There’s something magical about discovering happy accidents. We revel in those precious moments when we surprise even ourselves. It’s in these moments of clarity when we’re given the final clue to discovering the hidden treasure subliminally hiding in plain sight. If it were a snake it surely would’ve bitten me.
While designing logos and logo variants lightning struck twice. First in college when I discovered the Yin and Yang nature of the letters in my last name when they’re split by syllables and stacked. The second aha moment occurred two years ago while creating a logo variant celebrating my 27th year milestone as a professional graphic designer.
When I reached my 27th year I wanted to celebrate by designing a Vinson logo variant. I didn’t purposely hide the number twenty-seven within the letters of the “27+ Years of Crop Marks + Keyframes” graphic. It was completely by chance that there were two clear instances of the number hidden within the design. I didn’t discover it until I finished designing the graphic.
My primary Vinson logo has two vertically-aligned dots and seven parts so that’s 2 & 7. If you look closely you’ll see the dots aren’t perfect circles. I intentionally stretched them on the y-axis for a subtle boost of “infectious creative energy,” as I’ve been described by my peers.
I’ve always been naturally drawn to patterns especially in regards to letterforms and mathematics. Twenty-seven is also my lucky number.