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Creative Workshop Challenge 04—One Line Logo
Logos are quite possibly the hardest type of design work. They have to be simple, but not too simple, and tell you as much as possible about the subject without overstating the obvious. This challenge was to create a logo for the Summer 2012 Olympic games by using only one line for the main part of the logo—place your pencil to paper and only pick it up once the logo is complete.
I wanted to use geometric shapes, because I think they are some of the simplest things to use when designing a logo, or anything for that matter. I started sketching and one of my first sketches was an abstract interpretation of the flaming torch of the games. I ran with that, manipulating the squares with rounded corners and adding in the colors of the Olympic rings. I’m happy with the logo, but the biggest challenge I had was deciding the placement of the two extra squares. I wanted to add depth and dimension with slightly transparent, overlapping squares, but it was difficult to get the best placement for them. Does it work? Thoughts and criticism are welcome :)
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Creative Workshop 01—Hello, My Name Is
Designing for yourself is a bitch. It’s true what they say: you are your worst enemy—and in this case, you are your worst client. This challenge was to create a logo for yourself after answering simple questions such as, “What are my strengths/weaknesses as a designer?” and “What kind of work do you want to do in the future?” I never have an easy time designing for myself. Back in my Intro to Graphics class, the logo project was the most difficult for me to execute because I kept changing my mind. How do you sum up a person and their abilities in a simple, crisp, well-designed form?
The answer is you don’t. For my strategy, I focused on only certain aspects of myself—the aspects that came out in my off-the-cuff answers to the questions I was asked. I believe that’s the key to a decent logo design: focusing on a few aspects of a person/brand/company/etc that you can effectively communicate through visuals. For my logo, I focused on the fact that I’m a new designer, eager to learn, but full of potential. I latched on to the phrase “budding designer,” and that helped me create a bud image in the shape of a V for my first initial. It also helped that my favorite color is green :) It makes for a much more aesthetically-pleasing design, in my opinion. I chose a san-serif for the basic information on the business card, and a cute serif appropriately named “Valentina.”
I struggled with the leaves shaped as a V, and I went through a few different vector image creations before settling on one. I still think it could be improved to really bring out the V initial, but overall I’m happy with the logo as a representation of me as a “budding designer.”
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