Tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, your background, and your work…
I’m Jord Riekwel, born in 1984, living with my wife, three daughters, and chocolate-brown pet dwarf rabbit in The Netherlands. Since 2010 I’ve been working as a freelance designer, specializing in logo design for hundreds of clients from all over the world. I was going to say that I’m an award winning designer but that’s a lie (unless LogoLounge awards count?).
What was it that made you want to pursue a career in graphic design? What about this field were you most drawn to? What was your journey like?
It feels like it just kind of happened by accident; it was not something I long dreamed of doing. I’ll list a few aspects that I feel contributed to it, in hindsight. I went to a Waldorf elementary school, where they really value creativity, though I admit I was never good at drawing, playing the recorder, water painting, or clay sculpting. As a kid I really liked comic books so when my grandma saw a poster for a graphic design minded high school she suggested I’d check it out. Around that time my dad hooked me and my brothers up with an Apple Macintosh, on which I was often messing around with early versions of Photoshop and other apps. So I was right at home at that school. I spent 4 years not only learning the mandatory subjects, but also Quarkxpress, screen printing, operating printing presses, and binding books. I wrapped up my study there with getting a 2-year college level desktop publishing degree. Fast forward a few years to the 2010’s: As I was wrapping up my fourth and final year of my Marketing & Communications bachelor degree, my younger brother Jonno would often ask me to do little jobs in Adobe Illustrator for his clients. He was already working as a freelance designer & front-end developer for a couple of years. When I successfully wrapped up my study and my wife and I were expecting the birth of our first child I decided to take a leap of faith to see if I could make it as a freelance designer.
Fourteen years later and I still often look back to reflect on how everything somehow came together and, more surprisingly, how I was able to pull it off successfully!
What designers or creative minds influenced you growing up? Has this changed over the recent years? What types of style do you most admire?
It feels like I stumbled into the world of graphic design and because I am a self-taught logo designer I do often feel like a bit of an imposter. I’m not a big art buff or someone who looks up to specific people. However, I’ve always been a huge fan of Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes. As a kid I read the comics more times than I can remember. What I admire most about them is how artfully Bill painted some of the full-color panels, and how incredibly clever and sometimes philosophical the gags and dialogue were. That cleverness is something that I strife for in my designs.
Nowadays I follow a lot of designers, both on Twitter (X) and Dribbble, and I especially admire folks who do hand lettering logos, and designers whose style is more illustrative compared to mine. I’m often in awe of the amazing work put out by fellow designers. The last thing I can think of is a bit silly and vague, but I just want to say that I really like typography. I can spend hours, days even, looking for new fonts and just appreciate how people are able to create such a variety in style and character.
How would you describe your design aesthetic? What makes your style stand out from other designers/design firms?
If I am being honest, my style and aesthetic is a result of the fact that I’m simply not good at drawing realistically, or from memory. The result is that I try to make things look very simple, often geometric. I’ll often collect lots of photos, illustrations, and other logos, and use that to come to something that feels like my own.
One of the things I usually try to do in my designs is to combine two ideas into something unique. I’ll study the company, do some brainstorming, and then spend quite some time sketching, trying to find novel ways to combine different concepts.
Scrolling through my portfolio I do think I have a certain style, or styles. I can think of many designers with a style similar to mine. But clients will often reach out to me because they feel like that style is a good fit for them, though I will always try to not be a one-trick pony, and to always push myself.
What hobbies or activities are you involved in outside of the design world?
Time for hobbies is in a bit of low supply at the moment, as raising three children is quite time and energy consuming! But what I like to do is some strength training at the gym, a few mornings a week, after I’ve dropped the kids off at school. It’s one of the few things in life I’m able to do consistently. It clears my mind for the workday ahead, plus logo designing involves a lot of sitting so I try to stay active this way.
Other cliché things I like to do is play video games, and read books and visual novels. I find that all three of these are amazing formats for storytelling and many of them are little works of art that in one way or another have shaped me or changed my life.
Where do you draw inspiration from? Are there hobbies that inspire your work?
Ever since I’ve been able to read I remember looking at advertising, signage, lettering, logo’s, and other visuals that try to grab our attention. I’ve tried to start many new hobbies but unfortunately I consistently lose interest after a while and move on to other things. Most of the inspiration I find is online.
What is your design process like? Are there things that would surprise us in how you get your work done?
I often jokingly tell people it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and literal tears for me to design a logo from scratch. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek but even after fourteen years I’m still a bit anxious before the start of each project, because I cannot see the end from the beginning. But when I stick to my tried and true process it always works out.
