{"id":386,"date":"2011-10-25T09:47:08","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/?p=386"},"modified":"2012-12-20T17:40:32","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T01:40:32","slug":"design-diary-logos-and-branding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/2011\/10\/25\/design-diary-logos-and-branding\/","title":{"rendered":"Design Diary: Logos and Branding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although I&#8217;ve never taken official classes in design, I have done quite a lot of research on aesthetics in design (part of the job for being creative executive), and here are some of my findings on logo research.<\/p>\n<p>Logos. What are they? I define them simply as graphic identities or representations. It is the <em>look\u00a0<\/em>and<em> feel\u00a0<\/em>of a company.\u00a0The best logos are usually&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.davidairey.com\/images\/logos\/mcdonalds-logo.jpg\" alt=\"lg\" width=\"460\" height=\"153\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.smashingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/logo-design-principles\/principles-of-effective-logo-design.gif\" alt=\"eff\" width=\"500\" height=\"250\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So if I were designing a logo, where should I start?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/justcreativedesign.com\/2008\/12\/02\/logo-design-resources\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.smashingmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/logo-design-principles\/LogoDesignProcess.gif\" alt=\"design\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0consensus for the design process of a logo\u00a0is to start by getting a design brief from the person\/ firm requesting the logo. Some helpful questions to ask:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>text-based?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>black and white?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>representative colours?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>modern or traditional?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>flat or 3D?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>motto and ideals?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>target demographic?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>do&#8217;s and don&#8217;ts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.logodesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/buzzword.jpg\" alt=\"buzz\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>With recent trends in logo designs, clean lines are more effective. So, vectorization of logos is crucial, especially since it also makes the logo infinitely scalable.\u00a0Also to keep in mind are\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelogofactory.com\/logo-design-tips\/logo-footprints-aspect-ratios\/\">aspect ratios<\/a>\u00a0(golden ratio, rule of thirds) that draw attention to important features of the logo.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelogofactory.com\/logo_blog\/index.php\/social-media-logo-design-square-logos\/\">Shape and placement<\/a> on various medium should also \u00a0be considered in addition to\u00a0different <a href=\"http:\/\/kuler.adobe.com\/\">colour schemes<\/a>\u00a0which can <a href=\"http:\/\/14clicks.com\/pick-perfect-colors-business\/\">contribute to the feel <\/a>of a company, suggesting easy customization (for instance Google&#8217;s occasional logo revamping). And perhaps the most important of all,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.smashingmagazine.com\/2007\/08\/08\/80-beautiful-fonts-typefaces-for-professional-design\/\">great fonts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The link provided for the font list is to an external blog by Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, one of my favourite design blogs. She comments that &#8220;<strong>the choice of a unique and beautiful typeface&#8230;<\/strong>manages to fulfill three basic tasks. Support the corporate identity, enrich the visual appearance and is compatible with the overall design.&#8221; There is a reason why companies pay hundreds of dollars for the right to use a certain font or make their own &#8212; a text-based logo is clean, powerful, affective, identifiable and memorable in itself.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/media.comicvine.com\/uploads\/3\/36653\/2030675-the_simpsons_8.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"717\" height=\"538\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Simpsons: funny, quirky, happy, friendly, family-oriented, old-school fun.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingondividends.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/kleenex-text-based-logo.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Kleenex: comfortable, substitute word for tissues, clean, necessity<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingondividends.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/hersheys-text-based-logo.png\" alt=\"Hersheys text-based logo\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hershey&#8217;s: chunky, chocolatey, dividable<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.budgetsavvydiva.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/coach1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Coach: high class, trendy, expensive, superiority, golden<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingondividends.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/tropicana-text-based-logo.png\" alt=\"Tropicana text-based logo\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tropicana: fun, happy, exotic (humid + hot)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingondividends.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/ibm-text-based-logo.png\" alt=\"IBM text-based logo\" \/><\/p>\n<p>IBM: Clean, simple, business, professional<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.livingondividends.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/sony-vaio-text-based-logo.png\" alt=\"Sony Vaio text-based logo\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Vaio: Stylish, trendy, clean, metallic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although I&#8217;ve never taken official classes in design, I have done quite a lot of research on aesthetics in design (part of the job for being creative executive), and here are some of my findings on logo research. Logos. What are they? I define them simply as graphic identities or representations. It is the look\u00a0and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88726,8071,3180],"tags":[142629,171344,14969,1186,45,164072,171339,9418],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing-strategies","category-brand-reputation","category-tips-and-tricks","tag-adobe","tag-aesthetic","tag-branding","tag-design","tag-graphic-design","tag-illustrator","tag-logo","tag-photoshop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":599,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/valeriesong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}