Leading up to our LogoLounge Book 10 Call for Entries deadline February 28, we will be spotlighting members of the most eminent panel of jurors that we’ve ever had!
Illustrator and designer Alex Trochut has called New York City home for the past four years. A Barcelona native, he is fluent in all things design from logos and identity work, to editorial, advertising, fashion, and music. He tends to use expressive lettering often in his work to create movement and rapture.
Last year, he was asked to design the logo for a pair of businesses in Barcelona—a daytime restaurant and a cocktail bar, with gender-bending names: El Mama for the restaurant, and La Papa for the bar. Spanish language traditionally pairs “la” with feminine references and “el” with masculine. Trochut explains, “In Spanish, ‘la papa’ means going on a bender. It’s a funny translationÂ… a take on very good conditions for bad habits.”
With this in mind, he went through a lot of ideas, going back and forth with the client. “I’m more of an illustrator than a designer. If something was very bold visually, it wasn’t really working as a logo. But if I designed something really simple that worked as a logo, applied to many things, the client found it too boring. We were in between all the time,” Trochut notes.
He stepped back and started experimenting with lettering and the names. “The structure of the two words have a lot in common. They share the same vocals and the same number of letters.” He put the words on top of each other, and then he saw it: “The faces came in, and suddenly the idea changed. The style that I was using in the end lead me to the idea.”
The ornamentation in the lettering led to a silhouette of a person. “It’s very classic and ornate, but it’s also a distortion of a face,” he explains. “I like getting lost in the process. I don’t have a system. I like every project to define itself by the process. I always start with the idea, but in the end, the style is what leads me to the concept.” This idea of the two faces won the day with the client, as well. It’s a simple, yet complex execution that works beautifully as a logo.
To see more of Alex Trochut’s work, you can visit his website here. Want to be a part of the most respected logo design competitions around the globe? Submit your work today! Your membership with LogoLounge.com gives you unlimited uploads, which means you have unlimited chances to be published.