The Selection Process – Colour

Once I had chosen a couple of designs to take forward, my next step was to create the same logos in much better quality with a bit more taken, I applied the colours I had chosen from my colour research and ended up with an entire set of five logos in the desired colour. Here they are;

I am now left with the task of deciding which colour logo to keep. To start this I look back to my colour research and firstly realise that blue is a corporate colour that large banks and technology companies use, whilst I was going for the down-to-earth cool & reliable designer look, it would be too easily mixed up with the corporations so I decided to scrap this colour. Next, I printed the previous pictures out so that I could see what they would like on my marketing material. This was a brilliant idea as the gold turned into a dark yellow colour on the paper and the orange-red didn’t look as bright as it did on screen. Great so i’m now left with brown and purple versions. I decide not to go with the brown as it looks like a dirty colour, and has connotations of nature and thought that purple best suited my design.

Now I’m simply left with one decision, which logo do I prefer? Well looking at both logos it actually seems reasonably easy given that the graph has more of a meaning to my work and the progression I hope to have at Hull college as a student. So I have decided to stick with this logo. Below you can see the final editions of the logo with a little extra detail added in to add in a bit of interest in rather it just being a plain gradient, then I have also reduced them to really small sizes to make sure they work from a distance, which they do. This is the logo I will use for my self promotion.

Cover Image (http://blogpchcom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/redcarpet-1024×770.jpg)

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The Selection Process: Sketch – Digital

When designing the logo, I took into consideration all of my research about colours, fonts. I looked into my target audience and what my competitors were doing with their logos, then started to draw logos on paper, after that I scanned them into the computer and designed them in Adobe Illustrator in black and white first. This was the start of the ‘elimination’ process as I have found through my research, logos have to work in black and white first before you add colour, that meant I was able to ‘eliminate’ a few. After that I scaled them up and down to see how they worked at different sizes, again allowing me to ‘eliminate’ more. The next step I took was to add gradients in the background as this meant I how see how the weight of the fonts and the overall feel would look if I were to use that logo, this allowed me to eliminate further. Then I started to add the ‘pre chosen’ colours from my colour research into the actual designs, this allowed me to see whether the logos actually worked in the colours In wanted, this again eliminated more. The final step was to make adjustments to the fine details and typography which meant I had final versions of a the few logos I was happy with out of the 20 I started with from the beginning. To allow me to decide which one was my favourite, I again put a coloured background to the images and peer reviewed them to help me decide on my final version.

Design No.1 – PASSED

The thought process behind this logo design was basically that I wanted to create something that would somewhat copy a graph that shows good statistics. Simply by aligning the bars on a upward slant would show constant improvement. This is something that I should hope will occur with my college work over the next three years and since this logo is meant to represent myself and the work I produce, I thought this design was ideal.  The text is aligned with the edges and when it scaled down, the text removed appropriately, the logo is still recognisable. As you can see even against different backgrounds the logo still stands out, doesn’t become distorted or illegible. Given the facts I have just discussed I believe this is a good piece of design therefore I passed the logo.
Design No.2 – FAILED

  Again, similar to the previous design, the reason for the graph like format would be to indicate the improvement of my own personal work over the three years I study the web design course. Unfortunately this logo had it’s difficulties when in the Illustrator design stage with size of the font, and spacing within the shape. It looks good against multiple different backgrounds. The problem with this design is that the text becomes illegible when you scale down the image, there are issues with the fact that there six columns therefore would look uneven if I were to delete blocks meaning there would need a colour code and because logos need it work in black and white before you add colour, for these reasons I have failed this logo.

Design No.3 – FAILED

I started to look into luxury within design because I wanted my work to become across as high-standard, I came across the two images of the watch faces, my idea was to remove the digits from the clock face to give the impression that my design work was timeless and would work years later, much like many iconic brands in today’s market. As you can see I have two hands that are in the same time position as the Rolex image shown, the reason why clocks show this time is because it is meant to indicate a smile. Once I had completed this design in Illustrator, I realised it wasn’t going to work, firstly the hands looked like the propellers of a plane, secondly when the logo was reduced to the smallest size and lost the words it looked like a bird with wings. This is not what I wanted to put across to my target audience, so I decided to fail this design.

