A sundog is the bright halo you get when sunlight hits ice crystals in cold mountain air. The shop took the name, and I built the identity around it: a halo sphere as the primary mark, an SD monogram, hand-drawn lettering and a set of illustrated badges.
The mark had to work as a sign before it worked anywhere else. The halo sphere was drawn at sign scale first, then pulled down to patch size — heavy strokes, open counters, no hairlines. The SD monogram is the small-space version: an open ring with the letters inside, legible in one color on a hat.
Everything is hand-drawn. No typeface, nothing that could be bought off a font site and reused by the shop down the street. The badges — the dog, the sun face, the high five — give the shop a rotating set of pieces for patches, stickers, tees and the window.
Built to survive production: embroidery, one-color screen printing and a routed exterior sign. The palette runs forest green and kraft with rust, ochre and ice pulled off a real sundog. The halo sphere now hangs over the front door at 635 Lincoln Ave.
3 likes · 4 views · Nov 11, 2026
Hand-drawn identity for Sundog, a shop on Lincoln Ave in Steamboat Springs: primary mark, monogram, lettering and illustrated badges.
