After having the lateral thinking workshop with Fred, we next had to draw out logos that related to our good. First we did a small exercise where we had to use a word from a list of nine things from the previous workshop and make a logo from one word. After doing 23 of those we then had to use the logos we sourced that related ot the list of nine and incorporate their structure and elements into another set of 9 logos. The final task was to use just images to represent our good.
The above image is the images and elements of existing logos. I dont really think any of these particularly work well to represent my good but it was interesting to see what I could come up with using the resources that I had. The images in particular were difficult to explore as I felt that the list of nine didnt really have any significant relevance to an image I could have used to clearly communicate my good. One particular logo that I did think worked on this design sheet was the Cath Kidston inspired one. The typeface and layout was very sophisticated and stylised and I think it seemed to sum up polka dots.
This design sheet had the 23 word logos on it, these designs were purely based on my own creative mind and what I thought represented the list of nine things and my good. We had a limited time to which we were to do as many as possible, so there wasnt really any time to think about what you were doing, you just had to do it. There are some that work better than others, I think that the 2nd one in on the top row works well because of the typeface I have used, it has a light weighting to it and the kerning is set quite wide. This makes it look very elegant and sophisticated but without being too stylised and overworked. I also like the design 'pdm', the p and d look like an apostraphy and a comma, but I have tried to make the counters look like they are polka dots, I do think it would look better without the m as it doesnt really fit in with the other two letters.
At the end of the workshop Fred decided to set us a bit of homework, he had written four numbers on four seperate bits of paper (50,100,150,200) and scrunched them up, we then had to pick a hand until we had chosen one bit of paper which held our fate! Unluckily for us we picked the hand with 150! Which meant we had to design 150 logos which represented our good. These logos had to combine 2 (no more, no less) of the logos from the workshop, we were to use one colour and they were t be produced at an A6 format.
This task seemed impossible as 150 was such a huge amount! It made me remember the collection 100 brief from 1st year and gave me shivers! I was told to spend no more than a few minutes on each design so then it would not theoretically take that long!
It was one of those tasks where you just have to get stuck in and just get on with it, and the more you thought about it the harder it got. It wasnt until I had finished the logos that I really appreciated having been given the task. It just gets your creative juices flowing and it was really good to experiment and explore all the possibilities. I think that part of being a Graphic Designer is to be creative (obviously) so this task should have technically been fairly easy! The thing that I learnt the most from this task is that you can never have too many ideas, this may seem obvious but im sure there is still so many logos I could come up with. It has also set a bench mark for any future work that I do. Also I think its good to see what you can create from a small amount of resources, the less ideas and initial developments you have the more you are restricting yourself and probably creating something that isnt as original as you would want it to be!
-----------------
After looking at our 150 logos we then had to pick 10 of our favourites which we layed out with our list of nine things for a group to decide which one they thought best represented out good.
The feedback I recieved about that particular logo was this:
- Represents polka dots
- Doesnt need the circled R
- The LTD could be replaced with something else
- Maybe use spot colour for the O's
- Put it in a circle
I have started to develop my logo using this feedback as first hand ideas. I have done things such as:
- Put the whole logo in a circle
- Put half the logo in a circle and reverse out the type
- Take away the underlining
- Replaced the underling with dots
- Blocked in all the counters
- Reversed out the type
- Experimented with the weight of the type
- Elongated the type
- Used spot colouring in the O's
- Used one colour for the whole logo (not black)
- Taken away the counters
- Played around with the use of the underlining
I still have a lot of experimenting to do before I have my finalised logo, so far I have hand rendered all of my developmental designs but I will be digitising them so that I can play around more with colour and also how I can apply my logo to a variety of different things.
----------------
One thing that I found though was that I didnt feel my logo linked fully to what my good is: good is the mathematical values of polka dots. After getting feedback from a tutor and my peers I found a way in which I could link maths of polka dots to fashion or even just the way in which I formulated my logo. The original logo had been drawn perfectly into thirds without me even realising, this could be an element that I link to in order for my logo to still link with mathematics. Another option which I feel would give me more scope for this brief, is to design a brand of fashion clothing that focuses on really geeky clothing, this way I can design tshirts that have polka dot math designs on them. In a way its taking my initial concept and applying it in a different context. Again its just something that I am going to have to explore.
---------------------
After my peers had chosen my logo for which I had to develop, I first started by digitising it so I could start to experiment and play with it whilst also thinking how I could apply to other things.
The group who gave me my feedback suggested that I put my logo into a circle. I have tried that with this logo and also added a curved line that links the two 'o's to make a smiley face. Although I dont think that it is appropriate for my 'good', I do think it is rather clever, it could be used if I decided to aim my project at a younger target audience (5-11 year olds for example).
With this design I tried to seperate the word but keep it together (if that makes sense). I basically inverted the middle letters and kept the two 'o's right at the edge of the circle. I tried using a centralised circle because placing the whole logo in a circle didnt look right. I felt that the descender of the 'p' made the logo (when in a circle) very unbalanced.
I really like this logo, again I have played on the smiley face. I decided to take away some of the details from the other design similar to this. It makes it less obvious what it is without the pupils and larger circle, which is a good thing, I want it to be subtle. Someone will notice it and be like "ooooohhh".
This design works okay too with the small circle only covering half of the logo. I have kept the type white and then just added a light black stroke to the 'dot'. There is still something missing though and I cant quite put my finger on it! It just seems that the more I develop and work on this logo, the more I start to not like it, or even think it represents my good!
Again this logo plays on the smiley face but it doesnt work as well as the other two similar designs. I think this is because the curved line is too long, it kind of looks like a shy smiley face. Also the letter 'p' is still making the whole thing look uneven.
I tried adding colour to my logo, I used a Pantone spot colour. I think it works quite well adding the colur just to the two 'o's, it kind of makes it that little bit more obvious that its a logo representing polka dots.
Another piece of feedback was to experiment with the line underneath the words. With this design I have added a simple straight line and also increased the weight of the type. Just by increasing the weight of the type, creates a whole new feeling to the logo.
With this one I have added 3 small dots with a line either side. This seems to balance out the logo. I did try it with just one central dot with lines but it felt like the dot was trying to push the letter 'a' out of place and it just became confusing.
This is similar to an earlier development but I have decided to fill the word 'dot' in black. This works so much better because the black text balances out the black circle. I do think that I should have tried making the dot at the end white so it went black/white/black/white etc.
This was just looking at different CMYK colours for my logo. I do actually prefer it in black and white but its always useful to see how it could work with colour. It works particularly well with the lighter blues, the white just seems to compliment it, it looks very elegant and not too in your face!
I then had a look at greyscale and pure black, I think this ^^ image would look pretty cool as a poster or tshirt design.
No comments:
Post a Comment