PERSOnAL CRESTS

I found an awesome design class online, hosted by the one-and-only, Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co.

I was tasked with running a design homeroom a few months ago at my office and wanted to find a hands-on activity to share with my team. I had taken Aaron Draplin's (love that dude) logo design course on Skillshare but never finished the project, so this felt like a great way to kill two birds with one stone. His course was specific to designing a family crest, but that didn't necessarily feel relevant for my team project. We changed the objective to creating a personal crest - essentially a logo all about you.

The project goes as follows:
1. Personal research (10 minutes)
2. Sketching (10 minutes)
3. Digitizing (30 minutes)
4. Shareout (10 minutes)

For step 1, I asked my teammates to do a little research on themselves - What does your name mean? Where is your place of origin? Who is your family comprised of? How do you define happiness? 

Step 2 was comprised of scribbles and chin strokes. I brought out some sketch paper and Sharpies to doodle-up an initial direction.

We busted out our Macs for step 3, and were pretty much heads down for the next half hour. It was interesting to see how much differentiation there was between the sketches on the table and what was being pushed around on screen. There was iteration happening in a really short time block which was cool to watch.

When we were ready for step 4, the shareout, everyone placed their Macs at the front of the room and we presented out crests. They were all so drastically different from each other! We've all worked together for a number of years and it was easy to pick out each other's crests without any explanation at all. Here is my final crest:

The crest covers off on the 6 major aspects of who I am:

1. My personal motto: Be kind, creative & courageous...it's even in my Instagram profile.
2. The mountains: We live in Denver and get to look at those pretty mountains every day.
3. The lakes: I'm from Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes. My family is there and I think about Minnesota all the time.
4. Paw print: For, duh, my dog Pete. I might be one of those people who tattoos their dog onto their body (no shame here).
5. Art: My heart! I went to art school and come from a family of artists. It's in our blood.
6. Heart: I'm super lucky to have an awesome partner who supports my creativity and let's me keep art supplies all over our apartment.

My teammates also made a handful of awesome crests. A close friend on my team isn't a designer so I also whipped one up for her (see below). This was a project that I would highly recommend for any individual or group. It would also make a really cool gift for your friends and family!