Ross Schmadebeck

Week 6 Design Showcase

October 2, 2014

Instructions

  • Design a logo for Company A or B based on background info given. Although logos should be typically done in Illustrator for maximum flexibility with design, we are still going to create one in PS. Lots of room for your own creativity and interpretation on this assignment!

Situation

Logo will be used for print, web, and other marketing items. You are free to create your own company name.

Company A:

  • Marketing and digital design firm located in NYC.
  • Start-up that is on a fast track for growth
  • Target audience: Obtaining high visual clients including major apparel and fashion brands.

Company B:

  • Deals in green initiatives in Los Angeles.
  • Non-profit
  • Target audience: Acquiring local business partners; overall awareness of green initiatives.

Design

Choose one of 50 logo marks from Dropbox to manipulate. You will need to extract the mark you want to use and clean up the lorem ipsum (dummy text). I’ve included large hi res jpegs so you should be able to extract the logo you want. You are allowed to do a combo of marks if you’d like, but it’s not required.

NOTE: I’ve included the vector .AI file for those who want to resize in Illustrator and then export into PS. All work must be done in PS except for resizing if you choose to use the vector logo image.

Once you have your logo mark, create a logo for your chosen company using the mark and any other features we’ve learned so far. However your file must include:

  • Size and format: Given all the above information, you need to determine the best size to start with.
  • Organized layers (color code them as shown in class!)
  • Typography (make sure to play with at least one of the following: kerning, tracking, leading, or ligatures)
  • Create a tagline and place with your logo.
  • Create a layer or group folder with a grayscale (black and white version).
  • Create a layer of group folder with a reverse option.

Submission

Must include:

  1. Layered .PSD file
  2. A jpg of your final color version.
  3. Grayscale jpg
  4. Reverse jpg
  5. Link to your blog post

Blog

  1. Each of the jpgs should be web optimized and placed on your blog.
  2. On your blog, tell us why you designed the logo the way you did. (font choice, color, etc)
  3. Will your logo work well for various formats (transparent background if needed, embroidery etc?
  4. What would be your plan for expansion of the business with the logo?
  5. If your tagline ever changes, can you accommodate?

For this week’s Design Showcase, I chose the second client who is interested in attracting organizations with green initiatives in the Los Angeles area.

In looking at the original 50 marks provided, I found one that looked very similar to a leaf. I opened the .eps file provided in Adobe Illustrator, and extracted this mark onto a new art board and then adjusted the top-left and bottom-right corner points to make them into rounded corners. I then made changes to the corners to bring them in, changing the mark from a square icon to more of an organic leaf. I then changed the color to a darker, leafier green and placed into Adobe Photoshop as a Smart Object (after opening a new document in PS).

I decided I’d want a workspace that was more horizontal than vertical, as horizontal is far more flexible and functional in logo execution. I then placed the mark I’d created in Illustrator in the left third of the document.

While brainstorming ideas for the company, I settled on the name “GRŌ” pronounced without the “w” but is indicated via the long-phonetic sound mark on the “o.” I decided their primary focus would be to grow ideas for the LA area and from there developed the tag line “Germinating LA Ideas.” Both the name and the tag I feel showcase their green initiative focus.

Admittedly, I’d taken a logo design course last semester which leveraged Adobe Illustrator. I wasn’t sure I would get the same impact as I wanted in Photoshop, however, I first started doing logo design in Photoshop, but now I’m more comfortable with the platforms and elements of good logo design.

I created a new layer with my text tool drawing a box for the name of the company. I decided not to use the “standard “ō” character, as I wanted a stronger weight on the accent. I selected for my font Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold Regular and entered the name in all caps. I recolored the name to match the green of the mark I’d created (and also made a global swatch for easy referenced) and called it “GRO green.” I drew a line above the “O” which I had decreased in font point size. The final line had a stroke of 20px and was also colored “GRO green.”

Below this, I drew a another text box and typed my tagline “Germinating LA Ideas.” I centered this box/layer with the company title/box. I also entered this text in aligned “center” and chose the mixed-case font selector. I adjusted the tracking between the letters, as well as the leading between the two lines of text. Finally, I created a complimentary blue global swatch, which I titled “GRO blue” and changed the tagline color to match.

I placed all these layers into a group/folder titled “RGB Logo” and duplicated the grouping twice. I then changed the names of the copied groups and recolored each grouping (green for RGB, blue for Grayscale Logo, and red for Reverse Logo).

Next, I changed the colors of the copied layers within the two new groups to reflect their naming; changing the grayscale to be black on white, and the reverse to be white on black. It was also necessary to recolor the background layer in Reverse Logo to ensure the white would be visible on the transparent background. All three layer groups have a separate background file that can be toggled on/off to create transparent versions of each rendering.

Overall, I think my logo is flexible enough to be printed on a pen, shirt, website banner, or tradeshow floor. I think it features colors and a tagline that speak to its purpose. Additionally, I think the name of the company makes it unique and therefore helps make it memorable. The mark itself has been modified enough to serve as a unique separate graphic in smaller than one inch executions, such as a favicon, if needed. Should the tagline change, there is both space to use within the current lockup, or the name of the company could be expanded larger to fill the current tagline space, and the tagline could move below the mark and name.

Post Tags:

Logo, Logo Design, Photoshop, VIC5325,

Ross Schmadebeck