Caveman Events

Caveman Events Logo Design

This wasn’t initially intended to be all that in-depth a project. I’d met the client via mutual acquaintances soon after moving to Mossel Bay, they liked my work and simply wanted something to advertise their sporting event with.

So it really just started out as a few ideas being informally sent back and forth. Everything was kept relatively ‘structure-free’ compared to other projects I was overseeing at the time. While the designs we started out with were very clinical and minimalistic, we quickly locked in on hot, intense colours and a rugged aesthetic as being the most appropriate, and most likely to engage his particular audience.

The fundamentals for the logo were defined at this point and a number of iterations followed which experimented with a range of iconography. I pitched a semi-circle which could at once present either a rising sun or the view from a cave. Each were thematically relevant and provided much needed balance to the organisation’s name.

The client loved this as it very much encapsulated the events’ african roots, was visually striking and executed to a far higher standard than the identified competition.

Alternatives and expansion

A few different directions were explored in respect of texture and colour use. The sunset/cave visual worked, there was no doubt about that and while I contested that the human figures would ‘muddy’ the silouette of the design at lower sizes, the client was willing to accept this for how well they captured the vibe he wanted.

We must’ve tried twenty or so variants, eventually whittling them down to the three shown below as were demonstrative of the overall range and their respective flaws: a single colour and texture was striking, but without depth. Removing texture in favour of layered flat colours resulted in a distinctly less ‘rural’ aesthetic. Removing all jagged edges and instead relying on a more elegant colour gradient, robbed the design of its authenticity and ultimately became very similar to those of the competition. Essentially, none of these variants collated as many of the critical elements as the design we settled on did.

This also allowed us to demonstrate broader use of the logo. The client had plans to expand the events covered and liked the idea of changing the logo to suit each of these, while maintaining the core aesthetic. We demonstrated this with a couple of events, such as the MTB Expedition Race shown below. Ultimately, we argued (and the client agreed) that establishing and building one logo was preferable to the inevitable dilution that would come by attempting to use several.