Arends Hogan Walker: Some of our favorite projects to work on involve working with a brand as a whole. After a merger of three Illinois agriculture dealerships, AHW was one of the largest and best equipped John Deere dealerships in the Midwest. They needed a full identity to help carry their brand. Over the [...]
We helped Sparrowhawk tell their story through a clean brand identity and online presence Sparrowhawk Technology is a technology security company based in Illinois. Founder Matthew Jones, came to us give his brand a visual Identity and a website. Visually, we knew we wanted to portray a strong sense of security and tie-in Matthew's [...]
Often times in graphic design, we need to look outside of our industry to find inspiration. I was doing some reading recently and stumbled across the words of Dieter Ram. Dieter Ram is an industrial designer and has spent most of his life creating some truly iconic designs for electronics, furniture, and other household items, but [...]
As we've covered before; our name isn't based on the AC/DC song, but you'd be surprised how often we're asked. Every now and then we run into a cover of the song that's so unusual that we share it around the office. This probably isn't new to many of you since it has over 97 [...]
Logos are some of our favorite projects to work on. They allow us to learn about our clients, build a visual identity for their message and cater their website and additional materials around that identity so that they all mesh together as a consistent idea. I thought it might be helpful to go over a [...]
As designers, we constantly think of how things will be reproduced as we’re working on a design. Being in this mindset, I recently noticed that often the first time a client thinks about this is when it’s time to look at printing prices. I thought I’d take a minute to try and clear up any [...]
Every year I like to participate in a local program called Pens to Lens. What is Pens to Lens? Pens to Lens is a program in the Champaign-Urbana area that brings students, film-makers, and designers together. Students from grades K-12 submit screenplays to a screenwriting competition. Professionals then donate their time and some of [...]
Working here at Thunderstruck Design, I love when a branding project comes through the door. Sometimes when I meet with a client, they think that their brand begins and ends with their logo. Although the logo is our first step in visually presenting the brand, it is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. [...]
When I was kid, I was obsessed with 2 things; monkeys and space. Since I couldn’t become a monkey, I figured an astronaut was the next best thing. Luckily I found common ground for both interests in NASA. Obviously the astronaut plan didn’t pan out, but I still have an appreciation for their logo, which [...]
Hi, I’m Michael I’m a designer here at Thunderstruck Design. I was born and raised in Hillsboro Il, a small town about an hour north of St. Louis. I am a graduate of the Illinois State University graphic design program and I love logos, branding and all things visual. Outside of the office, I can [...]
