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!
Von Glitschka has been in the logo trenches for more than 20 years. His illustrative logo solutions are as varied as his clients—from local brewers, pubs, and mechanics to national artisanal brands, sports monikers, and software companies – and no doubt you’ve seen his work right here at LogoLounge over the years. We’re thrilled to have him as one of our esteemed judges for LogoLounge 10. In addition to designing logos, he also does lettering, patterns, characters, and icons, and he has authored and illustrated several how-to books on creating vector-based art.
Although he’s done quite well on his own all these years, he took on a partner of sorts last year when he hired his daughter, Savannah, as a full time designer and illustrator after she completed the two year design program at Chemeketa Community College. Here we talk to him about going from a solopreneur to working with his daughter.
Was it an easy transition?
While she was going through school, I’d hire her on a freelance basis to work with me on some projects, and it worked really well. She helped in the exploration on the Dungeons and Dragons brand mark I did, and she helped me create all the art for my Take and Make book.
Working on my own for 15 years means I’m still getting use to the new dynamic of keeping someone else busy. That said, we work very well together, and I appreciate her ability to art direct me at times. Many projects are handled like a tag-team match. She may do the initial sketches, and I build out the final art, or vice versa.
Did Savannah visit you often at work when she was a kid? Did she always have a knack for illustration?
Growing up, she would come into my studio and draw while I worked, or she’d sit next to me and watch me work and ask questions. I encouraged her at a very young age to draw, and it was fun seeing her talent progress over the years. She truly has a passion for creating, and she absolutely loves to draw, so on Fridays, when it’s possible, I let her work on her own online comic she’s developing. I want her to understand creativity is best developed by exploring it outside the context of work.
Are you equals at the firm, or are you clearly the boss?
I’m creative director and have final say on the work we do, but that said, we are able to discuss and scrutinize each other for the client’s benefit. Sometimes I have to explain things that she simply doesn’t have the experience to understand yet, but, in all honesty, it’s kind of like having a clone. I can give her a project and say this is the topic or genre, I want to do it in this style, and set her loose, and she produces it.
She takes art direction well—better than I did at that age, at least.
What are your strengths and what are hers?
When it comes to illustration, we are pretty much a match. My strength is brand development and ideation. I’ll strategize the big picture aspects of a project, and then we’ll figure out who does what.
Here are sketches Savannah created:
Here is the final artwork I built from the sketches:
How do you collaborate on projects?
In context of a brand identity design, I’ll figure out the specific deliverables for design directions we need to create and present to the client and then have her develop parts of that. For a recent project, it involved the development of some brand icons that will ultimately work with the logotype we were developing.
Do you ever disagree on things related to projects?
We were working on stickers for iOS Messages app, and she was sketching out ideas for a set called Mallow & Puddin, and I was looking at the cat character and saying, “I think it needs a nose.” She disagreed, so I drew out what I’d do. She insisted it didn’t, so I just told her to prove me wrong. She proceeded to show me examples in the same style that did it all the time, so I said “OK.”
Art direction isn’t about change, it’s about making something better, and at times that means not changing anything. I’ve had to show her a few times why we needed to do something, not because what she did was wrong, but because it wouldn’t align with the client’s audience. Which, ironically was the same thing she told me regarding her noseless sticker characters.
To see more of Von Glitschka’s work, visit his LogoLounge profile 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.