Week 8

In one of my classes for design, I was assigned the task of creating a logo for a fake company, Amalgamated Industries. A fake history was given, including previous logos for the company. The original logo was basically the outline of a cross with arms of equal length and rounded ends. The company was a manufacturer that had lost its place as a leader in the industry. The task was to create a logo to carry the company into the 21st century and the future.

Well, the first thing to do is to start sketching. I started sketching out ideas based on the original logo. Copying the logo was not my goal. What I needed to do was find something from that original logo to use as a core idea. As you can see in the first set of sketches, I contemplated cruciform shapes and gothic arches. I also tried to create something that looked a little more mechanical.

As I sketched, the idea started to form in my mind that what the logo needed to do was to communicate strength, knowledge and dependability. The gothic arch was a step in the right direction, but obviously recalled church imagery, which I did not want. The more mechanical looking sketches I made seemed like little more than a collection of unconnected parts. So I needed to find something else.

I looked over the history of the company again and found mention of Bauhaus. That took me in a somewhat different direction.

I looked up images of the Bauhaus logo, the Bauhaus building, Bauhaus furniture, et cetera. To the right is one of several pages of sketches based on that research. Obviously I borrowed from the Bauhaus logo for one idea, though that was quickly discarded.

I tried to take the notion of simple geometric shapes and apply it to the problem of creating a logo for the fictional Amalgamated Industries. The logo should be bold but simple, something that could be recognized instantly if seen from a distance. Ultimately, the majority of these shapes proved ineffective. The Bauhaus inspired shapes were bold enough, but they did not communicate the right ideas.

One sketch, the on the bottom right of second set of sketches, was inspired by a Mies van der Rohe designed chair. It would prove useful in the development of the final logo.

One final thing I saw in my Bauhaus research was a sort of folded shelf design by Walter Gropius. That led me to start playing with squared, flat shapes. Which in turn, as you can see in the image to the right, led to playing with the idea of trying to bring the initials of Amalgamated Industries together as part of the shape of the logo.

I was still trying to find something that communicated strength, knowledge and dependability. The thick bars implying columns helped but the whole thing was not coming together yet. Obviously, merging the capital A and capital I too closely made something that looked like a medieval helmet, and that clearly was not the right shape.

I had the right components scattered through my sketches. I just didn't know it yet. Eventually, the components began to coalesce into something useful. But I still wasn't done. More on that next time.

Week 7

So what happened after I got my design approved? I am very glad you asked. That is what I want to talk about today.

I had expected I might need to adjust the image for a 16×9 format. Sure enough, when the person in charge of the display saw what I had, he told me it needed to be changed to 16×9. So I took what I had and sat down to change the shape. It was not a simple matter of cropping.

I needed to maintain the balance of the image. I determined which parts of the top and bottom I wanted to crop, and used guide lines to mark the area I intended to keep. I moved the large cross down, and some of the grunge with it. I had to move the "echoes" of course. The main logo got moved as well. The trouble came in balancing all those elements in a shorter space.

By now you can probably tell I did not work with a grid on this. Not a strict grid anyway. The large cross and the logo are aligned in specific places on the image. The intersection of the bars in the small cross of the logo is vertically centered and horizontally a third of the way in from the right edge. The vertical bar of the large cross is centered on a guideline one-sixth of the way in from the left edge, and the top edge of the horizontal bar rests on a guideline one-sixth of the way down from the top.

The placement of the echoes, however, was done by instinct. Which is not say it was done without thought. The placement of each echo was considered, examined, evaluated and adjusted many times. Where the echoes were placed impacted the balance and the visual interest of the whole image. And they became even more important to the balance when the main logo was removed (so they could scroll text over it).

But the fun did not end there. Because in that same conversation where I was told I needed to make a 16×9 image, I was told that the main screen, the one in the middle, the one that served as the backdrop for the stage, was about 3×1 (that was not entirely accurate, but it was close enough). Which is to say, three times as wide as it is tall. That is considerably wider than 16×9. And significantly narrower. Clearly, I needed to come up with something new.

Not completely new. It needed to fit in with the image that would be used on the side screens, the 16×9 image. Luckily, I had another image (from psdgraphics.com) with the yellow caution stripes on a dark grunge background. It did have the stripes at the top and bottom, but I had to transform it into the appropriate shape. I copied the image, pulled the copied image up to where it needed to be, and used a layer mask to hide what I did not need. I then used some other textures to further rough up the image. I did not have time to remake the dressed look on the cross and the logo, so they were copied and pasted. I considered adding some of the echoes, but that only crowded the image. Besides which, I did not want this to be a repeat of the 16×9 image, just something that could comfortably sit along side it.

Still, it needed something to add more visual interest. So after pulling the large cross to the right, I rotated the logo and cross together. This gave me exactly what I wanted. And that is the image that was used on the large, middle screen.

(taken with the camera on my phone)

Week 6

None of the images for Revolution I've shown you so far were used. But they were part of the creative process. So let's move on to the first stages of the image that Revolution did end up using.

I thought of this one as the yellow stripe grunge.

I created this before they asked for a larger cross to be added. As with the others, I started with a background I found at psdgraphics.com. The grunge of the background is only slightly enhanced here. I added some faded "echoes" of the logo to create some visual interest.

