DarkShines

Visual identity design for DarkShines, a personal blog of book, film/TV, and music reviews. Wait, does the logo "D" look familiar to you?

MY ROLE

VI Design
Graphic Design

YEAR

2020-2021

The Origin Story

The name of the blog, DarkShines, was inspired by a science fiction story I read when I was a kid, in which at the end of their adventure the protagonist discovers "a beam of black light that exists against the law of physics".

After over a decade, in 2016, I drew my imagination of the black light and made it the profile photo of my blog. It is not a standard vector logo, and it kind of looks like a circle of ink or coffee stain around the bottom of a mug, but I liked it.

Original DarkShines Logo, 2016

After the third season of Westworld, in which an AI system's interface looks quite similar to my design, I decided to make a new vector logo and create a VI system around it that suits both personal and professional use.

Logo Design

I sketched many other options, but in the end, it was still the circle of black light that stood out: The negative space is shaped as "G" for my last name, and when mirrored, "D" for "DarkShines".

Logo Sketches

Final Logos (Font: Consolas)

Blog VI