from the desk of Josiah Jost

Greetings friends, I hope your first quarter of 2024 was filled with strength & purpose.

Logo & identity design: Moral Ecology Trust

I recently completed a large project for a newly established network that facilitates the collaboration of influential leaders in society to improve the moral ecology of the culture.

See full portfolio piece on my site

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Logo design: Mertz Engineering

Mertz Engineering is a forensic engineering company out of central Alberta. They stand out in the clarity of their reports, dependable delivery, and utilizing the strength of story. I recently worked with them to create a simple and clear identity, subtly integrating a check mark into the M to convey dependable, clear reports. I always enjoy using negative space, whenever it’s appropriate!

See more images of identity on my Instagram

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What I’m Reading: The Graphic Design Idea Book

I’ve had this book on my desk for several weeks, and it’s a goldmine of inspiration. Features design concepts from 50 masters of design, and showcases one-page examples of tactics such as Whitespace, Irony, Blur, Illusion, Motion Design, etc.

Link to The Graphic Design Idea Book on Amazon

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Re-brand I’m Digging: Castelfalfi

Castelfalfi, a 2,700 acre destination in Tuscany Italy, that includes 5-star hotel, 27-hole golf course, and a rich history since 754AD. They wanted to re-brand their identity, building on the existing charm and personality of their history. I think the branding agency, Base Design, nailed it with the unique depiction of the pegasus horse inspired by 15th century Florentine stone engravings, paired with custom drawn type; such rich personality. Check out the gorgeous application of the new identity in the link below:

See more on Base Design portfolio post

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Family Re-charge in Florida

We were thankful for the opportunity to escape the Canadian winter temperatures of -40 degrees, and get some sun and connection time together in Florida.

It was such a joy to have a long block of 18 days to bond with my young family, and experience the kids’ joy and wonder of exploring beaches and finding cool sea shells.

Let me know if you have any fun projects on the go or any questions or comments regarding your brand! At the time of posting this, I have booking availability starting in mid-April.

Cheers! - Josiah Jost

1. Compilation of top 2022 Projects
   Take a peak at my greyscale compilation of my 2022 logofolio work. Thank you again to all my wonderful clients.

Link to Behance post

2. Eye Candy: VentureOnward: THE DESIGN AND CURIOSITIES OF 1924US
   I recently received Christian Watson’s book, and it captures the analog craftsmanship of old. The 1924US brand epitomizes this new-old aesthetic beyond the digital. Highly recommend for the coffee table, or design enthusiast.

Link to book on Gestalten

3. What I’m Reading: Brand Thinking and other Noble Pursuits by Debbie Millman
   Debbie Millman interviews top minds in the branding industry. Overall a very worthwhile read, with several gems throughout.

Quotable:

“What is the most important aspect to consider when creating a brand? For me, it’s all about having a story to tell. This is what will enable you to create an experience around the brand.”

Link to Brand Thinking Book on Amazon

4. Re-brand I’m Digging: Burberry
   Over the past 5-10 years we saw a massive move to minimalism; it seemed the majority of fashion brands went to the “little black dress” logo style. But now, we could be seeing a trend back to personality, distinction, and detail.

Burberry has gone to the archives to revive the 1901 knight illustration, and a refined version of the title type.

See updated logo and full article on CreativeBloq.com

5. Style: Flint & Tinder Waxed Trucker Jacket
   I’ve owned this Flint & Tinder Waxed Trucker Jacket for about 2 1/2 years. It’s comfortable, made in the USA, and I’m loving the patina it gets from just wearing the heck out of it.

I wore it in the brand video I did with Matous, AND apparently, you can see Pedro Pascal wearing it in the HBO Last of Us series.

Link to Jacket on Huckberry

Let me know if you have any fun projects on the go or have any questions or comments regarding your brand! Also, let me know if you have any book recommendations.

Cheers!

Josiah Jost

After 14+ years of doing logo design under my brand Siah Design, I’ve made the decision to change to my last name, Jost (Legal name of Jost Brands Inc.).

Siah was my childhood nickname, and was a fun identity over the years, but I now resonate more with my last name; a stronger, more mature title.

