Week 9: Jasuta

Design Strategy:

I had no idea where to begin with a logo for myself. For a company, maybe I would’ve had an easier start. But how could I create something sophisticated enough to represent me professionally. I drew out ten sketches. Nothing. I drew out a few more. Then I realized I was thinking about the design the wrong way: I was focusing on me myself and I too much. I was thinking about representing myself as a person, not as a professional, and there’s too many aspects to me as person than me as a professional. I needed to get more creative with my approach.

So I thought, what do I want to do when I grow up? I’m a Public Relations and art history double major; I want to curate museums and art galleries. Well, what do you find in a museum? Artifacts, art, lost treasure, skeletal remains. Be more specific. Dinosaur skeletons and fossils. Ah ha! I had it.

My logo represents me through the image of a dinosaur, because that’s my field of study (to an extent). I kept it playful and simple in my color choices, and utilized visual gestalt to emphasize that the stationary is a set that works together.

Choice of typefaces:

The typeface I created for my name and headers is an exaggerated slab serif font. It’s spindly, but not spidery. The strokes are even and tight, skinny if anything. But the counters are large and there is a large x-height, which keeps the font playful and fun, rather than stringy and unstable. Plus the doubling of particular strokes parallel to the curve of a letter reinforces the letter, adding to the feeling of balance.

The typeface of detail information is Myrad Pro which I thought was a good pairing with my newly created font. The sans serif makes the detail information easy to read, and a quick read especially on the business card. It is then used throughout the envelope and stationary as appropriate.

Visuals:

The dinosaur and type were drawn using Adobe Illustrator. All three parts of the stationary were formatted in Adobe InDesign. The dinosaur is the main visual in the logo, so that if I were to become a nationally marketed brand, it would be the dinosaur that would be recognizable. Yet the hand-drawn font works to complete the logo, so that though either can stand alone, they work best paired together.

The dots in the dino are mimicked throughout the stationary, which harmonizes the 3-piece set. The polka dots are the visual gestalt throughout the stationary. They were originally designed in the context of the dinosaur, then copied and pasted in margins of the stationary paper, the envelope, and the business card. The logo actually consists of three different visual components: the dinosaur, the name, and the spots so that they are separately unique but when together are complete.

The colors I worked with were primary colors for a purpose. Any of the colors could interchangeable if needed. The colors I used are all Pantones: green is Pantone 362 C, red is Pantone 1797 C, yellow is Pantone 101 C, the light blue is Pantone Process Blue C, and the navy is Pantone 2736 C. They play off each other to create a playful and child-like color palette.

I decided to have a taller business card (3.5”x2.5”) because sure, there are small dinosaurs. But the bigger ones are the most memorable.