In the Spring of 1999, my friend Andy Ross contacted me - "We're working on a website, and need some artwork. Wanna help?"

Like he had to ask.

The most important task would be to design a striking logo for the site. The target audience for Inspin would be New York City college students - the purpose of the site was to act as a guide to things to do in the city. Right away, I decided to incorporate the presence of a city skyline. The man (who, through complete coincidence, resembles the AOL Instant Messenger dude) came from the Walk/Don't Walk signs found at nearly any urban intersection, and the round circle comes from the idea of spinning and revolving (and if you look closely, there's a little arrowhead indicating the spin).

I'd completed a whole suite of graphics for the site, with the man as the 'mascot.' The trouble with websites, though, is timing. At the time that Andy and his schoolmate Tim dreamt up Inspin.com, there was only one other site that provided a similar service to what they were planning, so producing one that would act as competition and would by all rights be superior, seemed like a cool idea.

Everything was ready to go, until simultaneously three other sites launched that all provided the same service we were planning to. Perhaps it was an omen - Andy and Tim decided we couldn't compete, and gave up.

Inspin died a quiet death, but I love this logo.