Once in a while I get an opportunity to do a project for the Convention & Visitors Bureau in Bay City, Michigan, my hometown...
Known more today for Polish festivals and River Roars, Bay City played a major part in the shipbuilding and lumber industries back in the day. When those times came to a close, architectural leftovers such as the Pere Marquette Depot were abandoned. A huge train station with no purpose quickly turned into a three-dimensional reminder of once what was. A few commercial interests came and went over the years but the building remained nothing more than a rotting parking lot fixture.
In 2003, the Depot was saved by the Great Lakes Foundation and given a $6 million+ facelift. It reopened in July 2008 and now serves as office space to a few local non-profit agencies as well as a welcome center for bus tours. The Depot lives on.
The Logo
After doing some historical research and then taking several photos of the building, I came up with 3 mock-ups. With each version I tried to offer a fitting, yet distinctive choice. Generally for all logo work I do the preliminaries in black and white. After submitting them to the Client, I then waited for feedback. The Client chose the second version, and from there I created the final vector piece.
The finished look of the illustration is obviously more stylized than that of the actual Depot. It includes some detail of the tiled roof, but still simplified enough to keep a solid and clean feel. This particular layout also shows more of the tower (a section that was entirely rebuilt as the original was destroyed in a fire). Overall I think it came together well and I'm thankful to have been part of the welcome center project.
If you are interested in having an illustration logo created, contact me.
