Need Help Designing Logo for Business Card

[itcheroni]

Hi folks. I'm trying to make what I thought was a simple design for my business/information card. I intend to use it as a business card and also as an information card inside a pack of vitamins.

The design I'd like to achieve is a pill capsule consisting of two solid colors. In the middle of the pill will be my vitamin company name in Helvetica Bold. I want to also have the text of the letters be the same as the colors of the pill. For example, if the pill were half black and half white, the font color will be white and black respectively. I'm not sure what colors I'll actually use; I wanted to play around with that. Maybe red and yellow.

I thought this would be simple to draw but I tried programs like gimp and openoffice draw, but they were more complicated to figure out than I realized. Any advice on how I can learn more and get this done?

[Renzatic]

Originally Posted by itcheroni

Any advice on how I can learn more and get this done?

Yup. Online tutorials. Specifically vector art tuts for GIMP, like this one. Hitting up either Google, Youtube, or Vimeo will net you hundreds upon thousands of them.

Keep in mind you won't be up and running after an hour or so. It'll take at least a couple days of practice and patience to even begin doing what you want to do. But stick with it, and you'll be able to make your business card in no time.

[itcheroni]

Originally Posted by Renzatic

Yup. Online tutorials. Specifically vector art tuts for GIMP, like this one. Hitting up either Google, Youtube, or Vimeo will net you hundreds upon thousands of them.

Keep in mind you won't be up and running after an hour or so. It'll take at least a couple days of practice and patience to even begin doing what you want to do. But stick with it, and you'll be able to make your business card in no time.

Thanks. I thought my design was simple enough but I was still stuck after two hours with Gimp.

[citizenzen]

Originally Posted by itcheroni

I want to also have the text of the letters be the same as the colors of the pill. For example, if the pill were half black and half white, the font color will be white and black respectively.

I'm having a hard time picturing this type treatment. Is the type split in half with the top half being one color and the bottom half being the other color?

If the top of the pill were black, then the top half of the type would be white. And the bottom half of the type would be black over the white capsule.

Correct?

[itcheroni]

Originally Posted by citizenzen

I'm having a hard time picturing this type treatment. Is the type split in half with the top half being one color and the bottom half being the other color?

If the top of the pill were black, then the top half of the type would be white. And the bottom half of the type would be black over the white capsule.

Correct?

Imagine the pill on its side. So the left side will be white and the right side will be black. The text will read from left to right. And the color of the text will be the opposite of the background for readability.

I won't really use black and white. Probably red and yellow or blue and white. Still playing around with it.

[Renzatic]

Basically something like this, right?

[citizenzen]

Originally Posted by Renzatic

Basically something like this, right?

Okay. Now I get it.

Sow what part is complicated?

[Renzatic]

Originally Posted by citizenzen

Okay. Now I get it.

Sow what part is complicated?

Not much. That took me all of 3 minutes to make.

All he has to do is find a program he likes, and figure out how to mess with bezier curves. Once he does all that, he can figure out how to make his own in a couple of days at most.

[davedee65]

Hi OP I would suggest you try using Inkscape, it's free and you can output files in svg format which is vector based and therefore can be scaled to any size without loss of quality. This is what I produced very quickly using two circles, two squares and the text.

Cheers
D

[fig]

Just a random observation, but that makes me think prescription drugs and not vitamins. Not to mention that a split name in different colors like that might be a bit disconcerting to read.

[citizenzen]

Originally Posted by fig

Not to mention that a split name in different colors like that might be a bit disconcerting to read.

Oh I completely disagree.

I'm quite interested in learning more about the Na Me Vitamin Company.

[itcheroni]

I hadn't checked this thread in a while. Thanks for all the tips. Those are exactly the type of images I had in mind. I would make a few tweaks of course.

Originally Posted by davedee65

Hi OP I would suggest you try using Inkscape, it's free and you can output files in svg format which is vector based and therefore can be scaled to any size without loss of quality. This is what I produced very quickly using two circles, two squares and the text.

Cheers
D

I tried installing Inkscape but couldn't even get that going. Every time I tried opening the program, the same message popped up, telling me that the first time I used the program it would take several minutes. There was another program, X11, that also popped up.

[davedee65]

Hi OP sorry you had trouble with Inkscape. I forgot to mention that it requires the X11 system, and it does take a while to kick in the first time you run it.

You could try iDraw from the App Store which is a very cheap vector based drawing program which should be easy to get to grips with and exports to a variety of formats including svg and pdf.

But any software new to you is going to take a while to learn regardless of what you want to achieve or how simple you think the design is. To be honest if you are trying to create a brand image for a new, or existing, business/product I would strongly recommend hiring a professional designer to create your logo etc. It will be money well spent in the long term.

Cheers
D

[itcheroni]

Originally Posted by davedee65

Hi OP sorry you had trouble with Inkscape. I forgot to mention that it requires the X11 system, and it does take a while to kick in the first time you run it.

You could try iDraw from the App Store which is a very cheap vector based drawing program which should be easy to get to grips with and exports to a variety of formats including svg and pdf.

But any software new to you is going to take a while to learn regardless of what you want to achieve or how simple you think the design is. To be honest if you are trying to create a brand image for a new, or existing, business/product I would strongly recommend hiring a professional designer to create your logo etc. It will be money well spent in the long term.

Cheers
D

Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate everyone's suggestions here.

I'm starting this endeavor partly for the learning experience so it's interesting to learn how much works goes into every aspect of a business. When I "go big" I'll certainly hire a professional to handle things the right way. For right now, I'm quite happy to try my best doing everything on the cheap and learning as much as I can.