About the Center for Modeling Human Behavior
The Naval Postgraduate School‘s Center for Modeling Human Behavior (CMHB) is an interdisciplinary research center. They use advances in psychology, social science, computer modeling, and experimental design to build human behavior models for use in modern defense and security challenges.
Their research areas include complex human behavior of individuals, groups, and crowds, as well as security force behavior. They also use models to better understand human migration due to war or climate change. These models and simulations help CMHB gain insight on the use and effects of certain strategies, tactics, and external factors.
Solving the client’s need
Still in their initial stages when I began working with them, CMHB didn’t have a logo or visual identity yet. I consulted with them to identify key concepts, imagery, and words to use as inspiration for my first round of logo concepts. They included:
Artificial intelligence
The human brain
Graphs, charts, and data
Algorithms
People in a group
Refining a data set
Computer modeling
Neural networks
The interface between humans and computers
First round of concepts
I almost always begin drawing logo concepts with old-fashioned paper and pencil. With my sketchbook open on my desk and my computer’s screen showing image search results for each keyword, I drew eleven different concepts for the first round of review with the client.
The first batch of logo concepts rarely has the final logo in it; this one is a bit of a rare case. Even though the client quickly decided they liked Concept 1, I encouraged them to choose a few others as well for the next round of concepts. This keeps options open, and sometimes sparks new and better ideas.
The client selected Concepts 1, 5, and 10 for further development in the second round of logo concepts.
Second round of concepts
For this set of concepts, I moved from paper to digital. I cleaned up the shapes of each of them when converting them to vector artwork in Adobe Illustrator.
Normally at this phase I keep all the concepts grayscale or monochrome to avoid distracting the client with color choices. However, given that color would play heavily into the final choice, I used a limited palette in Concepts 2 through 7.
Concepts 2 and 3 illustrate the idea of a computer model improving its representation of the real-world system, by using three levels of polygon detail. Low-poly models, familiar to anyone playing early video games, often sacrifice detail for performance. As the computer adds more polygons, the accuracy or “resolution” of the model improves as well. Once it reaches a certain point, a well-built model will be indistinguishable from its real-world analog.
Concept 4 works with the same concept, but in a different design direction. Instead of representing the sort of shaded polygons one might see in 3D graphics, I chose to use a 2D mesh made of lines and nodes. As the distance between the nodes decreases, the model becomes less computer-like and merges into a human face.
For Concepts 5 through 7, I mirrored Concept 4’s artwork to represent the opposing perspectives and motives of different groups in a model. Concept 5 uses complimentary colors from the NPS color palette. Concept 6 uses analogous colors to highlight how separate groups are often more similar than they realize. For Concept 7, I used the traditional blue team/red team scheme of military and strategic exercises.
The client stuck with their choice of Concept 1, even though they liked the other artwork. They requested that I provide the art for Concept 2 and 5 as-is, since they felt they can still use them as regular graphics.
The final logo package
I used NPS Blue for the graphical part of the final logo. CMHB also requested a simplified version for use as just an icon. I gave them one with just the brain, and one with the Center’s initials integrated into the graphic.
I also provided a QR code to their website, a few special-use logos adhering to the NPS style guide, and color codes for easy reference.