The pencil icon is still relevant as analog sketching is still a crucial part of my design process, but updated to a monogram J, and made bolder, stronger.

With the update, I’ve launched this new logo, website, and short video on logo design and my process.

Thanks and credits to:

Filip Matous (matous.com) on brand strategy, copy, and consulting.

Agnieszka Grabowicz (NoneIsTheNumber.com) on the website design.

Joel Jost (joeljost.com) on video shooting/production/editing.

Adam Znaidi (adamznaidi.com) on the short film music score.

Agustin Esquibel (animagu.com) on my logo animation.

André Fairweather (Stomm) on website development.

I plan to send out bi-monthly updates on projects and design, so if you’re interested in getting those, you can subscribe above the footer of the website below. 🙂

Love from Josiah, Audrey, and our little crew.

I had the privilege of working with Real Skin Care, a US-based skincare brand that leveraged off of Pure, Natural, Organic, Understandable Ingredients.

The Scope of work included:

Logo and identity styling design

50+ product label designs

Website Design

Logo Phase

Sketched dozens of ideas - targeting a primarily female, middle to upper class demographic.

After reflecting on the sketches I executed the concepts I felt were strongest to show the client.

Executed Concepts

Chosen Logo Direction

Eventually, the client landed on the very simple type treatment of a leaf coming out of the lower-case 'r' in the title. We then created various seals to use across the product label designs.

From there, we moved onto a label style exploration phase.

Label Styles Explored

We ultimately decided that a clean black and white styling for logo and typography paired with vibrant real photos was the right direction to go.

Chosen Direction

Real Skincare is now launched. My wife and I received a sampling of every product and it all has a very high-quality, lux, natural feel.

Till next time,

Siah

They wanted to give their logo a refresh that gave them more of a distinct look. They were hoping to keep the idea of a Trinity symbol, yet if possible they wanted to integrate the idea of 6 streams to symbolize the 6 streams of the Christian life.

To quote Renovare:

"The leadership at Renovaré had sensed for a while that it was time to update or refresh the logo. Brian Morykon, who oversees all things digital for Renovaré, was tasked with taking the lead in finding and guiding a designer through the creation of a new mark that would have strong continuity with our past, while expressing renewed vision for our present and future.

 “Renovaré promotes the beauty available in various Christian traditions, which we identify as six streams,” Brian wrote in his creative brief. “We imagine a mark that incorporates these six streams, while if possible paying homage to the Trinity symbol (as we have in two previous marks). The logo should be sturdy and classic, weighty without being too serious. Something that conveys what C.S. Lewis calls ‘the serious business of joy.’”

We laid out vision and direction we wanted to go then I started the sketching process.

Sketches along the way:

This sketch lead to be best direction:

The new icon

The updated symbol maintains the familiarity of the old while adding a sense of renewal, energy and life. Six lines symbolize the six streams of the church flowing together in the unity of the eternal Trinity. The surrounding circle alludes to God’s life spreading to all corners of the globe.

I created a custom type which gives the title a timeless and friendly feel.

A seal variation was created for their Renovaré Institute brand:

We laid out color and typography standards and created a full style guide:

Renovare shared more information on the logo update which you can see here.

See the logo and identity on the Renovaré website. They were a pleasure to work with.

Feel free to contact me if you need any branding work done.

Thanks,

Josiah

Romans 8:3

Ho‘ōla Nā Pua is an anti-sex trafficking non-profit in Hawaii. Their mission is the renewal of trafficked girls through health, education, advocacy, and reintegration. They approached me to give their brand a fresh, modern look.

Their old logo:

The scope of the rebrand:

• Primary Ho‘ōla Nā Pua Logo Redesign
• 2 sub-brand logos design
  • S.T.A.R.F.I.S.H. Logo Design (Structured Treatment for Adolescents Referred Following Identification as Sexually trafficked in Hawaii)
  • P.E.A.R.L.S. Logo Design (Providing Evidenced ­based intervention for Adolescents)
• 4 Core Pillar Philosophy logos designed
  • Health
  • Education
  • Advocacy
  • Reintegration
• Stationery Designed
• Color Palette and Style Guide

The Process:

RESEARCH PHASE

I had the client fill out my questionnaire, I reviewed their mission statement, vision statement and their background story. Here are the key points of the research phase:

Meaning behind the name: The Hawaiian name Hoʻōla Nā Pua means “New Life for our Children.” Hoʻōla means healing and new life; pua means flower and is also a term of endearment when referring to children. The name culturally reflects their mission, and it closely identifies with and reflects Hawaiian values and social heritage.

