Monday 28 February 2011

Research back into Horus

Looking back into the history of Horus I decided to look into the idea behind the 'Double crown' I came across this website and it gives quite a good brief description of the crown and the history behind it.

http://heritage-key.com/category/tags/horus-wearing-double-crown



Saturday 19 February 2011

Horus

I started my ideas for Horus by trying to incorporate the idea of the bird symbol developing it and I came up with this design that I think began to work best.
Here I tried it in colour, grey scale and black and white, also in a few different sizes, I tested it in small size as most brands will have their logo or brand name in the watch face, which will be very small so by ding this I can see how suitable it would be for this purpose.
I then adjusted the font and used a clock face for the 'O' adding a small bit of negative space that  I think improved the design and changed it from a simple clock shape to a more effective design idea.


Friday 18 February 2011

Negative space

Another post on the 'LogoDesignLove' website was on negative space in logo design, I think that logos with negative space, if designed well are some of the best designs, I particularly like this design for 'premier catering' it's not really a typical negative space design that links two ideas together such as the 'Egg n Spoon logo' but I think it's very clean looking and the typography is very nice.     

   

Watch Logo design

As I choose to first focus on 'Horus' for the idea of it being a watch and clock designer I decided to first look at some existing watch designers and their brand identity and history.
Naturally the first designer I decided to look up was Rolex, renowned for their high quality design and craftsmanship their logo is strong and has to be, to support such a well known identity.


On the official website of Rolex they actually have a section on the 'origins' going through brief history starting with founder Hans Wilsdorf, the quest for precision, self winding movement, classic watches, birth of waterproof watches and professional watches.  
I came across this website with a short detailing of research into "The History of the Rolex logo" and found it quite interesting, seeing some links being created through the history of the founder of the company and the possible reason why the logo had been designed.


Again looking further I found this website that was a lot more factual and had very detailed history on the brand from start to present and the partnership of the founders, Hans Wilhelm Wilsdorf and Alfred James Davis, who originally started up a company called 'Wilsdorf and Davis Ltd' in 1905. However from looking at Rolex's official website the only founder named is Wilsdorf so it leads me to think how much of the information is correct.


Another Brand I looked into was Cartier and while researching the logo came across this site where it has a list of ten hand written logos detailing their designers, creation and modification dates unfortunately it lists the designer of Cartier as 'unknown' so I might have to look in to further research to find the designer, however I find this post quite interesting looking at the logos.



Looking on the same site 'LogoDesignLove' I found a few posts that were interesting the history of the Mercedes-Benz logo,  London underground logo and sign history & Evolution of the Brawn logo by Will Munch

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Research

Looking at 'Horus' for the first logo idea, I choose Horus initially as it stood out to me straight away and sounded like it could make a strong brand name for a watch company.
I did I quick search for 'Horus' on the web and found this website with information on it being mythology, an Egyptian god with the head of a bird. 


Symbol research: 
I came across this blog while researching signs and symbols, someone has put together a collection of symbols used for toilets from all over the world, some of them are a really interesting take on the idea. The majority of them are readable and some are cleaver ideas.


Implicit and Explicit signs and symbols
These logos are explicit as the tell you exactly what there for 
These are implicit as they use symbols that you can work out what they mean but your not being directly told what they're for.





Logo design steps, ideas source http://www.ideabook.com/tutorials/logo_design/ 

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Logos, Meanings & Messages

The latest task involves creating your own logo for a suggested company as the final result, working up to that by researching existing designers and logos that are both explicit and implicit.


Research:
Looking at the graphic designer Alan Fletcher I came across this page that has some information on his history work and examples of his design work on the left side.

Logos, Meanings & Messages

The latest task involves creating your own logo for a suggested company as the final result, working up to that by researching existing designers and logos that are both explicit and implicit.


Research:
Looking at the graphic designer Alan Fletcher I came across this page that has some information on his history work and examples of his design work on the left side.

Saturday 12 February 2011

work update

The second task is to consider colour and emotion, and from the list of titles create layouts for possible perfume boxes. With this in mind using a few titles that I selected from the list I initially  created some designs by hand using markers, for Fire & Ice, Reptile & Wild Flower.
Then moving on to the computer I created some of the designs in illustrator.







Friday 11 February 2011

Colour and Association

While researching colour association I came across this website where they had wrote there idea of the colour theory

Colour Meaning

Red

Red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.
Red is a very emotionally intense colour. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage. It is a colour found in many national flags.
Red brings text and images to the foreground. Use it as an accent colour to stimulate people to make quick decisions; it is a perfect colour for 'Buy Now' or 'Click Here' buttons on Internet banners and websites. In advertising, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings (red lips, red nails, red-light districts, 'Lady in Red', etc). Red is widely used to indicate danger (high voltage signs, traffic lights). This colour is also commonly associated with energy, so you can use it when promoting energy drinks, games, cars, items related to sports and high physical activity.
Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love. 
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.
Dark red is associated with willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.

