Week 9 | Wu

Design process

I made a lot of sketches. I came up with ideas such as a flower and a bee in which the negative space is a “W”, the initial of my last name, fireworks and a dandelion. The flower with a bee didn’t come out well. It is not combined and logo-like. I played around with the combination of “Y” and “W” a lot. I searched online logo designs involve “Y” and “W”. Then I found out that “w’ with a upside down “Y’ look like a person standing with his arms pointing to the sky. So, I added a circle to be the head of that person. It looks somewhat like a logo. Actually, it also looks a lot like the character of my Chinese last name “吴”. However, that sketch was totally symmetric. I wanted to give the person more movement and energy. I searched online some logos involve with figures and people. Then all of a sudden, the idea of the logo for 2008 Bejing Olympic Games came to my mind. It is a Chinese signet. Chinese signet is one part of traditional Chinese culture. It is like signiture of a person. One’s signet is his logo. I may work in the United States after college, but Chinese culture definitely constitutes a major part of me. And I am here in the States to share my culture with people from all over the world. Also, I can use logo in China. Therefore, I decided to do a signet for myself. With the “W” and “Y”, my initials, I created a running person. I like the “W”, which is like a person with two arms pointing up, which gives a positive energy to the figure.

Choice of typeface

In order for people to recognize the visual “W” and “Y”, I used the “boby parts” of that person to make the “y” and “w” in my names. The typeface I chose is Briem Script Std Black since it is the most consistent with original font of my initials.

Choice of color

I chose red to be color of the signet since it is usually the way it is. This red is very Chinese. Negative space pictures a running person. I put my name in black, since black is strong, visible and it also goes together well with red and white. Red, white and black combination is classic.