Week 9 | Leveille

Design Strategy:

My main focus for the logo was to identify my values as both a journalist and a person in general: objectivity, accuracy and honesty. The use of color, the visual of a dog and the simplicity work together in order to portray this image. I also found a way to subtly use my initials as the logo by creating a second “L,” which serves as a shadow. The dog, although it has its own specific message, is also used as a period to signify the end of my initials.

Choice of Typeface:

I wanted to use a script “L” that would be similar yet unique in comparison to the font used for the rest of the text. For the L’s, I used Medici Script LT Std. in order to create gestalt between the L’s used in the logo and the L’s used in the actual templates. The rest of the text uses serif font ITC Caslon 224 Std. because it is distinctive, clear and differs from the usual Times New Roman.

Visuals:

I created the logo on Illustrator by tracing the Medici Script LT Std. L’s with one of the brushes. I made the “L” in the front using a shade of green and then traced another and placed it behind the first. The second uses the same shade of green at a lower transparency. Green was my choice of color because it represents neutrality, and I thought it would best represent objectivity. I then traced a picture of a German shepherd and placed it on the curve of the L as if it is looking ahead in the horizon. I chose the image of a dog because journalists serve as the watchdog to the government. It is different than the usual pen or notebook used to identify journalists.

Week 9 | Mariotti

Design Strategy:
i wanted to make my logo simple, yet clever. I connected the logo to my initials, AM, which reminded me of morning. Also, my first name, Allison, has the image of a sun in the last syllable. I am a magazine journalism major, so I wanted my logo to be creative, which I think this accomplished.

Choice of typefaces:
I used the typeface University for my initials, and American Typewriter for the information. I wanted it to be easy to read and simple, to work with the simplicity of my design.

Visuals:
For my visual, I created an ellipse and covered the bottom third with a white rectangle to create a rising sun. Then, I placed a yellow and orange gradient in the circle. Finally, I created a black line to represent the horizon line.

Week 9: NADELL

Design Strategy

The most important thing that I wanted my logo to portray about me was professionalism. I think that the simplicity of my logo gives that impression. Also, I wanted my logo to connect to sports, so I thought that putting the letters in a baseball diamond would help make that work. The logo says that I am a professional who is involved in sports.

Choice of Typefaces

For my logo I used Trajan Pro bold. The reason that I choose this typeface was because it is a serif and therefore easy to read and recognize. Logos should catch the eye. I just like that Trajan Pro is very basic and not too fancy. These letters also fit very well together in the order that I sketched them. I choose to have the letter in caps to emphasize that these are my initials and the first letters in my first, middle and last names, which are always capitalized.

Visuals

The first thing that I thought about when creating my logo was sports teams logos and how they usually use the first letters of their home city to represent them. Going off of this and the idea that I wanted my logo to give a sports vibe, I decided to use my initials. I basically just drew out my initials in a variety of ways until I decided that this one was the one that looked the best.

After mapping the letters out, I wanted my letters to be imbedded within something to create closure. Basically, I brainstormed until I decided that a baseball diamond would work best. I wanted to create a baseball infield that resembled a baseball field but at the same time, was not too obvious.

Week Nine | Loguidice

Rationale: Logo Project
Design Strategy:
The design was difficult for me this time around. I wanted to be perceived as very professional, and trustworthy. I feel that is important for future news writers; people need to be able to trust you and perceive you as professional (objective), and I wanted my logo to reflect that.

Choice of Typefaces:
Throughout my project I used Dante MT Std, an old-style serif font.I have always liked serif fonts for their easy readability. I used all caps in my logo because I wanted to leave a powerful impression, but caps and lowercase in any other information because it is easier to read.
I feel like logos are meant for a general audience, and therefore I chose I typeface that everyone found it easy to read.

Visuals:
For the visual in my logo mark, I used shapes, drawn by hand with the pentool in Adobe Illustrator, to create white space where my initials are visible. I added my last name in caps at the bottom to contain it a little better.
I think my visual works pretty well. I tried to create visual Gestalts throughout the entire design by repeating typefaces and colors. I also wanted it to be simple, because I think if too many colors are used, and there is too much crowding the space, it detracts from the design as a whole. I also repeated the idea of reverse type on the business card.
I chose to work with blue and purple. Blue, to me, is a very professional color. I find it calming, and it’s supposed to be known as the “color of trust” according to Kate Lippert. I chose purple for its calming effect as well, but more for its place on the color wheel. I wanted an analogous color palette. Something that would flow. I also arranged the colors the way I did for a reason. “Sandwiching” the purple between the blues was to create the “form” of my initials. I think the color brings it together nicely as a whole.

Week Nine | Nelson

Approaching this project, I wanted my design to show who I was rather than careers I’m looking into (though it could also somewhat reflect this). I’ve always been known as the “writer” and “art kid” so I wanted my logo to reflect both or either of these ideas; as I’m pursuing a potential career in art history, I thought going with an artistic theme would help reflect that. I didn’t want to only be associated with art, however, so I also developed a mark that had the aesthetic, graphic feel to it. I also knew I wanted the logo to be somewhat rough and organic looking, rather than perfectly structured and clean.

Type: For my typeface I used Apollo MT STD. I wanted a type that was script to go along with the curvy lines of the “paint” wordmark. Though the x-heights are still a bit larger that I really would have liked, it was a font that could be read despite being a script. I felt the wordmark was rather modern with its lettering, so I wanted a more traditional/older font for the text.

