Logo design.

But at Giardiacorp, we especially believe that the strength of a good logo depends on its ability to emotionally appeal to the viewer. In order to effectively make this appeal, a good logo must be attractive, in order to keep bringing the eye back to it, and it must capture the personality and quality of the organization it represents.

LUCIFER CONSULTING (Fall 2006)
	Lucifer Consulting contracted Giardiacorp to provide a "cartoon devil" logo, which needed to be distinct from the BSD devil logo (see below). The first and most urgent use for this logo was for a business card, so I selected a 2D superdeformed design, which reproduces well at small sizes. The cuteness factor offsets the demonic connotations of Lucifer Consulting's identity, an important consideration for a company whose Asian business contacts may be subconsciously affected by superstitious biases.
JACK LONDON GATEWAY (2006, ongoing)
	This logo is a work in progress, commissioned for new development and a major redesign of Jack London Gateway, "West Oakland's premier shopping center."
SAUSAL CREEK HOMES (Fall 2005)
	Giardiacorp provided this logo for EBALDC's Sausal Creek Homes, a housing development under construction in Oakland. The design objectives were to generate feelings of comfort, elegance, and ownership, and to appeal to low to moderate-income families and first-time home buyers. Although the setting of the development is urban, the egret alludes to the historic Sausal Creek waterway after which the development was named. Egrets, which are still common in Bay Area waterways, are innately elegant and evoke comfort through their association with nature. The word "HOMES" was subtly emphasized in all caps and a distinct typeface, in order to communicate that the development will consist of separate houses rather than adjoining townhomes.
DOUBLE SNOWFLAKE (June 2004)
	Giardiacorp was selected to provide graphics for Jonathan and Kristine's wedding: save the date cards and invitations. The clients provided almost total creative freedom, but required a color scheme of red and green, since their chapel would still have red and green Christmas decorations (they will be getting married in January). The double snowflake logo evokes the Chinese symbol of marital bliss: the double happiness character (the clients are Asian American). Red fits the clients' color requirements, and is also highly suitable as the Chinese wedding color. At the same time, the snowflake is a symbol of individuality, which the clients hope to preserve in this climate of cynicism towards the institution of marriage. It is said that no two snowflakes are alike; thus the pairing of two snowflakes in the logo demonstrates the precious rarity of true love. Finally, the simple geometric style of the design captures the modern outlook of the new couple: "We may be getting married, but we're still Generation X."
GIARDIACORP (February 2004)
	This recent update to the Giardia logo included some custom typeface design. The geometric construction of the letters is partly inspired by a recent infatuation with Eurostile. The graphic portion of the logo retains the core form of the older logo (see below), but was reshaped to give a more 21st-century presentation. Since a wide range of activities (including planetary science, electronic music production, and design) are conducted under the Giardiacorp identity, the logo must have the versatility to stand in the compay of logos like those of NASA, Transmat, Clone, or Sapient.
GIARDIACORP (1998)
	Although Giardiacorp was founded in 1993, its logo did not reach maturity until 1998, when it was given the "italic" slant seen here, and it was coupled with the rounded typeface Washout. The interior and exterior parts of the logo could be represented in various color combinations, giving the logo the flexibility to integrate with any color scheme (for example, see the giardiaart site).
HAPAHAUS (November 1999)
	Hapahaus Recordings was founded in 1999 to further the musical ambitions of the Wong family. In the Hapahaus logo, the festive hut and the heavy speaker stacks capture the fun-loving, do-it-yourself spirit of a record label that is deadly serious about sound. "Hapa" is a Hawaiian word originally meaning "half-white," but many mixed-race Asian Americans on the mainland have re-appropriated the word to describe their background. The use of a hut-haus in the logo provides a tropical feel that alludes to the Hawaiian origin of "hapa."
MOTHRA (1999-2000)
	I selected the name "Mothra" for the queer Asian student group at the University of Michigan, mainly because it is catchy. In the movie Mothra, two miniature girls sleep together, hold hands, and call a giant moth to destroy the city. The symbolic link to queer Asians subverting society was too choice to pass up. The thick letterforms give a vibrant and strong feel to the logo. The mixed lower- and uppercase letters evoke the youthfulness of a student group in an era when kids liked to wRiTE inStANt mEsSaGEs in mixed case. The color yellow is prominently featured, an obvious choice for an Asian organization. Sparkly hexagons extend the insect motif through their association with insect compound eyes or honeycomb cells.
PSL (1999)
	Several versions of this logo were presented to Sushil Atreya, the director of the Planetary Science Laboratory (PSL), and he chose this version to represent the lab. The letterforms drawn for this logo show the influence of the NASA worm logo (see above) as well as the Star Trek Next Generation title face. The graphic elements of the logo represent areas of planetary atmospheric research conducted by members of the lab. The large striped ball represents giant planets such as Jupiter, a cornerstone of the lab's research. The terrestrial planets Earth, Venus, and Mars are represented as blue, white, and red circles respectively, and their associated small circles aid in the identification of the symbols (since Earth has one moon, Venus has none, and Mars has two). The six small circles at the bottom of the logo represent outer planet moons, since the photochemistry of Titan's atmosphere was an area of research for some lab members.