  Orange

Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.
To the human eye, orange is a very hot colour, so it gives the sensation of heat. Nevertheless, orange is not as aggressive as red. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. As a citrus colour, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. Orange is the colour of fall and harvest. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.
Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design. Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.
Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.
Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes high quality.

  Yellow

Yellow is the colour of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.
Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Yellow is often associated with food. Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter, which is the reason taxicabs are painted this colour. When overused, yellow may have a disturbing effect; it is known that babies cry more in yellow rooms. Yellow is seen before other colours when placed against black; this combination is often used to issue a warning. In heraldry, yellow indicates honour and loyalty. Later the meaning of yellow was connected with cowardice.
Use yellow to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. You can choose yellow to promote children's products and items related to leisure. Yellow is very effective for attracting attention, so use it to highlight the most important elements of your design. Men usually perceive yellow as a very light hearted, 'childish' colour, so it is not recommended to use yellow when selling prestigious, expensive products to men – nobody will buy a yellow business suit or a yellow Mercedes. Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous colour, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety. Light yellow tends to disappear into white, so it usually needs a dark colour to highlight it. Shades of yellow are visually unappealing because they lose cheerfulness and become dingy.
Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy. 
Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.

  Green

Green is the colour of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.
Green has great healing power. It is the most restful colour for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a 'greenhorn' is a novice. In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the colour of free passage in road traffic.
Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street.
Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional colour of peace.

  Blue

Blue is the colour of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.
Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquillity and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.
You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids, vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). As opposed to emotionally warm colours like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Use blue to suggest precision when promoting high-tech products.
Blue is a masculine colour; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred colour for corporate America.
Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. When used together with warm colours like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect colour scheme for a superhero.
Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquillity, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

  Purple

Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.
According to surveys, almost 75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colours. Purple is a very rare colour in nature; some people consider it to be artificial.
Light purple is a good choice for a feminine design. You can use bright purple when promoting children's products.
Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.
Dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.


  White

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the colour of perfection.
White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity.
In advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the colour of snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. White is an appropriate colour for charitable organizations; angels are usually imagined wearing white clothes. White is associated with hospitals, doctors, and sterility, so you can use white to suggest safety when promoting medical products. White is often associated with low weight, low-fat food, and dairy products.

  Black

Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.
Black is a mysterious colour associated with fear and the unknown (black holes). It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humour, 'black death'). Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious colour (black tie, black Mercedes). In heraldry, black is the symbol of grief.
Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but a black background diminishes readability. A black suit or dress can make you look thinner. When designing for a gallery of art or photography, you can use a black or gray background to make the other colours stand out. Black contrasts well with bright colours. Combined with red or orange – other very powerful colours – black gives a very aggressive colour scheme.

Monday 7 February 2011

The Language of Colour

I started this task but just playing about with type and image, mixing it together to represent the meaning of the word.


Using fonts that I downloaded called 'FE Win Pets 1 & 2' that were made up of small cartoon animal vectors, I looked through and picked out the reptiles such as lizards, crocodiles etc. I wanted to use them as a way of emphasizing the title, filling them with the same pattern [reptile skin] as the type or filling them while to create negative space in the lettering. 


I really like the way this title looks but reading over the task again it says not to use 'explicit images' so the characters wouldn't really be able to be used for this task.

Sunday 6 February 2011

Logo Research

Researching large brands and trying to find the history of there logo design I came across this website where they had the perfect start to what I was looking for, they have time lines of logo images from 15 brands from Nike to Apple to Google and how they have developed overtime.



 

Friday 4 February 2011

Logo Research

I First looked at researching the use of a logo and why businesses have come to use them. Looking through a few sites I came across this web site which is about business and advice on improving or starting a business, this section has some good information on using a logo to create a more established looking company and brand.


My idea of what a logo would be used for today would be as a way of identification, to me a logo represents a company, brand and identity. Everything associated with a company becomes part of the brand and that is what people will think of when they see the logo. A lot of designer brands work on establishing an identity, their logos often put across the message of luxury, wealth and  make people think that they are buying into a certain section of society when they own a piece from that brand. This leads to value increasing, the more desirable the items are the more people will pay as the brands become linked to a certain types of person, celebrities etc. 


