Recently, Touchstone released the logo for their newest climbing gym designed by Mark Fox. Dogpatch is Fox’s fourth identity he has created for Touchstone. Fox designed the logos for the Studio, Metal Mark and the former Class 5. Fox took some time to talk about the designs he has done with Touchstone.
Mark Fox, a 51 graphic designer from San Francisco who colloborates with Angie Wang at Design is Play, started designing in high school. “I originally worked in a print shop when I was 17 or 18. I attended UCLA where I studied fine art while simultaneously working as a designer for the college communications department. (I also worked for a screen printer in Santa Monica, Jeff Wasserman.) In 1985 I came north to work for MIchael Schwab in San Francisco. I am essentially self-taught as a graphic designer.”
Fox’s previous design for Touchstone, the MetalMark logo, proved to be a challenge as the gym was unnamed. “Angie and I came up with the name for the gym based on a California butterfly–once the name was approved, it lead to the solution: a metal butterfly designed like an aluminum cam.”
For Fox, the Dogpatch design proved easier. “Dogpatch was, in some sense, a no-brainer: dog + patch. We set about trying to create a mascot for the gym, a glyph that would embody the gym’s personality. It is the “friendliest” of the marks we have designed for Touchstone, but we think it has an urban edge as well. (The dog ain’t winking at you, for instance.)”
