Graphic Design

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(No Transcript)
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SUMMARY

• Whats a logo?
• Characteristics
• Inspirations
• Your Media
• Forms
• Colors
• Fonts
• Finishes
• Your Tools
• Proportion
• Contrast
• Repetition
• Nuance
• Design Process

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WHATS A LOGO?

• According to Oxford Dictionary a logo is a
  printed design or symbol that a company or an
  organization uses as its special sign.
• Corporate history has shown that a logo is much
  more than that
• A logo can transform the perception of the
  company in peoples mind
• A logo helps attaching adjectives to a
  companyE.g. smart, fast, conventional, hip,
  boring,
• Logo changes ? people see the company
  differently, rethink the company

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WHATS A LOGO?

• Which companys logo is blue and
• has a crosshatch design?
• Difficult to answer this question
• Weve got no information about the product or
  service industry the company is in
• We require answers to these questions before
  guessing the company or do we?

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WHATS A LOGO?

• Which companys logo is red and
• resembles a tick mark (a) ?
• Its Nike!
• No specific info is needed
• Recall of a powerful logo ? company becomes
  secondary to the logo
• Thats why Nike maintains just the swoosh since
  1995, it doesnt need to mention its name anymore

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CHARACTERISTICS

• Successful logos throughout the world
• have certain characteristics that make
• them popular and memorable
• Differentiation
• Distinctive
• Different than the rest
• Even the fonts of these logos are designed in a
  custom manner
• Creating new font
• Tweaking existing font

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CHARACTERISTICS

• Timelessness
• Successful logos stand the test of time
• Shelf life of an average logo /- 20 years
• Changes are mostly evolutionary (changing
  business conditions)
• Logos are the longest living identity an
  organization enjoys
• Coca Cola is a classic case in timelessness
• Designed in 1886 by companys book keeper
• Logo still looks fresh and attractive nowadays

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CHARACTERISTICS

• Able to evoke emotions
• Logos facilitate carrying the desired corporate
  image to the consumer in the shortest possible
  time
• Type
• Graphic and colors
• The Michelin man logo/mascot of the French tyre
  company develops an amiable feeling towards the
  company with the use of a human character

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CHARACTERISTICS

• Malleability
• Good logos have to look good on billboards,
  business cards, black and white fax copies, gold
  embossed door plates and even mugs and t-shirts
• The media over which the logo appears have to be
  in the mind of the designer while designing
• Simplicity
• Times are changing and so are logos
• Logos in earlier times used to be very detailed
• Nowadays simpler, minimalistic yet elegant and
  attractive logos are used
• Somewhat a sign of people not having the time to
  look at detailed logos
• Certain logos maintain their earlier look, but a
  few companies changed their logo to reflect
  changing times cultures

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CHARACTERISTICS
1908
1908
1914
1960
2000
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CHARACTERISTICS

• Exposure
• A good logo much like a good product has to be
  advertised
• Not many companies place a premium on their logo
  as Nike, ATT, Apple,

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INSPIRATIONS

• Different and often weird situations have
  inspired and
• led to the creation of the worlds most famous
  logos

Nike's swoosh was done by accounting class
teacher / freelancer at Nike called Caroline for
only 35!
The current Fiat logo has the letters F-I-A-T
written with a silver line between each of them.
The lines were added by the companys design
chief when one day passing under the factory, he
noticed the sky at the backdrop of the huge FIAT
letters on the top of the building. The lines
added are actually the spaces that he saw in the
name over the building and decided to keep it.
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INSPIRATIONS
Named after the founder Adolf (Adi) Dasler, the
Adidas logo has a triangle cut into three
pieces. The three pieces reportedly represent
his three sons!
The blue and white parts of a circle are present
in the BMWs logo which we see on its
automobiles. The origin of this dates back to
the first world war when, the fighter planes had
their propellers painted by the company in blue
and white so that the pilots could see through
them. This inspired the design that we see on
BMWs cars.
The American company Apple was the first computer
firm not to use its name as its corporate
identity. Even the word "Macintosh" is the name
of an apple variety. The motiv of an apple with a
bite taken out of it is a reference to the Bible
story of Adam and Eve, in which the apple
represents the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
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YOUR MEDIA FORMS

• World we live in is primarily a world of forms,
  if color, shades and surface textures would be
  missing ? objects around us still recognizable by
  their forms
• 1. Choose a visual shape
• 2. Real world objects
• 3. Abstract
• 4. Once you got something interesting, save
  it!

