Loc City Parlor

Loc City Parlor logo display with man with his back turned and showing his locs.
Loc City Parlor is located in Elk Grove, CA and provides a service in creating excellent locs and twists styles for your hair. It is a legendary brand well-known in Northern California from the Sacramento region to the San Francisco Bay Area. The identity of Loc City Parlor is a combination of Laos and African cultural elements such as the three elephants infused with the loc styled hair. An earlier concept I designed for the parlor was a Versace-inspired mark with an elephant with locs surrounded by the classic Greek keys of the legendary fashion logo. I had the pleasure of working with owner and loctician, Phet Phomthisane and it being my first project in 2020 and after a two-year hiatus from doing any design work. Loc City Parlor has a friendly, diverse community and is all about breaking down walls and stereotypes that have been misinterpreted about locs and similar hairstyles. It is a community filled with love and enthusiasts from all over who have started and continue their loc journeys.
As an African American designer, not even I realized there was a difference between the two (dreadlocks and locs), and so I took a deep dive on the community, origin, and culture of these two hairstyles. Although dreadlocks have been misinterpreted and appropriated as “dreadful” in America, dreadlocks are culturally worn by warriors. Centuries ago while Africans were being transported overseas as slaves, there was obviously no practice in treating their hair so it would turn into dreadlocks. The Jamaican Rastafarian culture adopted dreadlocks as their own in the 1930s. Locs on the other hand are a hairstyle with a more defined root and appear well-kept. Locs are worn by various cultures from ancient Greeks to Hindus, and ancient Israelites.
Originally the owner, Phet Phomthesane, wanted me to design a heavily-inspired Versace logomark; replacing the legendary Medusa head and surrounding Greek keys with that of a Laos elephant with locs on its head. I also replaced the Greek keys with that of a pattern that had shapes turned into an LC (for Loc City) instead.
Image of a parlor with lounge chairs and waiting area with the concept logo on the wall in the background.
Concept logo decal on a glass door.
In the end, we went with the logo that implemented the three elephants from the old Kingdom of Laos flag. We felt this logo would be more impactful as it spoke to the locs culture of Asian and black influences.
Retiro STD typeface. I decided on a serif font called Retiro Std for its elegance complimented the royalty of the three elephant heads logomark. The serifs in the font’s anatomy gives it a nice balance that says “luxury” but “authority” as well.
Full logo display on a black canvas or background.
Showcase of both a man and women with lots in their hair.
Cosmetic boxes with the new full logo for Loc City Parlor.
Cosmetic boxes of the Loc City Parlor logo in isometric view.
Credits from all photography work from creatives from Unsplash; Jabari Timothy, Larry George II, Mark Miller, Romina Farias, and Seyi Ariyo.


Thank you for your time!


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