Logo Design Case Study: Brainwerx Design

In mid, 2010 I created Brainwerx Design as a way to market myself as a freelance graphic designer. Truly creative designers spend hours upon hours sketching the perfect logo for themselves or their clients. I do the same...usually. When designing a logo, I normally do not pay attention to my first few sketches. I consider those to be a starting point and know that they will lead to something greater. Those first ideas have so much room for improvement. Even after you settle on a concept, it can still be developed so much further.

Although I had sketched out several different logo ideas, I kept coming back to one of my first concepts, the design that you see in this blog post. Why would I do that? Well, allow me to refer to one of my previous articles (Looking for a "Creative" advertising agency) where I wrote: "Advertising agencies, design firms and freelance designers need to see themselves as their potential customers see them. They need to be aware of the market they are in, and market themselves accordingly." That's the key... market yourself accordingly.

I live and work in the very southern tip of Texas. For over a century the economy in this region has been well behind the rest of the US. It has only been in the past 25 years that there has been an explosion (revolt?) of high school graduates going on to graduate from college. And only in these past 10 years, has this area begun to grow to the metropolis that everyone knew it had the potential to become. Don't get me wrong, we have made great strides here. We have upscale boutiques, interior designers, etc., but I strongly believe that I could not successfully market myself in this area as an upscale graphic design service. Therefore, I could not use a logo that was too abstract. What I needed was something that was clever, creative and instantly memorable.

The image of the head profile with gears lends itself well to the Brainwerx Design name. They both emphasize the creative process. Aside from the final artwork that I produce for my clients, the "process" is what I want them to understand and hope come to appreciate. I want my clients to see that I create new images and not simply copy-and-paste objects onto a template. I custom create their logos, websites, advertisements, etc. I actually think about their business and their branding efforts.

Pete C.

Brainwerx Design

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I Wish I'd Done That! "Thought of You"

This beautiful animation was created by, storyboard artist and figure drawing instructor, Ryan Woodward. Ryan has worked in Hollywood since 1995, creating storyboards for various movie companies.

After so many years of working on commercial movie projects, Ryan had been wanting to do a side project that would include figure drawing, animation and expression through dance movements. After Ryan heard "World Spins Madly On" by The Weepies, he made up his mind that this would be the perfect song to tell a story about relationships.

Rather than creating a narrative animated piece that communicates a well defined story, this animation allows each individual who views it to experience something unique and personal that touches their own sensibilities.


It's quite simple for traditional artist to sketch a human figure. The technique calls for little detail and expressive line work, such as creating the illusion of strength drawing bold lines or making something appear delicate by making thin lines. The style and the technique are simple, but redrawing one sketch over and over again, making slight adjustments to tell a story and STILL keep that "sketch look" is pretty hard. Ryan Woodard's animation is flawless, expressive and creative.

Please visit Ryan Woodard's website to see a behinds the scenes video on the making of "Thought of You," and to view more of his figure drawings.

Pete C.
Brainwerx Design

Last minute illustration for Johnny Carino's

On Saturday afternoon (Dec. 4, 2010) I was asked to create a Christmas theme painting, for a local Johnny Carino's restaurant. The only catch was that I would have less than 48 hours to complete it. This painting had to be turned in early Monday morning (Dec. 6, 2010).

In all honesty, I was hoping to do a project just like this, but imagined that I would have a lot more time to create a different style of illustration. But when you're in a time crunch, you always go with the style you are most comfortable doing.

The image I was asked to create was simple, 3 old fashioned stockings hanging from a wooden mantel with Carino's gift cards sticking out of them over an open fire. I left plenty of room for Carino's to add text across the image at a later date.

I looked for some reference materials Saturday night and drew out the design. It was already late so I figured that I should get as much rest as possible, if I was going to finish this piece on time. In this style of painting, I normally work from back to front, and this project was no different. The next morning (Sunday) I started the project by painting a simple gradient background and added the flames at the bottom of the canvas.

My next steps were to paint the wooden mantel and put down some base colors on the stockings and add some shading to them. Next I refined the shading and added the colored stripes. In my final steps I painted the Carino's gift cards, added the orange high lights on the stockings and added a light glow to the flames.

Although I'm over simplifying the process here, this project actually took me the majority of the day to complete. Happy with the results, I turned in the painting early Monday morning.

-Pete C.
Brainwerx Design

I Wish I'd Done That! - We Got Time

In this music video for Moray McLaren's "We Got Time," artist David Wilson uses a modified version of an animation device called the praxinoscope. The praxinoscope was invented in France by Charles-Émile Reynaud in 1877. It uses a strip of images that are placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder, which is lined with 16 small mirrors. (Not to be confused with the earlier zoetrope that uses narrow viewing slits.)

For this video David used a process that was made popular in the 1950's, where illustrations were printed on the labels of vinyl records. As the record spun on the turntable, the illustrations would appear to animate if you fixed your gaze on one spot. Red Raven Records later developed a mirrored "carousel," which customized versions of it are used in this video.

I can watch this video over and over again. These low-tech animations, with their "circle of life" theme, are mesmerizing. What I enjoy most about this video, is how David goes beyond what others have done and stacked images, as well as place them side by side to interact with one another.

Below is a short video where David explains the animation process for "We Got Time." To learn more about David Wilson and see more of his art work, please visit www.davidwilsoncreative.com.

-Pete C.
Brainwerx Design



We Got Time video credits:
Music: Moray McLaren
Director - David Wilson
Producer - James Bretton
Executive Producer - Bart Yates
Production Company - Blinkink
Director of Photography - Tim Green
Motion Control - Dennis Henry at MC2
Animation - David Wilson
Art Department - Will Randall, Hattie Newman, and David Wilson
Editor - Mark Aarons at TVC
TK - James Bamford at The Mill
Post - The Mill