Creating and Adapting a Logo Sophie Patrizi

For this project, I created a logo for a non-existent fashion and lifestyle brand called Love, August

I picked the logo design module because a logo is such an important aspect of a brand. It captures the essence of a brand, it’s what connects people to what the brand stands for, and it sets an initial consumer expectation.

I started with step one, identifying the "client needs" or the themes, values, and objectives of the brand and how I could best represent them. As per the learning modules, a logo is an element of the brand. I wanted to include as much detail as I could in this step, because although it is a preliminary step to the actual logo design, it is arguably most important.

I then began sketching out icons and ideas that I felt best represented the objectives of the brand. I settled on a heart, an 8 to represent August, and an hourglass to signify the true timelessness of the brand. These are a few variations of the logo that I came up with.

Once I created my initial sketches and solidified my favorites, I got started in Adobe Illustrator

I played around and made a few more sketches once in Illustrator, then dropped in my favorites out of the original sketches I made on my iPad.

While I was initially gravitating towards one of the more minimalistic logos I designed, I challenged myself to create one that had more components while staying true to the brand values. I felt that this was the best way to express my creativity and also challenge myself and practice my skills working in Illustrator and Photoshop.

I started by tracing the logo I had hand-drawn using the pen tool and ellipse tool. I traced over one vertical half of the design and then reflected it to ensure symmetry. I then went on to only utilize the bottom half of the drawing, as I decided I liked the shape better and wanted uniformity, and so I horizontally reflected the bottom half of the hourglass. I was left with a symmetrical hourglass design.

I added in my heart, the "love, august" text in an Adobe handwriting font, and played around with placing hearts in the bottom half of the hourglass, which I originally hadn't planned on doing but decided to test out in Illustrator.

Below is the final version of my design (pre-fill, gradient, export to Photoshop, and scaling)

Once I settled on a color palette of pink and gold, I got to work playing around with gradients and various color schemes.

Next, I exported my Illustrator document to Photoshop, following the specific steps outlined in the video tutorials in regards to color mode (my design in illustrator was created with CMYK, but in order to edit in Photoshop I converted it to an RGB color mode).

Once in Photoshop, I scaled the image and played around with incorporating photographic images into the fill. I decided to use a gold glitter public domain Adobe Stock photo. I thought this would fit nicely with my design and elevate it with both texture and imagery.

I decided to create some mockups of what this logo could look like on various packaging that the brand could potentially have, playing around with colors, sizes, and orientation.

I was so excited about this project because I was able to connect it with something personal.

My sophomore year of high school, I came up with the concept for Love, August as a clothing and lifestyle brand. With August being my birth month, I really resonated with this idea of tying yourself to your brand, having it essentially be a reflection of yourself.

This is why I believe branding—logos, slogans, colors, fonts, and everything in between—is so crucial to how a brand is perceived. It all plays a part in shaping that personal connection with the brand audience.