Your business in heels!
By getting your graphic profile and visual appearance in order, your MINDSET changes and your self-confidence grows. You straighten up and walk confidently into new challenges!
One of my clients has taken this quite literally. The Swedish lecturer, moderator and author Anna Dyhre always wore her green heels on stage (she still definitely do wear heels, but these days I think they may vary in color) In 2013 we created a logo featuring a green high heeled shoe.
annadyhre.se

Inspired by the Balancing Rocks of Zimbabwe
Theodora Rondozai is the owner and CEO of BESA Connect, located in Harare, Zimbabwe, offering Quality Management Systems for Small and mediums-sized enterprises globally. The logo is inspired by the famous Balancing Rocks of Zimbabwe. We found they answered very well to some key words that are essential to the business; simple, aligned, balanced and consistent. We managed to include the global aspect with help of the circle as well as conveying the layered approach which is central to BESA Connect when working with making ISO standards simple to understand, implement and audit.

I was trusted with this logo assignment by the agency MIST Digital.
Thanks for letting me feature Theo’s logo on my website.

Lifting the building industry
One of my longest time clients Ellen Øiesvold Palsén is now CEO of the news-site and internet hub for the Norwegian Building industry. We created this logo together in 2021 when the business changed its name and rebranded. Through her business Ellen is working to lift the industry to new levels, which is implied by the upward arrow (can you see it?). She also wanted it to be understood that her business is run according to environmental friendly, “Green” standards. The sun was added by me. For someone who sign her e-mails with “Sunshine greetings” and is the light in the room wherever she fares, it wouldn’t do not to have a sun in her business’ logo.

Redesign of the 30 Second Success logo
After pondering it for quite some time, Laura Templeton, CEO of 30 Second Success finally asked me to redesign her logo in 2022.
(You know what you have, but you don‘t know what you’ll get, right?)
It was a very fun and enjoyable assignment, where we managed to keep so much expression of the old logo, while bringing to life a modern logo that meets the requirements of a logo in the digital age. I don’t think people have problems with recognizing the business.  If you want to know how we went about it, see and read more here. 

Redesign of the logo for Aligned Consciousness
In 2022, Judy Kane asked me to redesign the logo for her business Aligned Consciousness. The main problem with the old logo, as she has realized, was that it did not withstand digital downscaling well. These days, we have to use our logos in so many different locations online, and the spot alotted to the logo often tiny. If the logo consists of very small details and thin strokes, which was the case with Judy’s logo, it will literally disappear in small sizes. If you want to see how we went about making this logo more adepted to modern digital use, you can see and read more about it here.

Comptence on a Peg
”Bevisste Valg” (translates to English as Conscious Choices) is a Norwegian recruitment and career coaching business. Their main focus is to”put competence in the right place,” which may mean different things to different people. There is a Norwegian proverb that says, ”hang your coat on the right peg.” This means that you are in the right place at the right time for you, no matter where the peg is located. Thus, we decided to use an illustration of a peg in the logo. The graphic is a simple vector drawing of a very common type of peg used for hanging clothes, and found in workplaces, schools, and homes hroughout Norway —quite recognizable and unique as a symbol in their niche. 

He recognized his business.
When Geir Bodin trusted me to create a new logo for his business, “Bookingkoden” (The Booking Code), one specific idea immediately came to mind. Geir’s passion is bringing people together, he is the ultimate networker who keeps an eager eye on his network, brings the right people together, and – with great pleasure – checks them off on his list of “great matches.” Check!
What kind of icon can symbolize this? I immediately imagined a bold checkmark, but could it be that simple? A checkmark is as close to a generic symbol as it gets; it is used in many different contexts and designs and found in many logos. However, my mind couldn’t release the checkmark. I “wrapped” it in a package of  totally 10 different logo-icon suggestions, sent it all off to Geir, and the answer came very quickly: He wanted the checkmark!! I realized then that trusting your gut may sometimes be the very thing!

