Portland Alpine Festival logos

Please note: I designed these logos for a design contest, which I did not win. But I think the logos showcase my graphic design style well, so I chose to include them in my portfolio. The designs are in no way tied to the Portland Alpine Festival, the Mazamas, or Grivel.

Climb (and design) on

The Portland Alpine Festival is a yearly event that “brings the community together for a series of clinics, seminars, and experiences that celebrate our shared interest in enjoying and preserving mountain environments.” From talks given by famous athletes to clinics introducing climbing or rescue skills, the event is for anyone interested in mountain recreation.

To contest or not to contest

I’m apprehensive about entering design contests. They’ve burned me in the past, and no one likes doing work for free. The whole concept can make it easy for designers to be taken advantage of. So when I saw an announcement about the PAF logo design content, my first instinct was a hard pass.

But then I thought about it, and figured that designing something that personally interests me seemed worthwhile, even if I was doing the work for free. I could have some fun. I volunteer regularly for the organization who puts on the festival, anyway.

The contest called for a logo to be used in a wide variety of places. The entered logo should be:

• Full color for the PAF website, Mazamas website, and Mazama Bulletin magazine.
• Single color for the t-shirt, and for over the top of a photograph online or in print.
• Scalable for small and large use.

The following concepts are what I came up with. My goal was to design something fun, inspired by vintage clothing tags or patches.

Concept 1

Concept 2

Concept 3

Concept 4