January 2008 I started thinking about creating a Logo, after meeting up with my friend / logo designer Keishi, I took his advise and wrote down words that reflected Teku Teku for me. Fun/ active/ footsteps/ environment/ change/ creative / original / Japan / Global / Move forward /communication / green. Hmm and now to get it all in one logo. Advise of various Logo designers: Less is More !! PICTURES
Words reflecting Teku Teku
Pushing green forward and idea?
Kindergarten students at work
5 Circles selected and feet added
It has to be simple but there has to be an idea behind it, it has to be unique, original and interesting and strong. Woah definitely not easy.
So I started drawing footsteps and the world, as they have both a very environmental image. I checked the internet and saw a lot of worlds and footsteps, but I wanted to be original. I tried to simplify the footstep, how simple can I make it, simple but still looking like a footstep?
I met Michio another logo designer, he advised me to do something with a tree. I made some drawings of a tree in a circle and slowly the shape of the tree started changing in Jin and Jang, the tree trunk became a person. I felt I was getting somewhere I showed my design to Logo designer Yuki Hirano who offered to help out. At our first meeting she brought her design, she simplified my design and I liked it ! Going home I kept looking at it and I realized it was a nice design but still not right for Teku Teku. I couldn’t really say exactly why but I felt it needed to change. So I met up with Takeishi again and asked him for advise.
Playing with ideas
Yuki Hirano's work
Drawing circles
Our Logo, Eco-chan was born.
He told me I had to make it even more simple in all my drawings up till now it had a circle in it. I had to focus on that. A circle representing the world, movement, change. My mission was to find the perfect circle. Hmm where do I find that ? Keishi’s advise get kids involved. Children have a creativeness that adults seem to miss. Kids can not draw perfect circles and therefore their circles are more interesting. So 200 kindergarten kids were set to work (age 3~6). I took their work home and put it all up in the living room. My roommate couldn’t believe it....... and you only need one circle ??? Choosing the one was not easy as there were so many nice circles.
Yuki Hirano and I choose 5 circles and decided to work with those see what it would look like. When she send me her design I knew this was right. One of the many reasons I liked it is because I can imaging things with this logo, I like making movies and this logo will be so easy to use in a movie. This logo just like the name Teku Teku leaves me free to do with the organization what we want. It gives us room to play.
Drawing a bit more
Still continue my search for the perfect logo
Selecting from about 200 circles
Kids Loving Eco-Chan
Our logo's name:
Eco-chan!! If you pronounce Eco in English it stands for “E” ( Good) “Co” (Child) in Japanese. Chan is something people say behind the names of little children.
I introduced Eco-Chan to my kindergarten students. There reaction was very positive, months later they were still asking about Eco-chan. I asked them to draw Ecochan themselves they produced some very colorful drawings.
So lets see what kind of life Eco-chan will have.
