Ever since I first read The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, I’ve had a fascination with the bird.​ The raven used in the Colin Cooper HQ logo began with a photograph I took myself on a building site in Sydney, Australia.

 

I spotted the beautiful black bird perched high above the timber frame, and when it launched into the air with its wings spread against the sky, I was ready with my iPhone. It was one of those moments that looked too good not to capture.

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As I developed the identity for Colin Cooper HQ, the raven felt like the obvious symbol. It suited the darker side of the crime fiction, the hidden histories running through the books, and the sense that there is often something watching from the edges of the story.

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Rather than use a stock image, I wanted the logo to have a direct connection to my own life. The raven in the Colin Cooper HQ branding was developed from that original photograph, taken on a real building site.

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For me, it brings together two parts of my world: more than forty years in the building industry and the writing that now sits alongside it.

 

Sometimes the best ideas are already there. You just have to notice them.