The feedback I was getting for my tick box logo was that the box was too thick, the lettering needed changing and the only thing that could work was the choice of tick so I decided to go back and come up with another selection of designs with this in mind. Originally I liked the use of purple with it however now I didn't like the look of it so much in these designs so I tried pink and green and I really liked the way the pink stood out with the black.

I changed the type to lowercase lettering, also trying it as just 'box' written but I don't think it works as well and isn't readable as 'Tick box'

Logos in an environment: Pen

Logos in an environment: aeroplane

Logo design update

Graphic Designer

Today we had a graphic designer from Brond come in to talk to us about his work and a bit about the industry. His company is made up of two main designers including himself and they bring other people in for specific jobs if needed.
Most of their work comes from referrals or by approaching a brand, suggesting improvements to start a conversation going which may lead to development and to a pitch.  
He used to do product design at 14 and some graphic design work in his free time, then did A levels and foundation Art, he decided to go onto graphics as he thought it was more free than product design. Using interests that he had, he began finding himself jobs by asking companies that he was interested in such as O'Neil if he could show them some ideas, he did say that often first ideas were rejected but it opened the door for conversation and often lead on to him being able to do some design work for them.


Some advice that he gave us was that you need to develop skills quickly and always try to keep learning, be yourself, be original and be interesting. Working through holidays is a good idea as it is making you continue to learn and the more experience you have the better you can become and feel more confident about what you are doing.


What to consider when looking for a job.
prepare /presentation skills / keep active 
really try to involve yourself in creating networks and contacts, meet people.
when you are producing your work know why you are making small decisions such as changing a font or color.
note down when you have sent your CV's and follow them up, employers might be looking for someone who is showing a real interest in wanting to work for them and might be more likely to consider you over others. Show energy and be a good communicator.
Ask open questions
Do you take people on? rather than have you got any jobs 
Be flexible, if they invite you somewhere such as to a design show etc make sure you are able to go to make a good impression.


Interviews
show energy and enthusiasm be open and understood, show skills and ability, have the right attitude and make an effort.
When asked questions such as why have you done this say the obvious then expand on it. 
If you have older work in your portfolio which you look at and think I could have done that better, then do it if you are thinking this then what is the person who you are showing it to going to think?
The interviewer might not be creative so explain to them why you have done something and why it works, why it is good.
Go to interviews with a question to ask even if it is simple as it will make them more relaxed and be better interaction.


If you are considering a brand update...
Look at the current design, make notes on it what is it telling you, colour, text, illustrations
consider how it could be changed, pick out the words that you don't want the brand to be saying and change them from the way they are currently linked to the design.


Unique
Everyone has a different life experience and outlook, make good use of this people will probably want to hear your opinion be engaging with a group discussion.


One way in which he designed a logo on request from a company was to first make the designs in black and white and create separate colour pallets and also to have the designs with different font changes such as upper and lower case bold and medium weight, under each design he wrote a few notes on why he had made the choice of colour, type etc so he could explain this easier to the company.


He said that it is important to have loads of interests, and not to guess but to use market research if you are unsure of something as knowledge leads to good design.
If you have an idea for a design write it down and if it doesn't sound good then it probably won't be

    

Corporate Identity: Logo Development

Corporate Identity: Logo

I scanned in some of the logos I drew and choose the two that I liked the most and from that began to draw them out in illustrator, once I was working with them choosing colors and type I found quite a few variations that I could create so tried out as many ideas as I could. 

Logo design

Looking at existing logos

The first thing I looked up was logo trends to see whats current and how designs have developed and changed.

Logo lounge 2010 trends

Design trends of 2009 1stwebdesigner.com

I particularly like this design for 'Red Fox' it's very simple and I like how by using just five triangles appropriate color and gradient they have created a visual representation of a fox.

Trends good, bad and overused mashable.com 2010

This site the logoblog also has a lot of good logos and some nice examples of designs using negative space

this is another site that has a lot of logos that I think are well designed and cleverly constructed thedesignwork.com

Other links to sites I've looked at briefly:

logoguru.co.uk 

graphicdesignblog.org

blog.corporatelogos.ws 

logolounge.com 2009 trends

Corporate Identity

The next step I need to take is to make myself a time plan for when I aim to get my work done by and try to stick to it so I can make sure everything is going to plan and that I will allow myself enough time to complete the project

Corporate Identity

Monday, March 14th 2011
We had a group meeting again to discuss our new ideas and once again choose three ideas from each persons list to take through then pick three each from that list till we had the top six.
These were the ideas we came in with

our final list was 


Entourage 
Pakket
Vortex
Toggle
Condor
Deliver me
however none of us were really happy with this list and we were finding it hard to get inspiration, we went back to the drawing board and came up with a new list of six ideas but were rushed so they were far from the best ideas we had the revised list was
Lo Co
S2U [straight / send to you]
i2U [item to you]
Silver Greyhound


again we didn't really have a name that we wanted to use, so we sat down over lunch and bounced around ideas and created a selection of ideas that we all agreed on straight away so we wouldn't have to go through the selection process. 
One idea that we had from a list right at the start came back up which was Big Sender 
we also thought of ideas relating to sending and receiving packages
and the ideas were things like, With Love, Tick Box, Pop up box, My box, handle with care, outside the box, to me to you.


A final decision needed to be made so we had Big Spender and Tick Box to choose from as the other group couldn't come to a final decision on their name because their group was divided we were both given the chance to use one of two names that we had come up with. 

Wednesday, March 9th 2011

These are the initial lists that we created 

We had to choose six main ideas that we could show to the whole group. First we choose three ideas from each members list to shorten the master list, we then went through them again and decided as a group on which we preferred to come up with the final six which were 

Lo Co [a combination of 'Lo'gistics & 'Co'mpany but it could also be used for Lo 'Co'st or 'Co'urier we then discussed adding a small 2 on to the 'Co' for Lo Co2]

Velo-City [however this might limit the company as the idea behind it was Velo French for bike]

Dragon Deliveries [this idea is more random and considering ideas for possible branding relating to it]

Eagle Runner [the idea of eagles being fast, accurate and direct]

From these six the best idea, that people agreed could possibly work was Lo Co although I did remind me of being 'crazy' 

We weren't 100% set on the idea so decided to go away again and bring back more ideas based on a set criteria, as a group we set ourselves the task to come back with a minimum of 12 ideas 3 random words 3 green / environmental 3 different language and 3 trade winds

Monday, March 7th 2011

Today we were introduced to the brief for Corporate Identity, the task will be to create a company re-brand for a couriers. 'A major, logistics company are now considering the launch of a next day courier service to compliment and restructure their company provisions.' 

We were introduced to our groups and set the initial task of coming up with a name for the company we briefly talked it through and came up with some starting points, deciding to go away and do our own research then come back with a list of ideas each to show to the rest of the group and from that we would narrow down the best selection that we had

I drew up a few new ideas for a more modern take on the idea of Horus and below are the results that I got that I'm taking forward into illustrator to finalize, I think they have turned out a lot better than the previous ideas, this could be because I spent more time drawing them out and not going straight to PC.