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YOUR MEDIA FORMS

• 1. Choose a visual shape
• Naturally well be starting by exploring which
  visual shape will dominate the logo
• 2. Real world objects
• When starting you often have some clues what real
  world objects it must allude toAgricultural
  company a plantPublishing house a bookApple
  an apple
• Not always this straightforward
• Fine arts people are pleased by naturalness or
  natural-looking fantasies
• Logos people favor abstraction and simplicity
• Professional logos require some guesswork to
  realize how the shape relates to the main idea

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YOUR MEDIA FORMS

• 3. Abstract
• Abstract is purified, cleared of non-essential
  components
• Abstract not always is simple
• Abstract never is boring, just a square or
  circle wont do
• Strive to find an unusual view, a peculiar
  combination or a strange rendering of basic forms
• A logo is perfect if a viewer can see its built
  on a simple principle AND at the same time
  realizes it would be difficult to reproduce

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YOUR MEDIA FORMS

• 4. Once you got something interesting, save it!
• But most important is realizing you got
  something interesting and to guess how to profit
  from it!
• If you have a predefined idea, start from trying
  to reproduce it with the geometric forms
  available
• If you have none, just go wild and play with the
  forms like a child would play

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YOUR MEDIA FORMS

• Playing around with geometrical forms

Creating a form by moving things on purpose
Gravity problem when an idea is clear
L to R reading problem when its settled down
Et voila!
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YOUR MEDIA COLORS

• Dont use too many colors
• As with form, simplicity is very important
• What parallels/opposes this element?Can I choose
  one of the colors I already used for other
  elements?
• Colors should help express the logic of the form,
  not conflict with it
• E.g. book logo
• So you can transform the colors usually
  associated with objects, but dont totally
  disregard them

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YOUR MEDIA FONTS

• Now, theres one thing missing the companys
  name
• Rather unusual to wait, normally the textual part
  is given high priority
• Often the form of the letters in the company
  name, serves as the main graphic idea and defines
  the shape
• Dont be too decorative or too original
• Unusual script fonts my look cool, but require an
  enormous amount of artistic skills and experience
  to use them in a logo
• Recommended is to choose one of the old,
  time-proven typefaces (Baskerville, Schoolbook,
  Futura, )
• Normally text in a logo is set in relatively
  large size, so you need to manually kern the
  letters. Default height/width ratio in most fonts
  is chosen with the 10pt body text size in mind.

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YOUR MEDIA FINISHES

• Everything you do when both your graphics and
  text are ready, on their proper place and the
  colors are chosen
• Surface textures
• Drop shadows
• Highlights
• Gradients
• Beware people often think cool finishes make
  their graphics professional. Far from that!
• No amount of drop shadows will improve a logo
  which is designed poorly
• Feel free, but once youve made a cool design,
  youre likely to spoil it with the wrong finishes

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YOUR TOOLS PROPORTION

• According to Websters Dictionary proportion is a
  comparative relation between things or magnitudes
  as to size, quantity, number,
• In the design field this definition is narrowed
  down to relation in size and length
• Proportion which parts are bigger than others
  and why?
• Most important principle regarding sizes of your
  logos elements follow their natural sizes
• The text must be easily readable, the visual
  should be big enough for all its features to be
  evident
• Dont be afraid wasting time playing with sizes
  and trying to find the best proportion

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YOUR TOOLS PROPORTION

• In (a) the circle looks less in diameter than the
  square
• In (b) the white disk on black background looks
  bigger

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YOUR TOOLS PROPORTION

• Try to find relations which are simple yet not
  immediately obvious
• Try to make two objects the same size, or one
  twice the size of the other, or
• Experienced designers perceive this rule as if it
  were a natural desire of things to behave that
  way
• Dont oversimplify a composition were all
  levels with all will be plain boring
• First go wild and seek a glimpse of originality
• Play with forms until you see something
  interesting

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YOUR TOOLS CONTRAST

• While proportion is mostly about sizes, contrast
  is about nearly anything
• Color
• Size
• Shape
• Font
• Texture
• .
• Contrast is probably the most powerful concept
  among design tools

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YOUR TOOLS CONTRAST

• Purest possible contrast, which is too
  straightforward and even boring for a designer to
  use
• So we have to soften the contrast relation by
  opposing multiple aspects of objects
• Added contrast in size
• Added contrast in position

