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Logo Design

20-30 logo designs.

It was very challenging to create the designs because the concept itself needed to be planned thoroughly, the fonts, elements, colour palette, each individual aspect needs to be well planned.

Steps I follow are: brainstorming ideas, creating mind maps for each logo element, for example colours, shapes, etc. Then sketching out my ideas, showing them to the client, and ask for some feedback, and then finally implement the design using Photoshop or Illustrator.

Brainstorming is the most challenging thing.

One of my all time favourite logo designs is the Harrods logo, I like it because it is very simple, yet contemporary and elegant.

Seven features of good logo design:

Should be unique.

Should suit the companies purpose and well describes them as an identity.

Simple.

Memorable.

Suitable for the  targeted media.

Appropriate typography.

Timeless.

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Mood board task

This is the mood board my peer and I designed, it was a conservative category so we kept it simple.

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Salvador Dali

Bio

Born 1904, Figueres, Spain.

18 years old, Madrid to study fine arts. 

Influences 

Things he loved, coast line, mountains, rocks, beautiful sea, the sound of sea. Places he went with his family when he was a child. 

Surrealism

Artistic movement, 1924, inspired by Freud. 

What attracted Dali to surrealism?

Express what he went through, his childhood.

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Employability Skills

Throughout this course, we have worked a lot on peer or group work. We managed to use mostly all of the eight employability skills. 

Communication: Basically I have used this skill by contributing in class discussions, by giving my point of view on my classmates designs, and by working in pairs.

Technology: We have used this skill in assignment 1 and 2 where we were required to create a short video about a specific type of art, a poster design and a website design about a singer.

Planning & Organization: I believe that this skill have helped me a lot in finishing the assignments on time. 

We have used other skills, but these are the three most used.

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Pablo Picasso Class Task

In pairs, we were given three tasks to choose one and work on it. Anaam and I chose to work on the descriptive task about Pablo Picasso. We researched and brainstormed about his importance, analysed one of his painting, which we both agreed on being very creative and interesting.

Moreover, we have researched about his quotes and chose our favourite one, and then we created a timeline of Picasso’s art period, which included:

Pablo Picasso’s early life - (Before 1901)

Pablo Picasso’s blue period - (1901-1904)

Pablo Picasso’s rose period - (1904-1906)

Pablo Picasso’s African influenced period - (1907-1909)

Pablo Picasso’s cubism period - (1909-1912)

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Infographic review

Today we had to design infographics in groups, my group and I selected the topic ‘Typography’, and to be precise, the mistakes to avoid in typography. Moreover, we looked at four other infographics and analysed/commented on them.

1- The I heart NY Infographic:

This infographic had a nice, simple concept, the design emphasised graphic design in terms of its simplicity. However, the background color and some of the font color contrast was not working together. This is because the background is light grey and the text is white, which made it very hard to read. Also, the alignment was not proper and the apple image was a bit stretched.

2- Rise Against Infographic:

The infographic has a nice concept, and the design is simple. However, the idea and topic is not clear, the font is not readable as it is very small. Moreover, capitalized text makes it difficult to read, and it is not user-friendly. I suggest that they increase the font size and make the text normal instead or caps.

3- Henri Matisse Infographic:

I really like this infographic, and how the designer chose the ‘flowchart’ type infographic, it represents the idea very well. It is very simple and understandable. What I would suggest is that they change the font type because in my opinion it is not suitable. Also, being consistent is very important, like if they decided to use circles for everything they should change the image shape to circular shape as well, using the mask tool.

4- Graphic design Infographic:

The design is very nice, the color palette chosen and illustrations are good. What could be improved is the font type, it doesn’t suit the concept of the design and topic “Graphic Design”, and it is not readable in my opinion.

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Types of infographics

Some types of infographics include:-

Visualised Article.

Flowchart.

The Timeline.

Useful Bait.

Versus Infographic:- comparing two things.

Photo Infographic.

Numbered.

Data visualization.

Good infographics include:-

Contrast.

Hierarchy.

Accuracy.

Truth.

Relevance.

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Infographic Tips & Mistakes

10 tips for designers: 

Be concise and specific.

Be visual, try to visualise the main ideas, readers don’t want to read junks of text.

Be Smarter: Build your data and explanation right into the infographic, and don’t make your readers have to work hard to understand what they’re seeing.

Be Transparent: Infographics can be used to lead readers to the wrong conclusions. 