Taking on the assignment of providing the Celestial University, founded by Jill Celeste, with a logo, viusal branding and visual design of both a customer- as well as a student website is one of the more comprehensible tasks I have done. With a ton of visual touchpoints for use both internally (for the students) and externally (for potential students) it really became a veritable “card deck” of different graphics, all to be kept consistently within brand. You can see more (but nowehere like all) of them here. The choice of the Butterfly as the logo icon was something very personal to Jill, and even if she has at the time of this writing paused the Celestial University, the Butterfly takes flight with her as she follows her calling and passion for female, online networking, growing her Virtual Networkers with new members by the month. The new Virtual Networkers logo will soon find its spot on this page. Stay tuned!

She wanted the “MacBook”!
Creating this logo for CHAPTER ONE bookdesign with Catherine Williams in 2023 was very enjoyable, not at least because the logo-owner-to be had prepared so well for the process and knew what she wanted. Her old logo had a desktop computer featuring a book on its screen, and Catherine wanted to follow this theme of “digital book design”. We took advantage of the “Mac Book” idea, the fact that an open laptop can be perceived as book.
In Chapter One Bookdesign, Catherine works to design the insides of books! Have you ever considered that the pages in a book need designing? Oh, yes! I am sure you have experienced that some books are easy to read – the texts flow effortlessly into your eyes – while in other books the words seem to “stand in the way of themselves?” Catherine makes books beautifully easy to read.

Charging abstract visuals with meaning
Some people want logo-icons that are very concrete. Others prefer a more abstract approach. This was the case with Christiane Barho, a Spanish leadership coach living in Germany, with whom I created this logo in 2020. We went through quite a process to find a way to, abstractly, depict the dynamics in a coaching process where one part makes the other lift themselves in a kind of upward spiral. A process like this shows very clearly how important the co-creative approach is to logo design. The client must work on her part to describe what she “sees” with her inner eye, and the designer needs to ask the right questions and meet the clients intetion and wish with a visual that mirrors her idea. When using an abstract visual language this is quite demanding, and fun!

She loves old typewriters.
Besides being the Chief Inspirational Officer of the publishing house Highlander Press, Deborah Kevin also has a personal brand as an author, editor and speaker. Debby has this “thing” with old typewriters, so the choice of logo-icon in this case was a rather easy one. As was the main font of the logo, “American Typewriter”. Mind you, according to my logo designing standards, I still wanted the typewriter icon to be ONE-BIT, which made for an interesting challenge in Adobe Illustrator.

We used the brain!
Here is the result of working with Tracey Uhrig on a logo for her business, “FLIP YOUR MINDSET”. Tracey is helping people to handle their traumas. To be able to, they need to flip their mindset and tell their story in a different way – to themselves and others. We are definitely talking about transformation and it takes place in people’s consciousness. How do we visualize that? We used the brain, – the transformation in mindset was visualized by a sad and a happy hemisphere. This idea was the only thing that “made it” through the entire process, though it looked quite different from time to time. We tested typography (fonts) extensively, and I think we managed to land on a typographical combo that reflects both sides of Tracey’s approach in her work. She is passionately BOLD in her expertise while also being an informal and empathic listener. 

With a great passion for communication,
Heather Hansen is a “global speech coach” who wishes that people from all corners of the world would speak and understand each other. She contributes to this by helping people perform a clearly pronounced “global English.” I have taken some of her courses and worked with her 1:1. If people in the English-speaking world can understand anything I am saying, it is all because of Heather. In 2015 we worked on creating a logo and a visual brand for her “Global Speech Academy.” It was a very exciting process. Almost 10 years after we did this work, Heather wrote this post on LinkedIN. I was moved to tears.

A Scottish Flower
Creating a logo, visual branding and visual design for their website, the Highlander Press project was another comprehensive process. Given the name and the owner, Deborah Kevin being of Scottish descent, some scottish angle was absolutely wished for, but kilts and castles were out of the question:) The idea came to me when I was visiting with some very good friends, who have traveled in Scottland each summer for a number of years. I asked them what they considered to be a typical scottish item, and they answered: “The Thistle”. I was almost reaching for my napkin to get an idea on paper, but luckily it stuck in my brain to the next day, when at home, I could make a draft and later a vector drawing and send it off to Debby. Look at the testimonials on the front page, to see if she liked it!

