Final

This is the final we had to do for Design class. We were supposed to make a personal logo that describes us........

Well, I couldn't think of anything better to do so I drew this cat guy. I've had him stuck in my head all week:

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Logo Design

1. Name of your company, a short paragraph describing what your company manufactures/sells and the target audience for the product.


Resonate is a music technology company that is currently manufacturing a new product designed to act like a radio, ipod, and daily planner all in one. The product, dubbed “kick start”, rivals the ipod touch with a 320x480 pixel screen and small key board that slides out from the main body. Users can access the radio any time, any where, and use the internet in wireless zones. One can upload their own music onto the kick start and insert their schedules into the planner program. Created in mind for ages ranging from music addicted teens to busy-body young adults, the kick start is a must have for any technophile.


2. Review the processes that Jacob Cass went through in designing his logo and Logo Design Secrets (and any other links that you found especially helpful). What parts of these processes did you use in your work. Please explain and be specific.


Many of the Logo design artists and websites suggested doing multiple sketches before using the computer. I did this in my own design process, filling a whole page with doodle before tracing some of them with the pen tool on photoshop. This sketching was a key part to my logo because I definitely cannot draw as well on photoshop as I can on paper. I kept in mind that the design had to be simple and scalable but still represent the company. This is why I decided to make a stick figure-like person and use sound waves in my design. Another tip was to go back and try different versions of one logo you liked. I had the image of a man in a karate pose stuck in my mind-- and it went great with the name “kick start”-- so I began to make different versions of him. This included different fonts, different arrangements of the text, and changing the position of the sound waves. I also tried sketching varying stick guys until I had determined that the karate man fit my logo best. Jacob Cass did something like this with his logo. He knew that he wanted his initials and incorporate a pencil into his design, so he just went crazy with various concepts of that main idea. One last main idea I kept in mind was that a logo doesn’t have convey what a company does. My company sold ipod like devices, but the most I alluded to music was with the sound waves.


3. Overall, what three important concepts have you learned about logo design? Explain why they are important to your future work?


 As aforementioned, I learned that not all logos have to directly convey what the company sells. Nike isn’t a picture of a shoe, McDonald’s isn’t a hamburger, and my Resonate logo wasn’t a music note. Instead, I used the logo to emphasis the name “kick start” and alluded to a musical idea with the sound waves. 
 Another important concept I learned was to make different copies and try different ideas before deciding on a final product. The process of sketching, using photoshop, and heading back to the drawing board really helped me organize my ideas. It was cool to be able to use photoshop to copy a core image and then tweak it to make different variations. After changing and editing several versions, I could decided on my final logo and feel confident that was one my best efforts. 
 One more concept I learned was simplicity. In order to have a good logo, it needs to be scalable and still look good as a tiny image. This sets some much needed boundaries that keep a design from becoming too elaborate. It really makes you focus in on the core things that your logo needs to be effective. 


4. Review the criteria and the process of designing a logo, please rate your final logo design, 1-4 (4 is the highest). Please explain why your work deserves the rating.

I really think my logo deserves 4 (Woohoo! Another non-three point five grade!!!) I’ve followed all of the tips for a good logo from Jacob Cass’s blog and from other websites about logo designs. I went through a brainstorming process and sketched out many different logo ideas. I’ve described my company and product well in my descriptor paragraph. I listened to my peer’s comments and incorporated their feedback into my logo. This feedback really helped guide me in the final parts of this design process and the final product. It was nice getting a different perspective on my logo and what needed to be tweaked. My logo looks great in black and white, color, large, and scaled down. You can easy tell what the logo is when it’s small, and the colors I used helped unify the text and karate man into one design. All in all, I think it looks like a very professional logo.

Reflection of Logo Design - Midpoint

1.What significant changes has your logo gone through?


Wellllllll.... My font has changed. I forget what the original font was, but the new one I’m using is Bank Gothic. I’ve made some of the sound waves thicker so that when the image is scaled down it looks better. I’ve also moved the text up and down to try to make the picture and text blend better rather than just an image with the text “ick start” next to it.

2. Why did you make these changes?


 I made these changes because my classmates suggested them, and I thought it would be a good idea to follow through on their feedback. It turns out the comments were helpful and my design is much improved.

3. How much more work needs to go into the logo?

What more do you need to do? (Please check criteria)
Not too much more work needs to go into the logo I think. I’ve pretty much decided what logo I’m going to use, and now I just to fix it up and add color. However, if I decide to go with a new design I came up with, then I might need more time to experiment.

4. What questions do you have?

How do you add color to a logo without having it look crappy? I’ve had to rasterize my shapes to add color and then they get crappy looking edges. What I’ve done so far is just redraw the shapes with the pen tool and another color selected, but I was wondering if there was a faster way to do it.

Quarter Three Reflection

1. What are you most proud of? What do you think are your strengths?


 It am most proud of my ability to work with a new medium with no prior experience and produce art that isn’t totally abhorrent. Point being my logo design, triangular tessellation, and google design. I guess I really like and am proud of all of my designs, excepting the rectangular tessellation. My mom has even put my pop art design on the fridge (though I told her to take it down -_-). It was really difficult working with photoshop at first just because I had no clue what everything did, or what tools were available to me. Now I have a basic understanding of photoshop, and I can manipulate the tools better. I think my strengths would be my creativity. I’ve come up with a lot of cool ideas in this class; I’m going to be sorry to leave.

2. What would you like to do better and/or focus upon for Quarter four?


I think I want to focus on using a broader range of tools. I have tools like the marquis, lasso, and clone stamp down pretty well. I’m getting much better at the pen tool, but I believe that I should try new techniques. I may not like how my designs turn out since I won’t be good at using the new tools, but if I work at it, I will improve.

3. How will you make this happen?


As I said above, I’m going to try new tools and work outside my comfort zone. I tried that with the logo design. I really hated using the pen tool because I stunk at it, but over time I became more comfortable with it. Now I can use it and get a fairly good design. I’m just going to practice, practice, practice! In regards to using new tools, I should just start clicking all kinds of buttons and looking under all the headers on the tool bar!