Lietutis Dance Group Logo
“Lietutis” (“light rain” in Lithuanian) is a Lithuanian Dance Group in Seattle, Washington. Founded in the 1989, the dance group seeks to teach Lithuanian Folk Dances to the local population and keep dance tradition alive.
Since its forming, the group has never had a formal logo and would make unique t-shirt and enamel pin designs to commemorate that years’ dance season. However, in 2024, the group planned on participating in Dainų & Šokių Šventė (“song and dance festival” in Lithuanian) which was set in July, in Lithuania. With the approaching event, the group wanted to create a more defined brand and set of designs that would present a clean and unified front on the international dance stage.
The standard t-shirt design for Lietutis
A new logo
A repeating pattern that would then be printed onto umbrellas that the group would then sell to fundraise for the trip to Lithuania
2 t-shirt designs
A t-shirt design that would be used as the group’s standard look
A t-shirt design that would connect to the upcoming trip to Lithuania
2 enamel pin designs
1 to connect with the standard design
1 to connect with the Dainų Šventė related design
Deliverables:
Logo Design
2024 was my fourth-year dancing with “Lietutis”, and during my time as a dancer I had seen many of the t-shirt designs the group had come up with over the years. I noticed that umbrellas and raindrops were common symbols used in the designs, often with the umbrella being the main call out. Therefore, I knew that any logo I made would focus on it.
The new logo for “Lietutis”
The logo itself came together quite quickly. With the umbrella forming the “L” in “Lietutis”, the logo was simple enough to be legible at many sizes, and if needed the rest of the word could be replaced by a raindrop, the other main symbol in past designs.
For the design, the hardest part was the font. I originally had wanted the rest of “Lietutis” to be written in a scrawling script. To match the loop in the cursive “L”. However, the leader’s of the group pointed out that script was rather hard to read for younger generations, especially since cursive was no longer taught in many schools. Therefore, I had to go on a hunt until I found the right font for the logo.
The short form version of the official logo
T-shirt Designs
For the standard t-shirt design, the group leaders wanted to highlight the dance group’s connection to the Pacific Northwest. Therefore, I created a design that contained the short form of the new logo, to highlight our presence, sandwiched between two of the most famous landmarks Washington has to offer, the Space Needle and Mt. Rainier.
The standard t-shirt design for Lietutis
The Dainų & Šokių Šventė t-shirt design was an interesting one to come up with, and therefore I explored the events website for ideas. For all of the branding there was this large geometrical shape, the top section reminded me of a cloud. So, I took that cloud shape and made it rain onto the umbrella found in the new Lietutis logo. Connecting the two styles of art together. It was important to the dance leaders that we also include the year, since this was the first time that our dance group would be traveling to participate in this event that occurs every 4 years in Lithuania.
The Dainų Šventė t-shirt design
Enamel Pin Designs
The standard group design for the enamel pin focused on the short logo framed in a diamond. This connects it back to the t-shirt design since the diamond shape is copied from there. The three diamonds in each corner acting as a shoutout to the three diamonds used to create the corresponding t-shirt design. This pin went through a couple visual versions, with me trying to give the pin a more unique shape at first. However, the diamond presented such a clean look that spoke with the dance leaders more.
The final pin was printed with a gold foiling added to the linework and was then passed out to everyone who participated in the 2024 dance season.
The standard group design pin in development
The printed enamel pin with the standard group design
The pin commemorating Dainų Šventė was easy to come up with visually. The geometric shape found in the t-shirt design was the key feature connecting our Seattle group with the event in Lithuania visually. Therefore, that is what the design always had to focus on.
This pin had more iterations that the standard pin design because color wise it was harder to finalize. The thin linework that I had kept consistently through the designs so far became a hinderance as I worked with two of the dance group’s leaders to settle on a color set up. There were iterations that tried to frame the center shape in the colors found on the Lithuanian flag (yellow, green, red), but it looked washed out. Eventually we started to focus on a more robust use of color. This was the favored use of color, it was simply a game of how to distribute the three colors in the design then until we found the right look.
The Dainų Šventė enamel pin design
The Dainų Šventė enamel pin printed out
The first enamel pin design, where I thought they had wanted a design to commemorate the 2025 dance season instead of the 2024.
Focusing on the short Lietutis logo, I thought of using the cloud shape found in the Group Lietutis t-shirt design. However, a cleaner shape was desired for the outline of the pin.
This was a more complex version of the last logo, presented at the same time, to show a standard logo look at this design.
This was the first design of the Šokių Šventė. The design was accepted; however, the simple line work didn't give the design the gravitas the group leaders wanted.
The next idea was to incorporate the Lithuanian flag colors (yellow, green, red) in a gradient outlining the design. It made the design feel washed out.
Version #1 of the color blocked versions of the enamel pin design
Version #2 of the color blocked versions of the enamel pin design
Umbrellas
In January 2024, the dance group hosted a fundraiser where they planned to put on a show and also sell merchandise. Since Lietutis means “Light rain” in Lithuanian and the new logo contained an umbrella, the group figured that this would make for an amazing item to sell.
I was asked to create a pattern that would be printed onto the underside of the umbrella, that would also be recolored so that we can have an umbrella for every color of the Lithuanian flag.
The pattern was a repeating diamond pattern, that was focused on repeating the triangles that made up the Dainų Šventė geometric design that is also in the enamel pin design and t-shirt design.
In total, 75 umbrellas were created, and roughly $3,200 was earned through the sale of the umbrellas.
The pattern that was sent over to the manufacturer
The umbrellas created in the three colors
Next Steps
The dance group continues to dance, and many dancers were the t-shirts to practice. Now the group is looking ahead to 2026, where there will be a Šokių Šventė (“dance festival”) in Chicago.
I already have ideas for the next t-shirt design. Making sure to incorporate the words “Seattle, Washington” in the design itself this time. Since the only downfall of the t-shirts above was that while people thought the designs were beautiful, they didn’t know what place we as a group had traveled from.