Working together to achieve goals
Trish Jordan, CEO of Jordan Consulting hadn’t had a logo for her business before. She is a leadership coach who supports and guides individuals in their pursuit of success and enjoyment in their careers. This is what she shared with me at the start of the logo design process: “…what I really want to portray is working together to achieve the goals and that you can dream big and achieve what you want with a little support from a coach.” The tagline consists of important key-words for her business.

I was trusted with this logo assignment by the agency MIST Digital.
Thanks for letting me feature this logo on my website.

Abstract, please!
Lily Woi is a people and culture catalyst working with organizations. She says: “Transform your workplace culture, unlock your team’s true potential, and elevate your executive career. Behaviours and habits are contagious—change them for the better to unlock greater performance in your organisation, your team, your career, and most of all in yourself.” After some deep dialogue, we were clear that she sought to express this visually by using abstract shapes, not reconizable realistic figures. We landed an icon where the pieces of an organization come together to form an upward arrow, a symbol of success.

I was trusted with this logo assignment by the agency MIST Digital.
Thanks for letting me feature this logo on my website.

An apple logo and then NOT
Since 1988, the Mackintosh Family has been growing the tastiest fresh picked fruit on their farm in Berryville, Virginia, US. They grow strawberries, cherries, blackberries, peaches, flowers, apples, many vegetables, pawpaws, pumpkins, and more!  Varieties are chosen for flavor and grown on dwarf trees for easy picking. It’s risky business to try to make a logo with an apple in it, since it has been done once and for all by a certain computer company. Apples however, is a very central produce for the farm, so the owners were quite determined that it had to be an apple in the logo. I think we managed to avoid being mistaken for Apple 🙂

How I came to love bisons.
This logo was made in 2023 for the National Buffalo Museum in Jamestown, North Dakota, US, as they transition into the North American Bison Discovery Center. I’d never imagined that I would spend hours studying bisons. We don’t have bisons in Norway where I live, but I did find it very useful to have a herd of cows grazing just outside my windows when I worked on this. It was a challenge to give an impression of a “herd” within the limited space alotted to a logo-icon, so lining the animals up behind each other according to their size, was a great solution and corresponds well with the stacked typography of the business name, which is very long. And now I love bisons, obviously. 

On top of everything, we both love ice-cream!
I worked with Regina Kleinhenz on her logo, visual branding and website in 2021. Regina is an expert on inner clarity and Certified Clarity® Coach, who helps her clients experience more ease and success in life, career and business. The process that we went through together is one of the most satisfying professional assigments I’ve ever performed. She really went fully in and participated most deeply in the work, contributing her honest thoughts and ideas while embracing my professional advice with gratitude. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and very early on, we discovered a mutual passion for icecream.

From tracks to produce
SVARTAAS LANDBRUKSTJENESTER translates into English as Svartaas Agricultural Services and is run by two brothers locally where I live in Gran, Norway. In fact they are my landlord’s sons. I created this logo for them in 2019, not long after I came back to Norway after living in Sweden for some years. Only later, having lived in this environement dominated by farms and agriculture for some years, have I come to really appreciate the symbolism of this logo. As the short Norwegian summer progresses, the produce emerges where the tractor tires made their marks only weeks before.

She wanted to capture the transformation
Grace Muir in Tailored People Development works with people who want to evolve and transform. Her goal is to help people realize the enormous potential within themselves, which they sometimes are not even aware of. The transformation of a caterpillar to a pupa and finally to a colorful, free-flying butterfly is one of the most used visual metaphors for personal change. Grace wanted to use this idea in her logo. This was a challenge. We were both aware that the visualization of this process in its entirety required a format very much like a comic strip, showing the step-by-step development. But we were, after all, NOT going to make a video 🙂 Finally, I found the faith that we would be able to create something that made sense. If we limited ourselves to depict only the first and last stage of the process, it would be possible to capture the transformation in an “icon” which would meet the requirements of a modern logo; scalability and clarity.