ARMANDO MONTELONGO LOGO

Well this past week I finally got the Armando Montelongo logo finalized. My friend Brian Ramirez over at www.irezproductions.com has recently started working with local entrepreneur and cable TV celebrity Armando Montelongo. If you have ever seen “Flip This House” on A&E you probably know who he is. Anyway, Brain asked if I could come up with a logo for his new boss. The odyssey began…

The first version, at the bottom of the image above, went over well. I even animated it for a quick open. Home run! Well, as time went on Armando thought it was too much like his brother’s logo with the house concept. So the redesign process started. I would put together a logo sheet with some options and send them over to Brian. Armando is a busy guy, so it took some time hear back as to what worked etc. The circular logo above on the 2nd round was the winner mid-summer. Armando wanted something that looked like the Chris Angel logo from Mindfreak and he also liked Anthony Robbins logo. So the M in the circle was that concept. Well then someone in Armando’s office said the M in the circle looked asian or chinese. So back to the drawing board.

This time I was told “Money” and given some references to more traditional designs. So I started thinking east coast, traditional, classic and “What the hell does this guy want.” Then late at night I saw Armando on an infomercial. As I watched the guy I tried to imagine, “What says Armando”. Through this entire process I hadn’t talked directly to the client. All of the feedback was coming through Brian. So luckily Armando shows up on my TV at 1am. This is very helpful when you are at the end of your rope and you are trying to read your client’s mind. I always like to talk to the person I am designing for. You can really pick up on where they are coming from, and what could work. At least now I had “Money” and a vague impression from an infomercial. Better than nothing. Onward!  (I still didn’t know what I was going to do.)

So the next day I went with a traditional crest design. I had been thumbing through Esquire and realized what says “Money” is a crest logo. I couldn’t find any fonts that worked when I stacked the letters, so I built the AM from scratch. Next I tried to make the leaves on the side of the crest feel more modern in their flow. Finally I built a 3D model of the design. I even gave the shield a nice curve. I sent the 2d version and a 3d render to help sell the concept. It went over well , and now I think we have a logo Armando is happy with. It was one of those “I’ll know what I want when I see it” kind of things. I can respect that. It could also be the fact that 3D renders look “Money.”