Notice this has some elements of the "boring" image. It uses yellow and diagonal stripes, though in a much more dynamic way. It also has contrast between the dark charcoal grey and the yellow stripes that enhances the visual interest.

This was not a bad start, and I preferred the metal plate image. However, this was the most popular image of the initial set. As previous stated, I was asked to add a larger cross to the images.

I should take a moment to note here that I had no copy of the logo given to me for this project. I had to make my own. Luckily, it was little more than a typeface and a Methodist cross in place of the 't'. I checked and yes, I had the typeface used in the logo. However... (shhhh... don't tell anyone) the original logo was in Arial, which is an ugly typeface, but I used Helvetica. No one noticed the change, which both pleased me, because I got away with it, and disappointed me, because no one cared enough to notice. Oh well.

So anyway, what happened when I had to add a large cross to the graphic? Let's find out.

The overall image is actually slightly lighter than before. More grunge enhancements were made and more "echoes" were added. I deliberately darkened spots, and cut slivers and patches out of the large cross. The letters in the logo also got some "distressing". I did not want to interfere with the shapes of the cross or the letters to a great degree. I just added some character.

You may notice some of the echoes are light and some are dark. This was done purely for visual interest. They both balance the grunge and enhance the presence of it. They also balance the visual weight of the large cross and the yellow stripes.

This image seemed to please everyone, and that is the image that was chosen to be used for Revolution. But the story doesn't end there. There is more to come. Why? Well, I will give you three hints, 16, 9 and 3.

3? Yes, 3. Exciting, isn't it? Come back next time, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

Week 5

So I got some feedback on my work, the two I showed you before and another that we will get to in a subsequent post. The grey and purple one was too boring. The metal one looked great. However, the images needed to have a large cross. Okay. So, back to work I went.

First I tried to fix the boring one.

In addition to adding a cross, I used a different carbon fiber texture, and, obviously changed the

purple to yellow. The yellow not only provided better contrast, it looks more energetic. Yellow is the color of energy. It can enhance the metabolism, get the blood moving, and energy is what a youth convention needs.

Notice that I did not use a bright yellow. A bright and/or fully saturated yellow can cause eye strain and irritation. I gave the yellow a little more red to make it a bit less intense. I also used a gradient to add some dimension to the shape and to temper the natural brightness of the yellow.

Naturally, the addition of the large cross meant I needed to reorganize the elements of the image to establish visual balance. I did not want the image overpowered by the large cross, and since I was using, basically, the same Methodist cross that is used in the logo, as the large cross, I did not need to have the whole thing on screen. This allowed me to push the cross over, with arms extending over the edge, which allowed me enough room to comfortably place the revolution logo and the other graphic elements.

I do prefer this to the previous version, but it needs more work. It's still a bit boring.

Which brings me to the revised metal version.

Aside from the reorganization of the image, the most obvious change is that I started to dirty up the image some. The background is largely the same, but the metal plate now has some shading and mottling. I added mottling as well to the large cross.

Also, the metal plate is not as long as before. I needed to make room for the large cross. The problem here is that the large cross seems almost too strong for the overall image. The metal plate doesn't effectively balance the image.

You may notice the large cross here is in the same place as the large cross on the previous image. This is because I did not know how many of my images might be used, and I thought that if several were used, it would be interesting to have the main elements, the cross and the logo, in the same space on each image. Things didn't quite work out that way.

Next time, what they really liked.

Week 4

Revolution is the name of the South Carolina United Methodist youth conference. I happen to know one of the people who work on organizing it. This year, I was asked to create with a graphic background to use on the screens in the main event area. I did not have a lot of time. So off I went to hunt for some ideas and some foundation images on which to build.

I found some things at psdgraphics.com. The images were large enough so I set about crafting something to use at the event. At this point, the only real requirement I had was to include the logo for Revolution. Of which I had no copy. Luckily it was... well, you'll see.

First up, a couple of rejected ideas.

I started with a carbon fiber texture background. I designed some simple shapes to lay on top. The shapes were deliberately angled to pull the eye up and to the right. (This implies forward motion.) I chose purple because I wanted a color to contrast with the grey of the background and something that would still let the Revolution logo stand out. Also, purple, while often associated with wealth, is also a color that connotes spirituality and things mysterious. In addition it is a color associated with Christ, as a combination of the color red, which represents mankind (blood), and blue, which traditionally (in Christianity) represents God.

I deliberately made this image seem slick and clean. Unfortunately,

that also made the image boring and uninteresting. I tried to punch the image up a bit, but more on that in a later post.

And now, the diamond plate version.

Obviously, this is not clean and slick. While the background is from psdgraphics.com, I created the metal plate on top. The image lacks color, for the most part, but it is more dynamic due to the diagonal criss-cross of the background. Also, in this image, as compared with the previous one, what the viewer is seeing is more obvious. This is a metal surface with a diamond texture and a metal plate. (Well, not really, but you get the idea.)

At first I thought I would use bolt heads or screws to appear to hold the plate in place. But as I thought about it, both of those seemed wrong. One would not use screws for this, and bolt heads seemed too heavy. Still, I needed something to appear to be holding the plate in place. Rivets made more sense. Not large rounded rivets, like one might see on bridge construction, but the smaller, dimpled rivets one might see holding metal signs. And I think it works here. It makes the image seem a bit more realistic.

Next up, the revised versions.