While looking at the history of some company's and logos I came across this post for the History of Burberry this part of the information was interesting how the recognisable pattern emerged and the idea behind the logo.


"The Burberry check we all know so well was introduced as a lining to the trench coat in the 1920’s. Burberry’s unmistakable logo shows a knight on horseback with his lance drawn. The knight is accompanied by the Latin word ‘Prorsum’ meaning forwards. The logo symbolizes the protection Burberry provides against the elements and its dedication to progress and invention"


I looked up a selection of the high end, well established brands and picked out there logos below. The common theme with them is that they are all explicit to begin with as they tend to all have the brand name as a logo, then most of them have a symbol or illustration that also represents the brand and is recognisable that can be used alone.




From looking into logos I can see how they become really recognisable and readable and we are able to identify them even if we can only see a section or a character from the name.
Nike is a good example of branding and creating a highly recognisable logo, from having the brand name within the logo to being recognised by simply the tick or 'swoosh' design it is well established and also holds recognition from the statement 'Just do it' from an advertising campaign. I found some information on the logo history on this website the Logo Blog which has quite a few well known brands and their design history


Looking through a selection of CD's I decided to take a look at the record labels logos and see how well I think they work. Below are a group of the logos that I picked out some from major labels and others from smaller not yet well established companies that I can compare and see if they differ, as large companies generally have more money to invest in and develop their brand, but that doesn't always mean they have a more effective, suitable logo.



Symbols and Colour

The new Brief is to find meanings in symbols. We were given a sheet with seven symbols on them which are logos, printed in black and white and the first task if to decide what they are for. Then once we have come up with some ideas of what we think they could represent we can then re design some using colour, improving the design based on the idea of what we think there for.


We discussed some company's and their branding image, how they have developed over time and changed their appearance with the times.
Also mentioning that the more successful logos tend to be vectors and logos that include images 'photos' with tone don't usually work so well. I think that vectors have a much stronger appearance and are more easily readable in different sizes. Images also tend to be a maximum size and if they are made any bigger they loose detail where as Vectors if drawn in illustrator can be stretched after beings designed and still retain their detail. 


I came up with some possible ideas for the symbols that I though they might represent. I decided to first re design the pencil and film symbol bases on the idea I had of it being for video or film editing.
With this in mind I thought of film editing and cutting and editing film, so I initially thought of using scissors to symbolise cutting film. The shape of the film drawn in the logo looked quite good as it was so I didn't make much change to that part of the design only slightly editing it.


After this I went on to look at more logos and further research them.
I took out two books from the library 'Logo Lounge' Volume 3 by Catharine Fishel & Bill Gardener
This book includes over 2,000 international Identities. I found this very interesting and used it to pick out logos that I thought were well designed and others which I didn't like so much. Also it gave me a chance to think about which were Implicit & Explicit designs. 
These are some that I picked out that I found interesting and I think are well designed and thought through.



The second book I looked at was 'The front & lettering Bible' By Leslie Cabarga 2004. I found a lot of useful information in this book and the way that it's written from the point of view of the designer who's writing it and their experiences makes it very interesting to read and relate to.
It looks back at some of the first establishing logos that were often taken from paintings. Such as  the 'Dutch Boy' & 'White Rock Girl' which were reproduced from oil paintings.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

InDesign: Masterpage

Notes
To create a Master page double click on the page inserts on the right side tools, it then switches to viewing the selected page in the main section. 
Then any elements can be added such as grids, images, headers etc. that can then be transferred across to every new page added from the master page.
A new master page can be added from the icon in the top corner of the same tool box.
You can't edit any features outside of the master page unless you use command & shift which enables you to unlock an item.
A place holder image is a good thing to include in a design that your working on if you haven't yet got all the actual final images as it gives you an idea of how it will look on the page and the space it is filling.


Other Program Notes
Spell Check: Edit > Check Spelling
Type on a Path > Draw Path  'Tool on the left bar with type tool'
Object Transparency: Object > Effects > Transparency




Exporting
File > Export
Compression > Tells you the image quality/ size/ pixels 
Security > You can password protect the document, enable copying of text within the document.
Export Individual pages for web > change format to jpeg
quality & resolution can be changed.
This saves the individual pages as jpeg's


Issuu
With this website you can upload pdf files and flick through them like a web book.


I tried out some of the things we had learnt such as creating a master page and typing along a path.  Working in the Master page I tried adding an image and title. If you used this in a real design every page you insert from the master page would have the same appearance.
I switched to working within the page where I could work around the design.
Creating a new master page.
Type along a path: Using the pen tool I drew a rough path along the shape of the bird, then using the type along the path tool, clicked on the path and could create type along the line.