Visuals: I knew I wanted to use blue paint (C-99, M-76, Y-5, K), since it’s an aesthetically pleasing color as well as my favorite color. From there, I decided to make the paint brush orange (C-15, M-42, Y-57, K-3) using the idea of complementary colors (and I liked that it was SU colors). I wanted the painted letters to be rough, so I used dry brush 5; I also wanted to apply the idea of a circle, so I created the curves of the T to look a bit like a semicircle before fitting underneath the N. To make the paintbrush look a bit more realistic after tracing and filling with color, I put some “shine” marks on it in lighter colors (light orange: C-10, M, Y-62, K; light grey: CMY, K-33; dark grey: CMY, K-50); the light orange was used for the background of the business cards as well for the principle of similarity. Lastly, for the tip of the paint brush, I used a yellow (C-10, M, Y-62, K-0) then randomly applied blue over it. I knew I wanted to group the text on either side of the paintbrush to give a more complete look. Originally, I hadn’t planned on turning the text to lie against the paintbrush, but upon moving it around I thought it looked more natural lined up in that manner. Lastly, I wanted to spice up the stationery a bit, so instead of including all my contact information up top like for the business cards, I used the dry brush again to create random, rough streaks at the bottom and placed my number and email there. Overall, I think the logo achieved the vibe I was going for and is visually pleasing.

Week Nine| Susan Mihalick

Rationale

Project 3 | Logo in Stationery System

Design Strategy:

I hoped to convey a funky, creative and friendly identity with my logo. I knew I wanted to incorporate my initials of “SPAM” as both my visual and verbal in this design. My logo would ideally present me as a creative yet professional individual. I am an advertising major, so I also liked that I was almost treating myself and identity as a product, like “SPAM”.

Choice of typefaces:

I chose to use a serif, called Weidemann Std. for all my lettering. This font was chosen based on its universal readability and its style. I decided to kern or overlap the “a” and “m” letters in my logo, to mimic that of the actual SPAM product logo. The letters in “spam” are capitalized both because they are my initials and because it mirrors the letters on the product’s label. Hormel, the makers of SPAM, also used a serif typeface but one with more curves, and less modern styling.

Visuals:

My representation of a can of SPAM on my business card’s front was intentionally hand drawn looking. I wanted the visual to be bold but have a whimsical personality to it, so I decided to draw it out with the paintbrush tool in Illustrator. I gave it a cartoon-like, three dimensionality by adding the top of the can. This adds depth and interest to the image. I feel that this visual is youthful, creative and lighthearted. It conveys my personality well. My use of color was a key part of my design. I wanted to reference the color of the product, without completely copying it, and I also wanted to include a certain artistic flair. The use of primary colors in Pop art was an essential influence. I added a bit of a twist my using shades of the primaries, and used “CMYK” cyan, magenta, and yellow in the Adobe suite. I made the back of the business card a bit more professional, but still played with bright, saturated color and type. I decided to bold the “s” “p” “a” and “m” in my name, to reemphasize my initials and theme of SPAM. I also played with the theme of the can on both the envelope and stationery. The envelope’s address section is supposed to resemble the top of the can, while the stationery is framed by the profile of a stylized can. Again the saturated CMYK colors were repeated and reversed for readability and style.

Logo Project | Picini

Design Strategy:

Firstly, my logo needed to show that I am a photographer. I also wanted my logo to show a young, lively personality, while still presenting something orderly and professional.

Choice of Typefaces:

I chose the typeface Antique Olive Std (Roman) because I thought it looked lively and clear cut. I wanted a sans serif font because to me they look more youthful and casual, but I didn’t want a novelty font for fear of looking childish or having too much going on. I especially like the large counters in the Antique Olive Std, I think it looks fresh, and I like the slanted counter of the two-story a’s because add a factor of artsiness and elegance to the typeface. I also like the flattened i dots for the text of my business card/envelope, but made them round on the actual logo to create a connection between the perfectly round lens and i dots. I used all lower case letters to keep the feel comfortable and friendly. I wouldn’t use Antique Olive Std for an essay, because I think the large counters make large bodies of text more difficult to read, but I liked the way it looked in the limited information of my name, number, email and address (although Paul suggeste using a fake address since it’s getting posted on the blog, I don't actually live in England).

Visuals:

I created the logo mark in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool to trace. I used my webcam to take a picture of myself holding my camera to take a picture and then traced my hands and the camera in Adobe Illustrator. Originally the last three fingers on my right hand were sticking up, because that’s how I take pictures, but Professor Taylor advised me to simplify it by mirroring my left hand position on the right side. I also enlarged the lens size by her suggestion and really like the way it looks, because I think it shows more perspective and gives the impression of the subject being close to the camera, which is typical because I take a lot of close-up pictures. I think the lens flare adds dimension to the camera and I moved it to the bottom to frame the lens and direct your eyes upwards towards my name. I used Antique Olive Std Roman again for my name because I like the simplicity but uniqueness of it. My name was the trickiest part of the logo, because my first name is awkwardly long, and my last name three letters shorter. I tried curving my name several different places but had a lot of trouble getting the arc tool to fit to the circle of the lens. Eventually I sized the Picini to fit into the elevated flash and curved my name over the top. To do this I made the text outlines and warped them using the standard arc. The color I used for the logo was a saturated golden yellow (C:0, M:14, Y: 100, K:0) because I wanted to portray a friendly, youthful color. Aside from being my favorite color, yellow has been known to stimulate emotion, and represent optimism, confidence, creativity and friendliness.

And I don't know how to move these bloody jpegs around, so the top one is my business card and envelope and the bottom is my stationery.