Week 1 - Logomark
Quite a challenging assignment for me, but a rewarding one.
I did something different this time around. I studied the course work, watched the LiveClass, then made the logo. In the past, I've tried to make the assignment before class. This makes it more challenging to me, but it does help with the final outcome quite a bit.
Decided to focus on some on creating a library, swatch and even greyscale from the get-go. Tried out the graphics style feature and even worked on some of the appearance manipulation through layer duplication. These were more or less new techniques for me to try out.
I worked from a coaster I got yesterday at the House of Wax here in NYC. The original plan was to replicate it 100%, then it just evolved into about 4 iterations before i settled on this final look.
I like this one cause its faithful to the color palette and it has less distracting factors on the screen.
Looking forward to more Illustrator tips and tricks for this course.
Week 2 - Logotype
A lot of improvements, updates and simplifying. After some feedback I got from my initial assignment, decided to go back and clean and simplify the logo.
Started out with a screenshot of a cog wheel from a Super Mario game. It initially had a lot of complicated strokes and some dashed effects. Didn't like the direction it was heading, so i pulled back and focused on the eye as the main centerpiece. Surprisingly, I grouped two of my circles and when I applied a color to them it removed the strokes and simplified the logo to a more pleasing outcome.
Decided to keep the same color palette and added a greyscale and pattern example along with the original color swatch, which I think works well with this logo. For the typeface, I used the Display Abigail from Adobe Font for the title and a simple Aktiv Grotesque light for secondary text. Decided to up the tracking and some kerning for the secondary text as well.
I feel like I'm getting a better grasp of the branding principles. Excited for the next assignment.
Week 3 - Visualizing a Brand
For this assignment, I went with a white bag and brown color strings so you could read the logo name and caption.
I haven't used Dimension since last year. The interface still feels kind of clunky. Was able to create the drawstring bag. Used a combination of the course material, live class and supplementary videos. Used 4 camera bookmarks and added a desert background environment. Adjusted the lighting, positioning and texture for the bag. Even applied a glow effect and sunshine effect but did not render as desired.
Struggled to isolate the colors in the bag. had to select some unlink button to actually apply the base color changes individually.
I'm also attaching the screenshot of how it looks in the Dimension Design space.
Week 4 - Publication
I've received a lot of feedback on making the logo more waxie.
For this assignment, I've gone back and retouched the logo to make it more waxie. Kept the pattern as is and added an Adobe stock photo. Decided to place dummy text in a shape that matches the border I chose for my pattern.
Also wanted to keep the logo big and add some emphasis text for the brochure specialty.
Here is a link to the online published version.
Week 5 - Style Guide
For this final assignment, I decided to build a style guide that was more polished than my previous work.
Opted to make the opening page asymmetrical as well as having a solid pattern on the left to resemble that of a book. I had tested the symbol without the words and didn't like it much, so I kept the entire logo and added the words Style Guide below it.
I already had the symbol, color and full color but made adjustments to my previous Grayscale. I had also attempted a single color logo in black and it lost a lot of detail, so I opted to keep it as a greyscale.
The merchandise drawstring bag was redone in Dimensions to accommodate the logo updates. Created a menu (standing book) and a cardboard cube box variation. Not a big fan of how the merchandise rendered at Medium Quality.
Added the pattern in the bottom left corner and for the final page I created a 30% opacity back cover with a fake URL for the product's website. Exported as a pdf and a digital publish.