Hammer Design - A Modernist Studio

During a Seminar on Form Follows Function I saw a picture of a toolkit with a hammer inside, the discussion about the image was the raw functionality of the hammer. This gave me an idea for a brand; Hammer Design. I thought that an ethos of pure functionality and the image of being a tool would be perfect for a Modernist influenced design studio. This is what the original Modernist designers wanted for designers and studios; they wanted designers to be purely a creative tool for clients to use, they wanted designers to do only the job they were told and how they were told to do it, there was no addition of personal taste. A hammer is also just a tool, it does what you make it do and nothing else, it does not decide when to stop hammering nails, and so designers should not take it upon themselves to add personal tastes to a design.

Although this fits well with Modernist ideals, it is not entirely practical in  he real world. A client might not know what is best for their audience or know how to best communicate with people, whereas a designer with years of experience would. So a good design studio would be expected to question their clients and reach the right solution through working together and joining experience. So sometimes a designers opinion and even personal tastes are needed in design.

The logo of the design is influenced by a few Swiss Design rules, the letters are all lower case as they show more character and it also keeps the logo simple and the lines across consistent.

I used the skills I learnt throughout my Process and Production tutorials to create this logo. I kerned the letters and increased the leading to make the words fit on either side of the hammer. I also traced an image with the pen tool to create the hammer illustration.