It took me a few years to fully develop it and it has helped me guide the chaotic process of creativity. First I’ll carefully read the client’s briefing and jot down some keywords. Then I’ll grab my favorite mechanical pencil, a few different erasers, and a nice notebook, and spend a few hours trying to come up with 20 to 30 sketched logo concepts. I’ll scan it, clean it up in Photoshop to make it look presentable, and send it off to the client. After receiving their feedback I’ll create another page of sketches. I never skip the sketching phase, it’s the foundation of my process, even though I am not a very talented sketcher. There is something about the brain to pencil connection that enables me to find ideas I didn’t even know I had. I’ll often use moodboards and examples from LogoLounge and Dribbble in this process.
Because I am self taught I’ve always relied on the work of other people to learn from. Please note, I’ve never tried to rip-off someone else’s work and sell it as my own. What I mean is that looking at a lot of logos has helped me discover styles, approaches, tricks, and fundamentals.
Only after I’ve spent enough hours sketching I’ll be ready to turn the client’s picks into digital logo concepts. There are many great vector editing apps out there, but I’ve almost literally grown up in Adobe Illustrator, and that is where I feel at home. Learning to tame Bézier curves is no easy skill, but it’s extremely rewarding. In Illustrator my rough sketches come to life and often need a lot of love and polishing to be turned into presentable logos, with a nice typeface and color palette to go with it. After presenting various options to the client we spend some time finetuning their final selection before I put everything together in a nice document and send them all the assets.
The creative process is vague and messy; I can’t really explain where ideas come from. Each time at the start I wonder if I’ve still got it, and at the end proud that together with the client we’ve “discovered” a new shape.
Why did you decide to join LogoLounge?
I joined back in 2010 and I’ve not regretted it since the first day. I don’t remember the details to be honest but if I had to guess it is probably because Von Glitschka mentioned it! It’s one of my easiest yearly expenses because of how an invaluable resource it is.
What work or works are you most proud of and why? Did such designs come easier than others?
I think I have some sort of success amnesia or something. Whenever I wrap up a project I’ll move on to new clients and that feeling of success quickly wears off. For some reason it feels like it never really leaves a lasting impression on me when a lot of people use the logo, or when I see it in real life, or when clients send me cool merchandise. I wish it was different, but at least my work is not making me boastful!
For me there is no correlation between how proud I am of a logo and how easy the project was. Some of my best designs came from projects that nearly made me doubt myself and I just had to push through.
There are many logos I could pick for an answer here, and I can tell you stories about all my designs. But a nice example here is the logo I made for Gray Wolf Games. It was a great project because the client trusted me, and they came to me with a specific idea. This was made back in 2017 and I think it took me all those years to get to a level where I could feel somewhat comfortable at making logos. It’s the culmination of everything I had learnt so far. Plus it’s one of my most ripped-off logos so I must have done something right!
What or who would be a dream project or client for you?
I wish I had a nice answer here, telling you about a project I had been dreaming of since I was a little boy. The fact is that I’m kind of a boring guy who goes to work, makes logos, and then goes back home. However, if I had to pick, I would love to create a logo for a successful computer game.
Dream clients are clients that trust me and my process, who value my experience and expertise, and are willing to work closely with me. I’m not a big agency, just a single dude at a desk, so I need all the feedback and input the client can give me. I guess teamwork is the keyword for success.
Can you tell us about a current project you are working on and how it is going?
I cannot tell you too much I am afraid! But I can tell you that I’m currently sketching concepts for a very unique looking church that’s been repurposed as a venue for events. I’ve also been making a logo based on a swamp-dwelling predator. Over the last few weeks I sketched around a hundred different variations of the letter S, for a single client. I’ve kept it vague but that should give you an idea.
What about design do you like the most and the least?
I love the magic of coming up with something new after a lot of hard work. It’s quite something to have someone trust you enough to spend money on a little symbol that means a lot to them, and then being able to deliver.
At the same time I hate how at the start I don’t know what I’ll end up with. I dislike how everything that I do is inherently vague (I wish I could explain this better). I don’t like that it is hard; I wish it was easy. For some reason it does not feel like it will ever get easy tho!
In the end I still love what I do. I keep going back to it. It pays my bills, and it is nice to be half-decent at something.
What lessons, either about life or your profession, do you wish you had known years ago? What advice would you give to other designers, who are just beginning their career?
Don’t start in Illustrator or Figma, but start on paper.
If you want to master logo design in Illustrator, check out Vector Basic Training by Von Glitschka, the godfather of modern logo design.
To put Illustrator on steroids, check out the amazing timesaving plugins by Astute Graphics. A must have.
When designing I like to channel my inner Antoine de Saint-Exupéry by tweaking one of his quotes: “The logo is not done when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
My final advice would be to do an online ADD/ADHD test, even if you think you don’t fit the typical description. That’s something I wish I had done say… thirty years ago.