Their Mission: Hoʻōla Nā Pua is committed to providing a home designed to meet the unique needs of underage female sex trafficking victims through the utilization of individualized, comprehensive, and restorative therapies.

At Hoʻōla Nā Pua, optimal health is holistic. This means healing of body, mind, spirit, and emotion is central in our restorative efforts and interventions so that a young girl is able to reach her full potential and live a healthy and successful life is committed to H.E.A.R (Health, Education, Advocacy, and Reintegration).

Primary adjectives the new logo should have: Organic, healing, safe, girl, loving, just, peace, safe, promising, holistic, natural.

This story of the starfish has significant meaning for the brand in regards to making a difference:

The man asked the boy what he was doing, and the boy replied, "I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die from lack of oxygen.”

“But,” said the man, “You can’t possibly save them all. There are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can’t possibly make a difference." 

The boy looked down, frowning for a moment, then he bent down to pick up another starfish, smiling as he threw it back into the sea. He replied:

“I made a huge difference to that one!”

(Adapted from “The Star Thrower”, by Loren Eiseley)

Research of other partners in the same field of anti-sex trafficking:

SKETCHING PHASE

Once the key objectives were established, pages were filled on the sketchpad of ideas, brainstorming, and some mind mapping. Once I had enough ideas I felt were strong and appropriate, I moved onto the vectorization and presentation stage.

VECTORIZING & PRESENTATION PHASE 

I developed several concept for the client to consider. I felt the strongest ideas played off of the idea of a flower, starfish or girl in some way.

Sample of concepts/ideas presented to client in round 1:

REVIEWING & DECIDING PHASE

Upon review, the client and I decided the strongest option was the idea of a young girl being integrated into a flower with a starfish subtly being in the negative space, with the 4 core pillars of the brand (Health, Education, Advocacy, and Reintegration) being the 4 flower petals around the girl.

Unrefined original concept:

REFINEMENT PHASE

We then went onto refine the concept. After several rounds of tweaking, we came to the finalized icon and a fresh Hawaiian-inspired color palette.

Finalized, refined icon:

Explanation of refined icon concept:

Customized typography added to icon:

Designing Sub-brands

For the STARFISH programs, I took the idea of a hand holding a starfish, with the hand also subtly representing the wave. And for the PEARLS program, I replaced the starfish with a pearl.

Sub-brand logos:

And then, in theme with the 4 petals around the logo, I made the icons for the four pillars all in the shape of the flower petals from the logo:

Designing Collateral

Once the colors, fonts, and logos were finalized, I moved onto designing a full stationery set:

Designing Style Guide

A full style guide was designed. See link to full PDF here.

Sample page from style guide:

You can see the full re-brand integrated and find more information about Ho‘ōla Nā Pua on their website. It was meaningful to do the rebrand for an organization providing such a desperately needed outreach to these abused girls in Hawaii.

Thanks for taking a look, and let me know your thoughts on the re-brand. I'm currently booking new projects so contact me if you need any branding work done!

Cheers,
Josiah

Romans 8:38

I was honored to be featured in the book, "Symbol" by Angus Hyland and Steven Bateman. Published by Laurence King Publishing, it's a compilation of 1300+ symbols classified by form indexed by sector, design and client. (more…)

Logo Design Love book

David had contacted me back in Mar. '09 about being one of the contributors. I was honoured to be featured on three of the pages. I was excited to receive David Airey's new book, Logo Design Love in the mail a few days ago.

Filmaps logo and sketches

Overall I was very impressed with the book. I found it easy to read and very insightful. It seemed I was always either agreeing or learning as I read. It really renewed my love for what I do for a living and made me want to strive harder to do my best. Definitely in my top three design books - and I have a lot of books.

Thanks, David!

Josiah

John 4:24