- Exploration – Use sketching techniques to draw thumbnails and hand in your thumbnails as scanned PDFs.
I researched other logos to see if I could find some inspiration to my own, but a lot of the logos simply have a picture of a dog or a graphic element completely unrelated to dogs/or cats (Insert purina logo). But these were the ideas I came up with at least.
- Focus – Highlight three of the thumbnail ideas that you consider the best options and state why. Hand in an A4 with visuals of the three chosen thumbnails; include reasons for choosing each of these three options.
I liked thes three highlighten in yellow as they seemed the most relevant, and the least cheap ideas.
- Construction – Use sketching techniques and redraw ONE of your chosen concepts until you’ve reached a conclusion on a successful logo. Hand in your drawings as scanned PDFs.
I ended up redrawing two of them, since I had a hard time deciding, but ended up scrapping the double dog silhouette as it reminded me of something I’ve seen before. I also asked for feedback for these, where the simple lineart one prevailed as it did not seem as messy, and had more detail than the all-black one.
- Testing – Experiment more with your favourite options from Step 3 and ask the opinion of a few people. Hand in examples of the logos shown to people and write their feedback or opinion on each. (ignore the compromised opacity of the upper left)
I sent this picture to several aquiantances and asked for their feedback. Some of them have no knowledge of design, some have studied similar things, and some had marketing experience. The results were that the upper left and the upper right were the least popular both due to font, color and also orientation. The bottom right was preferred before the bottom left due to there being no shadow, and the font being clearer. Some liked the bottom left due to the exclusive feel when combining the drawing with a script font. Some liked the color on the bottom right, but in total blue triumphed.
- Refinement – Choose your final design and execute it in Adobe Illustrator, along with the name of the product. Hand in your final logo as an A4 PDF.
When finally digitalizing the logo, I found the lineart to look a bit 2004, so I decided to experiment with no outline, only the silhouette. I also tried different fonts, where a modified Agenda Semibold turned out the best (in my opinion).
I had a bit of trouble with the balance of the logo, and wondered if I hould make a shape around it to bring more balance, but it did not work too well. I added the R* to contribute to more weight to the right, and a more professional feel. (The so-called rights to the logo is as fictional as the client. I might experiment more with it as I move along to the other elements.)
Birkeland Design 