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Illogical

Illogical is a 3D printed jewelry and accessories shop. It's a creative expression of my passion for making, drawing on mathematical forms, natural patterns, and scientific achievements, all of which serve as inspiration to me as a creator.

The Products

Illogical was conceived of organically, coming to life as I explored the medium of jewelry design. At first, there was no intentional theme to the products. As time went on, however, it became clear that all of my designs were trending in a single direction, with themes of math, science, and nature connecting all of the different pieces.

Hexagons Pendant — The very first piece I designed for Illogical, this pendant was inspired by the concept of recursion.

Utilizing advanced 3D printing processes by Shapeways, I was able to work with a variety of materials, including nylon plastic, stainless steel, semi-precious and precious metals, and even porcelain. This provided me with a lot of creative freedom to explore colors and surface finishes. Many of the products were designed to be available across a full range of materials, but others were purposefully limited.

James Webb Pendant — This ring, inspired by the James Webb Space Telescope, was specifically designed to be produced in brass. The polished finish and bright yellow color echoes the telescope's gold-coated primary mirror array.

Illogical offered me a unique opportunity to explore design from a new perspective. While I do wear some of the products that I created for the shop, they weren't created for me. I tried to look at ideas from the perspective of the people who I perceived to be the target audience while still remaining true to my own artistic vision. I had to ask myself the question, "What do I want to share with the world?"

The Brand

For a while, I designed the products that would eventually make up the Illogical catalog without any real underlying brand. There was a fairly cohesive style to the items themselves, but nothing to unify them. I wanted to come up with a brand to represent this venture, something to encapsulate the specific vision I had for the pieces and to separate them from the other things I created.

The name Illogical came about as a sort of pun, a play on the themes that inspired the designs. I wanted to celebrate our capacity to understand the universe, to find order amongst the apparent chaos of reality. Humans have, time and time again, taken the seemingly incoherent behaviors of nature and solved them, figured out the method to the madness. We say that the unknown is “illogical,” that it doesn't make sense, but we always prove ourselves wrong.

The wordmark is based on geometric proportions, with generous tracking. Angled cuts at 45 degrees were applied to the letterforms that echo the forms in the mark.

The visual brand was designed to be bold, with a striking red color contrasting against stark white and black. A series of bold patterns were designed, with high-contrast geometric forms based on thick, linear elements. These patterns can be applied as accents to create visual friction, which is contrasted by the open whitespace found in the logo and the photography.

The patterns were applied randomly to the backs of business cards. On the reverse side, information is kept sparse and simply-presented.

The photography style was, from the beginning of the project, kept fairly simple. Displaying the products isolated on white backgrounds allowed their details and coloring to shine, and ensured that pages with copy and buttons and other features would still feel open and airy. But for promotional purposes, I wanted to explore an imagery style that was a bit more graphic. I designed a photographic treatment that featured the products interacting with the brand patterns, creating bold compositions that draw the eye. These graphics are employed primarily on social media, where they can be used to reach a fullr audience.

A selection of images featuring the new, bolder graphic treatment.

Packaging was also an important consideration for me. Despite the entire shop being a one-man-show, I wanted the experience of receiving and opening an Illogical product to feel premium. Every Illogical order is packaged inside of a velvet pouch. That pouch is placed into a black box along with an information card as well as some stickers. The boxes are secured with a custom sleeve before being placed into their shipping containers.

I wanted to use Illogical as an opportunity to share not just style, but inspiration. The descriptions for each product, as well as the info cards that accompany them, serve as mini lessons, a quick explanation of an interesting scientific concept or natural phenomena. My hope is that by reading about the inspiration for my work, others may be inspired to look at the world around them in a new way.

Currently, Illogical is on indefinite hold. As time has gone on I've found my time and focus shifting elsewhere. Illogical ran for seven truly incredible years, and I'm really proud of everything I was able to accomplish with it.