This is the story about how the Animikii logo came to be. Animikii is a web development firm I founded in 2003 and the logo holds a special meaning for me. And now, 6 years later, I’d like to share this with you.

Animikii is an Ojibway word which means Thunderbird and here is the process I went through to discover the logo.

Beaded Inspiration

My brothers and I were raised in the Aboriginal community and we were exposed to all different cultural aspects including Hoop Dancing, Pow-wows, Ceremonies & Beadwork.

Years after leaving home I was presented with a box of some old crafts from our childhood and when I saw this design I remembered sitting at the loom beading patterns like this one. If you look closely you can see four birds and two pipes.

Pen & Ink

The beaded wristband inspired this art piece that includes the four birds and two pipes however I added a few elements including two braids of Sweetgrass and a Medicine Wheel at the center.

This design was meant to go on my drum so I wanted a circular composition. While I used the horizontal beaded design as inspiration, I integrated the four directions which would would also work better in a circular canvas.

The four directions are an integral part of Native culture with each direction having a specific meaning.

Transfer To Drum

I transferred the pen & ink design with tracing paper to the drum with pencil which left a light gray outline.

Once the design was outlined on the drum I used acrylic paints to complete the design based off of the original beaded colors.

And here you can compare the beaded wristband and drum design. I am quite happy with how this turned out.

From Beads To Bezier Curves

When it came time to name my company I knew that this drum design would definitely be apart of the imagery I would use but the entire piece on its own would be too detailed and not very versatile.

Instead of using the entire piece I scanned in the top right bird and traced it using Macromedia Flash and bezier curves. The result was a logo in vector format.

Final Logo

Here is the final version of the logo complete with final touches and final type treatment. I picked a typeface by Ray Larabie (Canadian) whose fonts are simply amazing.

When Inspiration Strikes

I see this as an experience that has been a catalyst for inspiration many years later. I wonder what things are going on now that will come to fruition in my future.

I don’t know, what about you?