Be different and unique, try to brainstorm original ideas, rather than use existing infographics.

Be Accurate: Remember your geometry and visualize differences using area. 

Be Attractive: Include visuals: Illustrations and photos included in the infographic make a big difference.

Be Varied: Find a good visual style that’s right for the data you’re trying to share.

Be Gracious: Work on the assumption that your infographic may be viewed or shared without the article you originally designed it for.

Be Creative: Use whatever tools you have available to create your infographic.

Five Biggest Infographic Mistakes Marketers Make:

Creating Confusion Instead of Clarity.

Misrepresenting Information.

Not Sourcing Statistics.

Too Much Text.

Just Desperate for Content.

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Visualising information

In this weeks class we looked at data visualisation and infographics. They are important because it makes information more interesting, easier to read. Also, they make us patterns and connections between data. There is a difference between data visualisation and infographics, infographics can contain data visualisations, but data visualisations cannot contain infographics.

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Type Designer Task-Paul Renner

Feedback given by peer, is to avoid hyphens/ words continuing on two different lines.

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Century Gothic

Century Gothic is a san-serif typeface, it is modern, simple and plain.

Characteristics:- 

Larger x-height

Lack of descender

Sharp corners

Big counters

Diagonal ends

Circular bowls

Steady baseline

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Choosing a typeface

Choosing a typeface or font really depends on the project type, suitability, target audience, formal/informal, readability (color, size, type), associations (what does it remind you of - mainly adjectives), features (x-height, contrast, axis) and history.  

Analyzing Helvetica typeface:-

1- San-serif typeface.

2-Tall x-height, which makes it easier to read in smaller sizes.

3-Narrow t and f.

4-Square-looking s.

Helvetica is used various logos and poster designs including, American Airlines, Target, National Film Board of Canada, killing them softly (movie) and many more.

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Typography

Important typography terms to know:-

1-Typeface, which is a group of characters, letters, and numbers that share the same design.

2-Font, which is a specific style of typeface with a certain width, size and weight.

3-Line length, which is the distance of line of text between right and left margins.

Other important terms include leading, kerning, tracking.

Typeface is not the same as font.

Anatomy of typography is very important to understand. Some of the anatomy terms include, counter, terminal, spur, apex, cross stroke. 

Choosing the right font for a certain text can change it’s meaning and make it more effective.

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Gestalt Design Theory

Gestalt means ‘unified whole’, it comes from the German word ‘shape’ or ‘whole’.

There are six principles of gestalt theory:- similarity, continuation, closure, proximity (distance), figure/ground, symmetry and order.

It is important to follow this design principle to ensure effective outcome whether in website design or photographs.

Peer work

Researched and explained two of the gestalt design principles, which are the continuation and symmetry & order. 

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Analyzing Matisse's artwork

In pairs we analyzed Mattise's "young girl with a yellow sofa" painting. We looked the use of color balance, contrast and simplicity. We also looked at the shape, line and pattern details. Generally all elements of the Design Matrix. We've noticed that Matisse uses the same color repetitively in the triangular shape. 

By analyzing this painting, I have further understood how to analyze a piece or art and how to appreciate all elements of a painting. 

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Importance of color

Color is everywhere. It is all around us. Different colors in different places can change our mood and feelings. Each color out there has a different feel when looking at it, which makes each color unique. Changing the brightness, saturation or contrast can change your mood towards a certain color.

Summary of Matisse Documentary

Artists before Matisse usually used colors in a realistic way, they didn't use bright colors unnecessarily. Matisse first started painting similarly like other artists, but then he started using bright, creative colors which made his paintings unique and different from others. His paintings were not accepted at first but then many artists became inspired by him and more colors were used in paintings.

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Group work

In the last two classes, we were given some group work activities. On Sunday’s class, our task was to match the color harmonies category names with their definitions and examples. My class and I had to move around to find the correct match for each category and organize them accordingly. I think that we spent more time than needed on this activity. If this type of task were to be given to us again, I personally think that the first thing we should do is understand each category. This will help us organize them faster. My class and I ought to think about planning and organization and time management before beginning such task/activity.

On Monday’s class, my colleague, Anaam and I looked at 2014 and 2015's trendy colors, I researched the topic and summarized the main ideas, I included the color name, psychology and some examples of websites who have used the color, which is radiant orchid. 

Finally, we looked at Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” painting. Where we analyzed the painting, looking at the elements and principles of the painting using the design matrix table.