the obsidian (branding)

The Obsidian is a news & information platform intended specifically for Black people. It was created in collaboration with the UABSA (University of Alberta Black Students Association) in order to share local news with the Black youth of Edmonton. You can read more about it here.

I was reached out to by the creator of the Obsidian to help out with logo design. Moriah (the director) and I went to school together, and a collaborating on a magazine about the Black experience in Edmonton with someone who had the same or similar experiences to me was incredibly exciting.

The typeface had already been decided on, so I had to work with it to create the logo. I wanted the logo to be recognizable but compliment the brand design the font with the same elegance. Presented with the sketches above, Moriah loved the top left paper airplane the best.

That mockup was probably my most rough, and would be awkward for certain promotional work like attaching to documents or website work due to being a raster (pixels) instead of a vector image (code). To move forward, I used Illustrator to clean up the design and ensure there were both vector and raster versions. This way, there would be options whether the logo needed to be used for the website, posters, or instagram posts.

While the logo design was entirely my own work, I was part of the Obsidian content creation team to with help with the website and Instagram. The launch post for announcing the magazine was composited by me, using the raw photographs taken to make them into informational content. On a different note, helping out with the website was similar to creating presentations and educational storyboards, and the whole experience taught me wonders about design and interconnectivity.

If you want to see the website or the project details, click the button below.