Logos carved in sand can be simple or insanely detailed but no matter, if you want to generate buzz, this is the way to do it.   I have carved hundreds of logos over the years from Time Warner and Nike to FRW Wood Restoration and Can You Dig It Sand Tools. Every single one is photographed and shared on social media site.  No ordinary printed sign can lay claim to that.  Some of our logos have been used to personalize promotional items, others for print ads and others still for media presentations. They have appeared in hundreds of magazines, TV spots, and even the White House Facebook Page!

Creating logos in sand is an art in itself.  Some are quite simple (Think the Nike Swoosh!) while others can be rendered as a full on sculpture (See the Ringling Brothers or the City Place logo here!)

What is the same in every instance is that the logo represents the company brand.  For well-branded companies, the logo and the tag line can be iconic to a culture; think Harley Davidson.  There is no room for error when duplicating them in sand.  They can be so well known that there is no room for error even to an untrained eye.

The logos shown at right illustrate the differences that exist between very simple and very complex logos. 

Logos shown here from the Top:

1)   One of the most well known logos in American culture.  The Ringling Brothers logo was rendered for the first episode of Sand Masters shot in Miami Florida.  It was about three to four feet high and some fifteen feet long.  This entire sculpture took the six-man team two days to carve.  The logo itself was worked on by three of the team while others completed the supporting elements.

2)   Domain Carneros.  This logo was rendered on the neck of a bottle.  The trick was creating the logo without distortion on the double curvature the bottleneck presented.  The lettering on the inner oval is very small.

3)   While most logos are copied from print as in a letterhead, brochure, poster or even a business card, The Naval Aviation logo shown here is a 3D interpretation taken from an embroidered arm patch common in the armed forces.  The concentric circles are a challenge as is turning a flat image into a sculpture.

4)   When Texas On Tour came to New York City they asked Amazin Walter McDonald to create one of his classic sand castles on the pier in South Street Seaport.  I came on to carve the logo.  Before the logo could be preserved it rained hard.  You can see the ‘orange peel’ effect on the panel.  After the storm, I cleaned just the recessed letters and the raised star leaving the textured panel as a surround. 

5)   The two logos for DCR and Save The Harbor shown together were carved as part of a demonstration sculpture at the Revere Beach/New England Sand Sculpting Contest.  The theme of the sculpture was a lumber mill.  Hence, the sponsors logos were carved on what appears to be wood panels; but it’s just sand and water.

6)   Last summer, Banana Republic introduced the Milly Summer Collection to their stores and wanted a summer feel logo carved at their SOHO New York store.  Incorporating a castle created the perfect mood!

7)   When Disney announced the release of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland starring Johhny Depp, they ran a promotion by having sculptures with the logo carved on several heavily trafficked beaches around the country.  This was carved on the beach in Belmar, New Jersey.

8)   The Sand Masters logo!  This is one of my favorites because it was carved with the full cast of the show in California and became the bumper leading into each episode of season one.

9)   City Place is an upscale outdoor mall near Fort Lee New Jersey.  The organizers of a promotional event weren’t sure what to carve beyond the logo so the logo itself became the sculpture.  The boat, the building and the waves can be seen on banner flags that hung on posts throughout the mall.  But only the sculpture logo was photographed by shoppers and posted on social media sites!

10) Last but hardly least is the Can You Dig It Sand Tools logo    carved on the fly at the onset of a large project promoting them in New York.  Before the project was complete, this logo was reworked into the sculpture three times as work progressed and it had to be moved to accommodate elements of the full sculpture.  You can see the full sculpture on our castles page!