if you had to....

Rickay726 said:

if you had to design something for some one that was part of the town comitee and it had to be a logo for the art community, How ever the logo must relate to the moto which is "enriching the community through the arts"
what would be some of your ideas? im having a little designing block here, i was thinking like a paint brush signing a check with the towns name in the paint brush and on the the check have it say the logo

idk if this such a good idea can i have some idea what you guys think?

Click to expand...

honestly, DON'T do any swooshes and paint brush thingys and oval shapes. nobody does them because they are cheap looking, over used in the 90's, ugly, boring, etc......

Think about what people would feel when they look at the logo. Don't just think about what they will see. For example the logo could be just type. You could use a very modern and artsy typeface and if used properly it could be great and effective.

Avoid adding different graphic elements to it. Look at famous logos. They tend to be simple, strong, efective, are easy to remember and the list simply keeps going. 2 graphic elements (other than type) will almost guarantee you failure in many areas, more than 2 and it screams disaster.

Don't forget that they might print the logo. If the logo doesn't work in black and white you are in trouble and so will whoever will be dealing with the printing fo this logo in the future.

Use http://www.thesaurus.com and search for keywords that will lead you to other words.
Don't be so literal.

If you ever had the chance to see logos that are related to Art, you've probably seen that they tend to be extremely clean. no brushes, no paper, no paint, no details.....just basic shapes and type, because shapes and type are art. One or two colours tends to be perfect. althought there have been art logos with more colours but still very clean.

If you could tell us the name of whoever is using this logo, it'd be great coz that would help a lot as to seen what can be added to the letters and words and how to play with them.

lastly, look for shapes in the letters that you could play with.
Use a vector program (no photoshop) and no gradients!

hope all this helped

Logo 101

Do no, under any circumstances, design a complex logo. They're never attractive, and they're never memorable. All the best logos in the world are extremely simple: Nike, Pepsi, Coke, MacDonalds, Mercedes, etc.

Try poking around at the websites of some award-winning designers (thefwa.com, internettinyawards.com, designsnack.com), and see what they've done. Do not copy of course, but certainly you can use professional work for inspiration.

I usually start with some block text for the name of the company/organization, see if there's any creative way to rework the text so it runs together. If not, I see if I can pick out the integral letters, and make something creative with those. The final touches are to perhaps add some small bit of art, but generally that's not even necessary. Work with the letters and words first.

Logo 101a

creating a logo is a process, like any other design. for logos, i have been taught and have learned to use a process like so:

1. visual research
gather as much visual stuff on the company/organization as possible. existing marks, things they make, their building, their people, their products, things relating to their business anything at all. the more you find the better. find it online, at their offices, wherever it exists but generate a library of visual stuff relating to company. spend time looking thru this material as you gather it and after you gather it.

2. sketching
while keeping your visual research in mind, grab a pen/pencil and some paper/trace/sketchbook/whatever and start sketching. this SHOULD NOT be done on the computer. there is no wrong in this stage, so do anything that comes to mind, no matter how stupid or silly or bad it may be, and do as much of it as possible. think quantity, not quality for this part. you should easily fill a wall with sketches.

3. analysis and editing
look at ALL of your sketches and start to remove the ones that are not good/not interesting/not relevant/not working for whatever reason. this is best done not alone. the idea here is to find something, even parts of somethings in all the sketches you have done.

4. refinement and iteration
start refining the ideas in the remaining sketches (i would recommend having no more than maybe 6 sketches after step 3). start to iterate drawings and adding in more detail/refinement of the ideas. again, cover a wall with sketches. note at this point you should still not be on the computer.

5. more analysis and editing
look at what you have and begin to choose no more than 3 final ideas; again looking at the bits and pieces of logos not just the entire parts.

6. final refinement + client meeting
some clients want to see 100 developed logo ideas, some want to see 2 or 3. at this stake you can digitize what you have to be able to present your directions to the client and get a feel for what they think is/is not working. if there is no client (for class, etc..) then digitize the 3 ideas and start to play with color and final details. eventually you can narrow down to one final logo.

Specifically:

In this case, Art is its' own worst nightmare, for reasons mentioned above. Namely, an "artsy" look often does not equate to well designed look. That being said, you could think about what could represent art and what could represent community.

In General:

Your first idea is always the wrong idea. Get it over with and throw it in the trash. One liners and first generation concepts are weak. The design process for a logo is very frustrating. If you don't want to kill yourself at some point, then ask yourself why.

What people have to say here about process is good advice, but remember you don't need to follow it to a T.

And, when it doubt, throw it out.