and sleep, plus I love that since no one ever uses a sheep as their mascot that it’s kind of an exclusively Tecknicolor character. I honestly had no idea how to draw a sheep. I didn’t ever think of what a sheep really looked like. I felt like a Disney animator, trying to come up with a logo friendly version of  sheep. I looked at dozens and dozens of sheep pics. I drew and re-drew way more variations and styles than I’m willing to post here. The one thing I decided on was that I wanted to keep the glasses, since tied back to my original logo and can always been used as “seeing in color” whenever the color concept is called for.

After sketching I scanned them in and got to vectoring the designs. This stage took me a minute to complete because I’d always think “OK, this is it I love it”, then the next day come up with something I thought was better. That’s honestly how I work in general. I’m always coming up with something. It’s a good and bad thing and can be both productive and counter productive.

It didn’t take long after the vectoring phase to finally decide on this guy. Something about the simplicity of the design immediately clicked with me and I was set on this as the official Tecknicolor mascot. I have a really clever name for him, Dr. E. Amers, who’s a sleep specialist (yes, he went to medical school and has a PhD), but I can’t get anyone to call him by that name. Everyone calls him “Sheepy”. So here’s the semi-final version of Sheepy.

There’s more to come about the new and improved version of the brand, including the DREAM concept as well as the new developments of Tecknicolor. So…..

To be continued…….

So, I really wanted to take Tecknicolor to the next level. The semi-success of my Space Jam tees got me all excited, so I decided to continue on with the sneaker complimentary tees. I get really excited about sneaker releases so the ideas are kind of an extension of that. Although I discovered that some think sneaker related shirts exemplify one that’s trying too hard, I don’t really care and I’m going to continue to make the shirts. I don’t think things should be half done and although I don’t have much in the way of resources, I’ve decided to do as much as I can in creating the best possible brand that I can……Starting with a logo. I’m no graphic design expert but I’ve learned a few things here and there over the past few years and have even done some freelance work with my self-taught skills. So I’ve been working on re-branding Tecknicolor to make it………. well, complete.

I started out as a customizer and if you weren’t aware, customizers all have custom “names”. I can’t remember how it all started, but I’m pretty sure it had to do with Methamphibian: the pioneer for sneaker customizers, online forum screen names, and the fact that we saw ourselves as an extension of the graffiti art movement (or not). Regardless of the reason, I became known as Tecknicolor (duh). It was from my love of classic movies which were colored by the company Technicolor. If they put movies in color and I added color to sneakers, then….uh huh, yeah, you got it, pretty clever right? Maybe not, but I like it. I was a not-so-advanced Photoshop user at the time so I messed around with this Mars photo until I got this and have been pretty much known by this logo ever since. Do you care though? I don’t know, I shall continue…..

So I decided to focus on the glasses and to make the logo more universal by not having such a product specific focus. I thought that the 1930′s styled font would fit the fact that Tecknicolor is vintage based. I didn’t use the exact pair of glasses that are on Spike and if you’ve ever read this blog you’d know I love vintage Cazal’s. I even made my own signature for the upper corner of the lenses. I like the logo, but for a reason I can’t seem to remember anymore I decided I wanted an official mascot for the brand. It could be incorporated into designs making the brand more consistent and well-rounded, not that unrelated shirts don’t work, they do. I just wanted to have something or someone I could use as an identifier of the brand.

My slogan and the name of the this blog is I DREAM IN TECKNICOLOR and has been since the beginning. I had always focused on the color portion of the concept, but never really paid too much attention to the dream aspect of it. When coming up with a mascot I went through several ideas and ended up coming up with a sheep. When I was telling my friends about the sheep they all laughed, which is understandable. A sheep isn’t seen as tough, cool, fast, strong or anything that most mascots usually are. That’s cool with me, I’m none of those things either (but I am awesome lol). However, a sheep  is synonymous with dreams and sleep, plus I love that since no one ever uses a sheep as their mascot that it’s kind of an exclusively Tecknicolor character. I honestly had no idea how to draw a sheep. I didn’t ever think of what a sheep really looked like. I felt like a Disney animator, trying to come up with a logo friendly version of  sheep. I looked at dozens and dozens of sheep pics. I drew and re-drew way more variations and styles than I’m willing to post here. The one thing I decided on was that I wanted to keep the glasses, since tied back to my original logo and can always been used as “seeing in color” whenever the color concept is called for.

After sketching I scanned them in and got to vectoring the designs. This stage took me a minute to complete because I’d always think “OK, this is it I love it”, then the next day come up with something I thought was better. That’s honestly how I work in general. I’m always coming up with something. It’s a good and bad thing and can be both productive and counter productive.

It didn’t take long after the vectoring phase to finally decide on this guy. Something about the simplicity of the design immediately clicked with me and I was set on this as the official Tecknicolor mascot. I have a really clever name for him, Dr. E. Amers, who’s a sleep specialist (yes, he went to medical school and has a PhD), but I can’t get anyone to call him by that name. Everyone calls him “Sheepy”. So here’s the semi-final version of Sheepy.

There’s more to come about the new and improved version of the brand, including the DREAM concept as well as the new developments of Tecknicolor. So…..

To be continued…….