Atomic Online Logo Design
In August of 2007, I found myself on a team of designers tasked with designing a logo for the freshly renamed Atomic Online. The company’s marketing / PR department has since decided it be spelled officially as “AtomicOnline,” but I hate that so much, I refuse to abide.
I was all over this project from day one. I was a fan of the new company name, and I had a million ideas in my head before we even started. My higher-ups decided that all designers should be invited to contribute ideas, but I was beyond cocky- a complete asshole even- and I advised them that it’d be a waste of company resources. I’d apologize, but… well… I was right. I’m not God’s gift to design or anything, but I knew what I was up against.
Some of my early ideas...
Of these ideas, the one in the middle of the right side was the favorite. For a few reasons. A concern with the others were that they all had certain tones; the top left ones looked like Atomic could be a sports team for instance, while the one on the top right could be a comic book publisher. The owners wanted a logo that could be applied to a broad variation of properties; for kids, for men, for women alike. Furthermore, the company name came from the idea that it “connected online communities,” and the owner of the company was after some sort of play on atoms and molecules.
Refining the favorite...
The final refinement was changing the color scheme. We had kicked around reds, yellows, and oranges… One concern was that the warm colors made the logo look a little too similar to Atom Films’ (at the time) for comfort. The owner asked for gun metal. I dug the idea, despite the color matching nightmares I anticipated.
The final Atomic logo
Designing the business cards was fun… I was really drawn to the curve of the “blob” in the logo, and it was the most prominent element in most of my initial designs. We finally settled on an embossing idea I had, where the blob shape would be raised on the front of the card, and suggested on the back of the card.
Atomic business cards
Eventually budget cuts would kill the embossing, but the original embossed cards remain among my personal favorite works to show off.
