Design Ideas and process
I have always wanted to design a logo of my own. A logo is usually the first thing that catches the eye and it is important to give a strong first impression. A good logo is memorable, giving people a sense of comfort because it is representative.
The first one was one of my earliest designs and the whole logo was hand-drawn. I used a semicircle around the letter S. The letter S stands for my name and the semicircle means I am not perfect and I still have a lot to learn. The open half-circle represents the willingness to accept other people’s opinions and gain more knowledge. And the lines and patterns in the letter S represent my inner thoughts.
The second design is an improved version and one that I am quite happy with. My name is no longer handwritten but by a type tool. I really like the colours of the logo, so I will keep the colours. The flower on the left seems to steal the attention from the letter S, which is already patterns inside there. The whole design has become a bit confusing. By removing the flower and the semicircle on the left, the letter S catches the attention back. The whole design is no longer too complicated, but not too simple or boring.
I think the logo from the last one is too pink and gives the stereotype of femininity and girly. I wanted my design to be welcoming to everyone, so I adjusted the background colour and the pattern colour. This is one of my favourite and most satisfying designs. It doesn’t feel too girly without giving up too much of my favourite colours. This version is simple, as I have added some small designs to it. The absence of the half-circle design means that I am no longer in my comfort zone, but open to different opinions, criticism and change.
Software tutorials
After reading the essential and recommended tutorials, I feel that I have a better understanding of illustrator. It is useful for me to follow and go step by step. I have more confidence in using drawing tools. I also tried different typefaces, and I enjoyed playing around with different styles, colours and patterns. Because of my lack of experience, I am not sure when to switch tools.
I will do more practice and hopefully, I will become more proficient in illustrator.
I really like watching tutorial videos on youtube. I’m a beginner in illustrator and I got a lot of inspiration from them. I feel that I can find answers to many of my questions in YouTube tutorial videos, and they even inspire my creativity and imagination. The YouTube tutorial video, ‘5 MIND BLOWING Logo Design Tips’, has really helped me a lot. I got a lot of great and straightforward tips so I had a good start and process in creating my logo. I am very grateful for these tutorials as they have provided me with useful advice. This helped me to design my logo with fewer mistakes and less downtime due to their clear instructions. I’m glad I finally finished a design that I like and am more satisfied with. I would like to develop more skills in illustrator, and I hope that with more practice I will be able to enhance my knowledge of using illustrator.
Resources for research and inspiration
During the research, I came across a resource that impressed me, which was not very long and straightforward to the point. It states 5 principles of logo design and which are simple, memorable, timeless, versatile and appropriate. I understand that a logo is to communicate with the readers and create something that resonates and is memorable. Examples are also stated in the blog which allowed me to take them as references. Those ideas inspire me to look at similar materials the common and popular logos have. I referenced different logos, for example, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter etc. I found that most of them are simple in both the illustration and colours. This helped me develop my own logo design and I decided to keep my logo simple. There isn’t more than one object in my logo design and I keep the whole logo in two colours.