Going into the second round of logos was tougher than I had expected. I definitely felt I had more ideas going into the first round of logos but with the second round, it felt like I began to move further away from what was representative of myself. To get more ideas, I went back to my mind map and started exploring other routes such as cultural elements. While it would’ve been interesting to create a logo using Salvadorean artwork or iconography, after a couple of rounds, nothing really stuck.

By this time, however, I knew I wanted to use a shortened version of my name to either S, SA, or Sofia which made it possible to explore more options in a shorter span of time.

I was nervous going in for critique for this second round of logos because I didn’t feel strongly for any particular way but fortunately getting feedback really helped the process propel forward.

When I first sat down to sketch out logos I didn’t have a clear path of where I wanted to go with it. I started out with my full name, first name, initials of my full name, initials with first 2 names and then working solely on the ‘S’. I definitely gravitated towards a simple ‘S’ mark because I wanted to focus on something typographic so a lot of my first sketches are funky but unrelatable ‘S’s.

One thing I realized when sketching was that even though I enjoyed how some things looked, shapes make a big difference in the presentation. I naturally gravitate towards designs that are boxier or have straight edges but I don’t feel like they speak to me or my design style. I then shifted my focus on appearances so I began to play with faces and my name combined. Unfortunately, a lot of what I produced looked forced because the name “sofia” has very different letters forms.

Overall, it was super exciting just spewing out ideas that came up, whether good or bad. What I learned is that it is much more difficult to craft something that is for yourself than it is for someone/something else.