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YOUR TOOLS CONTRAST

• Contrasting background and foreground
• Contrasting font styles

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YOUR TOOLS REPETITION

• Repetition a way to animate otherwise dead
  material
• Allows to communicate much more information
• Two contrasting objects a message of
  interaction
• Pattern of repetition trend of development, a
  line of motion, sequence of transformation
• Any repetition
• implies a line
• can be an undirected line or a directed vector

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YOUR TOOLS REPETITION

• How many objects should we use in repetition?
• A pair is not enough perceived as symmetry or
  contrast
• The least number of steps that makes a stairway
  is three

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YOUR TOOLS NUANCE

• One of the most important features that
  differentiates a work of experienced designer
  from a novice's exercise is the powerful use of
  nuances
• Applying nuance means using the same design
  concepts, but with a difference
• Nuance subtle, delicate degree
• Nuances can really make the difference in
  perception
• A well-nuanced design becomes warm, human and
  attractively elegant
• A design deprived of nuances only looks
  interesting on first glance

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YOUR TOOLS NUANCE

• Some discoveries that can be made unconsciously
  to illustrate nuance
• Aha, this couple of lines are parallel
• This detail is the same color as that one
• These two lines continued, their point of
  intersection is exactly in the center of that
  disk
• This letters serif is exactly on the level of
  that horizontal bar
• Our mind is pleasantly stimulated by this
  background activity
• Decorating a logo with nuances is a
  time-consuming process
• With inspiration the main shape and color
  combination can be created in a wink
• The subtleties to illuminate the soul requires
  some time and effort
• Before you roll out your finished work, always
  ask yourself why you did it that way, why it has
  that size or this angle?

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YOUR TOOLS NUANCE

• One nuance that deserves special mention is
  kerning
• Nothing is a more undeniable giveaway of an
  amateur than a title left without kerning
• Fonts are to be treated like any other graphic
  resource and need to be adjusted where suited
• Kerning always needs manual intervention

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DESIGN PROCESS

• The design process can be split into 6 stages
• 1. Identify
• 2. Research
• 3. Fonts
• 4. Emblem
• 5. Composition
• 6. Mock Up

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DESIGN PROCESS

• 1. Identify
• Always ask yourself whats the purpose of the
  design
• Artist just wants to express himself or his
  feelings on society
• Designer always has a specific purpose that
  doesnt necessarily come from him
• What do we mean by purpose?
• Target audience
• Competition
• Tone of voice
• Key messages
• Can be found by asking simple questions to the
  client
• What do you want to say?
• Who are you saying it to?
• Who else is trying to say the same thing?
• Where are you going to say it

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DESIGN PROCESS

• 2. Research
• Go scout the enemies camps
• Whats the competition doing?
• Whats the design standard of the particular
  industry doing?
• If its a global company, consider these things
  in other countries and see what theyre doing
• Whats the market leader doing?
• Understand the target audience
• Try to define your average target customer
• Build a profile of him (her name is Jane, she
  lives in a suburb of a big city, she drives a
  4x4, she is married and has three children, )
  this may look bizarre but it helps to get in the
  head of the audience
• What color will be appropriate?
• Research can be a grand large scale Quality
  Audience Research, but mostly the client will not
  have the budget for this. In that case a couple
  of hours on Google does the trick

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DESIGN PROCESS

• 3. Fonts
• When you start the design, the emphasis is on the
  emblem
• A logos tone of voice is primary defined by its
  typeface
• Always start by selecting potential fonts which
  have a tone of voice which suit the research and
  client discussions
• If somebody wants to present a respectable,
  classic feel ? choose a serif typeface

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DESIGN PROCESS

• 4. Emblem
• Make a logo recognizable, an emblem can be
  anything from a shape to a physical illustration
• If your typeface is strong enough or your logo is
  not supposed to be imposing, an emblem is not
  required
• An emblem has to
• Complement the typeface
• Complement the key messages
• Be original and different from any of the
  competition
• There is no wrong or right when coming up with an
  emblem
• TIP design your emblems within the same file as
  you have all
• your potential typefaces. This way you can see if
  a mark would
• work or not with a certain emblem. Try at least
  10 marks which
• complement about 20 typefaces.

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DESIGN PROCESS

• 5. Composition
• Now come the practicality of a logo
• How will this logo fit the page?
• A logo with a straight edge is very difficult to
  sit nicely on a page
• If there are baselines or website addresses that
  have to accompany the logo consider it at this
  stage
• 6. Mock Up
• Mock up a few letter heads, brochures, which
  show the logo in context
• A logo has to work along side other elements and
  future problems can be ruled out at this point