The Spider - Behind The Jamie King Logo

Considering I don't even like spiders it's strange that I chose one to be the basis of my brand and logo. But with most things there's an explanation and a story behind the weird and wonderful. So if you thought the logo was a spider because spiders spin a web and web is short for world wide web, which is made up of websites, web + internet = web design? You'd be wrong!

In my early photography days I would be chasing sunsets and shooting roll after roll of film. On one occasion I managed to catch this spider silhouetting the setting sun, hanging between the tall stems of grass.

Unsure how the shot would come out I waited for the slides to come back from the processing lab. What resulted was a truly striking image that impressed the majority of people who saw it, whether they liked spiders or not. From the way it generated 'talk' amongst family and friends I felt it would make a striking cover shot for my business cards. Equally having one of my own images printed on my very first business cards was something I could not refuse having done.

The logo then really became a  logo by a simple graphic replication of the photo. The sun turned to a solid bright orange circle and the spiders silhouette was copied and centred to it.

By separating the spiders shape again we gave ourselves the opportunity to deploy it on our design footnote credits. Often enough the spider is set horizontally to minimise height but there have been times where it's been displayed at various angles to suit the design (and add a bit of quirky signing).

The Spider it's self is a male Araneus diadematus - Cross Orbweaver, also known as a Garden Spider (Pictured above in the sunset photograph).
The female Cross Orbweaver (pictured right) has been featured in various advertising media over the years, again using a striking shot and generating the same kind of reactions "That's gross, I hate spiders......... why am I still looking at it?"

So despite not being a spider fan and being a nervous wreck while taking these photos the Cross Orbweaver has clung it's self to us and become the controversial branding icon we have today.

Dated: April 8th 2010

< Back to Studio News