TALES OF A POST-GRAD INTERN: Developing the Radiant Veracity Logo

I don’t claim to be a graphic designer.

So when Stephanie Lloyd approached me with the Radiant Veracity logo project, I was nervous but also thrilled. I’ve been playing around in Photoshop for going on eight years now, so though I don’t claim graphic design in my formal training or expertise, my skills are not exactly at a novice level. Still, I had never designed a professional logo–at least not outside of a class project in the eleventh grade. Words cannot express how grateful I am that Stephanie (a) offered me the chance to try and (b) helped me along while remaining patient and supportive.

As I first began designing, Stephanie gave me complete freedom over which direction the logo would take. Daunting, right? So I downloaded 25 new fonts and started piecing together the most abstract text renderings of the words “Radiant Veracity,” trying to present as many different approaches as possible. I suppose I justified this as an attempt to make the logo unique, but Stephanie quickly reined me in to a more simplistic idea. (Thanks goodness!) She sent out a few links to logos she appreciated, many of which were still somewhat complex in perception but simple in form.

Drawing on my all my conceptual effort and teaching myself a few new Photoshop techniques, I created several more designs utilizing cutout shapes and the initials “RV.” However, after sifting through the newest proofs on the phone, we still didn’t seem to be quite there, but Stephanie continued to praise my progress.

Stephanie liked the idea of visually playing off the word “radiant” by incorporating stars, fireworks or some other reference to vivid light. She directed me to a few clip-art images online as reference points. I happened to be leaving for a family vacation around this time, but there simply isn’t time to take a complete vacation from work! To expedite the process, I ran to Target and bought a power inverter with which to plug my Macbook Pro straight into my car’s cigarette lighter. I was only slightly frightened by the loud whirring noise coming from the device and managed to churn out five more designs before reaching our destination.

The response from Stephanie read: “BETH! It’s one of these. I’m so excited! Awesome job.” We were both eagerly anticipating the arrival of the final logo. But as these things go, we ended up tweaking the design a bit more over lunch at Fuego Mundo before arriving at the logo you now see around Radiant Veracity’s different sites.

Though the process was long and, at times, strenuous, it was also extremely rewarding. It takes guts to hand a major project like this to an intern you’ve only known a few months, and let me tell you: it takes guts to accept. But we both took that risk and have both benefited. Stephanie has a logo. I have one more great experience to add to my professional endeavors and a slew of new skills to add to my repertoire.

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