michael capozzi
← the labthe making of the mark

from seal to signature

every stage my mmmc mark went through: michael, mario, matthew, capozzi, from a stiff little library seal to the loose, mis-pressed rubber stamp it became. each step below is the live mark, rebuilt the way it looked at that moment (nothing here is a screenshot).

skip to the press →

v0.0 · the brief

where it started

the ask, pasted exactly as i sent it. no cleanup, no paraphrase:

I’m looking to create a brand identity for me, I have colors like what’s attached. My website is www.michaelcapozzi.me and you can use that for reference. I am looking to create a logo, and i think a clever way to delineate me is that my name is Michael Mario Matthew Capozzi when you count the middle / confirmation name (catholic thing) so I would like to stick with MC branding and have a logo like

  • Use four letters MMMC
  • Emulate a book stamp like in a library that you would see in a rented book
  • Stick with MC branding
  • Have 1 M be the darkest, C be somewhere askew with it and be a little lighter, then 2 more askew Ms that look like someone forgot to press the M and tried 2 more times in essence you will see a MC and 2 more light Ms

and the concept scraps that went with it:

A grid of MC letterform pairs set in many different display typefaces, black on white
a full page of mc letterforms, hunting a feel
An inky grunge scrap beside two MC lockups, one with a grey ghost M sitting behind it
the grunge scrap, and a ghost m behind the mc
  1. 1
    v0.1 · first idea

    the library seal

    started literal. an official round stamp, the full name arced top and bottom, pressed in a single flat ink. it read like a notary seal: correct, but stiff, and the border did all the talking.

  2. 2
    v0.2 · reframe

    the box frame

    swapped the circle for a rectangular date-stamp frame. a little more modern, but same problem: the frame was the identity, not the letters inside it.

  3. 3
    v0.3 · strip it

    drop the frame

    killed the borders entirely. just the 4 initials: michael mario matthew capozzi, reading as mc, with the ghost presses creeping behind. the mark finally had to carry itself, and it did.

  4. 4
    v0.4 · type audition

    hunting a face

    tried 10 letterforms. rounded, friendly faces like baloo 2 (front and center) were warm, but a touch too soft to feel like a signature that's been pressed a thousand times.

  5. the audition

    the 10 letterforms

    the bare mark, same misprint, same red and blue press, set 10 ways. caprasimo (01) won.

    01
    caprasimo · house
    02
    calistoga
    03
    lilita one
    04
    titan one
    05
    chango
    06
    baloo 2
    07
    croissant one
    08
    yeseva one
    09
    fredoka · rounded
    10
    paytone one
  6. 5
    v0.5 · locked

    caprasimo locks in

    settled on caprasimo. the same warmth, with more weight and a little more class in the curves. this became the voice of the mark, and it hasn't changed since.

    then i tested flipping the press order. 1234 stacks darkest first, so the lighter ghosts wash over the m the way real re-presses would. 4321 flips it, dark m crisp on top. same 4 taps, 2 different reads, and 4321 is the keeper: the misses should sit behind the mark, not wash across it.

    1234 · darkest first, ghosts wash over
    4321 · dark m crisp on top
  7. 6
    v0.6 · the story clicks

    color & 2 ghosts

    brought in my 5-color palette: a red c tilting off a charcoal m, with a blue and a sage ghost m behind for mario & matthew. the “pressed 3 times to get it right” idea finally clicked.

  8. 7
    then → now
    →
    v0.7 · texture rebuild

    the speckle wins

    the early grit punched hard, uneven holes (left). tried a soft, bleeding ink, then landed on a crisp, even speckle (right), like a stamp catching the tooth of the paper. that's the one.

  9. 8
    the finished mmmc stamp MMMC
    v1.0 · final

    the mark

    full color, an inky speckle, 2 ghost presses each dialed on their own, and the ghosts laid down first so the dark m lands crisp on top. same joke it started as (a stamp pressed until it was right), just finally loose enough to feel true.

the press

every dial that shaped the mark, live. put the frame back on to see the library seal, run the letterform audition yourself, flip the press order, or repaint all 4 letters. it’s the same mark this whole page is drawn with; there’s no image to swap.

the mmmc stamp, live: adjust it with the controls beside it MMMCmichael capozzithe bronx · nymichael capozzithe bronx · ny

press it yourself

frame
letterform
ink texture
press order
inks
the clean m
the c
ghost m · mario
ghost m · matthew
how hard the misses landed

color variations

caprasimo and my 5 brand colors, mixed across the 4 letters. these are starting points, numbered so i can point at one (c03, c07).

the house · red c, blue+green ghosts
blue c, warm ghosts
red m, blue c · reversal
sage m, red c
on charcoal · sand m
on red · sand + charcoal c
on blue · sand c
on sage · red c
mono mc · color ghosts
full mono · all charcoal

anatomy of a misprint

the clean m: michael, the press that landed. darkest and fully inked, sitting square on top of the misses.
the c, askew: capozzi, tilted and overlapping the m. arrives with a little swagger.
ghost m, first miss: mario. a faint half-press underneath, in its own color, behind the mark.
ghost m, second miss: matthew. fainter still, in a different tone again: the false start you only just catch.

favicon & avatar

app tile
64 avatar
32
16

the 2 smallest drop the ghosts and the grit; below roughly 24px they turn to mud. these are the real favicons this site uses.

usage

do
  • keep the ghost m’s faint: they should whisper, not shout
  • give it breathing room; the grit needs air to read as ink
  • drop the ghosts & grit below ~24px for clean favicons
don’t
  • don’t recolor the c into a ghost tone, or the mc stops reading
  • don’t straighten the c; the tilt is the personality
  • don’t stack it on a busy photo without a solid patch behind