Design No.4 – FAILED

In this design I tried to create something simple, effective yet eye catching. I feel the logo feels very clip-art like and too simple, then when the logo is reduced down the text is illegible and makes a very pointless logo. On this basis, it was easy to fail this logo.

Design No.5 – PASSED

I really like this logo as it represents the web as an endless space which has no edges. It is simple, eye catching and effective. As you scale the image down, it is still recognisable. This is easily my favourite out of my twenty so I have passed this logo to the final stage. During peer review of this logo, people suggested that I should redesign the the shape myself instead of using an 8 on it’s side, give it a proper hierarchy and fit them in size order.
Design No.6 – FAILED

This design is one of my least favourite designs, I dislike the curve and I don’t think it represents me as a designer. It has no meaning and would still look reasonably boring with colour. When you scale this design down it loses the slight impact it had therefore I have failed this design.

Design No.7 – FAILED

This design was meant to represent timeless design, meaning that something I design today would still be relevant in 2, 5 10 years down the line. While it was an interesting concept, and a good idea, I don’t believe the logo really worked. Scaling down the design the text was undecipherable and the logo unrecognisable, for these reasons, I have decided to fail this design.

Design No.8 – FAILED

This design was a nice idea because it has a certain element of luxury to it, the bottom section to be coloured black white the top remains white with a black border. The circle is to represent an an old style wax stamp which was used to seal letters in years gone by. When showing this logo to my peer group I had feedback that it looked like a logo for a restaurant or an actual restaurant menu. This along with the fact that it doesn’t work in just black and white and that I have added colour means I am failing this logo.
Design No.9 – FAILED

I drew this logo based on road signs, I wanted my logo to stand out at a quick glance. This takes simple shape and type into account to make up the logo but I found this logo to be too simple, therefore I have failed it.

Design No.10 – FAILED

The aim of this logo was to focus all the attention into the typeface just like the ‘Range Rover’ logo with spacing between the type, while in theory a great idea, I thought I needed an actual graphic to assign to the type, therefore I failed this design.

Design No.11 – FAILED

This logo was inspired by this luxury packaging I found, I thought it would be interesting to see what it would turn out like, in the the end I found it looked like I was ‘boxed in’, maybe couldn’t think outside the box, which is not the image what I want to put across as a designer.

Design No.12 – FAILED

This was the worst design I made, I wanted to created a logo that would look like a smile, to present a happy designer that enjoys what he does, this logo is very poor in quality, and I very easily failed this design attempt.
Design No.13 – FAILED

This logo was meant to represent a certain status among my competition. The logo is too simple and I don’t think it looks very professional, therefore I have failed this design.

Design No.14 – FAILED

In this design, I wanted to give a clear example of hierarchy and order, somewhat how pyramid works, while in theory it is a good concept, it is either not going to work or just poorly executed, therefore I failed this design.

Design No.15 – FAILED

This design i one that I favoured from the beginning as I believed it ‘looked good’ but after realising it had no meaning whatsoever, it became an almost pointless logo. I have decided to fail this logo on the basis that it has no meaning behind it.

Design No.16 – FAILED

This logo again was designed using inspiration from the clock face to create the impression of timeless design. This time though (bad pun) I decided to enlarge my initials to make it more about me. Unfortunately, when placed against a coloured background you start to loose the detail in this logo, so for this reason, I have failed this logo.

Design No.17 – FAILED

The purpose of this design was to make me stand out from my competitors, placing myself on the top of a column or pillar rises me above the crowd. It gives the design an automatic hierarchy as the font has to be smaller to give the impression it is resting on a a pillar.

Design No.18 – FAILED

I didn’t expect this design to amount to much, but it actually surprised me when it got to the black and white stage. The problem is that it didn’t have any meaning and that

Design No.19 – FAILED

This design was an interesting one to work on, I wanted to recreate the luxurious feel in the images I have show, but because of the font just wasn’t good enough and the overall feel of the logo wasn’t up to scratch, I decided to fail this logo.

Design No.20 – FAILED

This design was an interesting one to work on, I created the following logo with the idea of having salt poured on the table with someone drawing my initials into it, while it looks okay, it is difficult to recognise at a small level and lacks meaning, therefore I have failed this design