Illustrator: Logo Design Project

Logo Design

OVERVIEW

A professional logo can enhance a company, an organization, or a product. On the other hand, an unprofessional logo can ruin a brand and mar an otherwise good designer’s portfolio.

Using the steps below you will use Adobe Illustrator to design several eye-catching logos for a fictional company or business. Choose ONE of the following companies below:

Burger Bar– a fast food restaurant that specializes in huge greasy burgers

Super Happy Funland – an amusement park

Streamline Custom Auto – a car detailing and modification shop

Grind – a skateboard, snowboard, and clothing shop

Frazzle Fizz – a soft drink company

Sportsmania – a sporting equipment company

Baditude – a women’s clothing and cosmetic store

Slaughterhouse Noise – a death-metal recording studio

Hyper-Cyber – a computer and electronics company

Renegade – a video game studio

OBJECTIVE

Using Adobe Illustrator students will create a vector logo for a company that displays the skills they have learned with vector creation.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. SKETCH & BRAINSTORM
   A lot of beginners jump right onto the computer to create a logo. However, more often than not, a lot of time is spent fiddling with special effects and filters. While this can be useful, it usually means that the thoughtful design and artistry of the logo itself has taken a back seat.
   A better way to start is to get a fresh sheet of paper and a pencil. Think about the meaning and the feeling you want the logo to impart to the viewer. Is it for a high tech game company or a historic non-profit organization? Should it be complex or simple? As you are thinking, sketch and doodle your ideas. Don’t worry about making everything perfect. You just want to let your natural creativity flow without your computer software taking over at this stage. As you sketch different options, start eliminating the designs that seem weak or inappropriate. When you are satisfied with your ideas, move to the computer.

Your logo must make use of the name of the company

2. BUILD VECTOR GRAPHICS
   Vector graphic files are not made of dots or pixels. Instead, they are mathematical formulas for shapes. Vectors can be enlarged or reduced, to any size, with no loss in detail or sharpness. For example, the lines and curves of a vector graphic will look equally as sharp on a small business card as they will on a giant advertising billboard. Professional logos are made with vector graphics so that they can used for commercial printing, web sites, television, and all other forms of media. Vector-capable file formats include EPS (encapsulated postscript), PDF (portable document format), and AI (Adobe Illustrator).
   Using your pencil sketches as a guide, use your vector drawing software to create ‘4’ crisp versions of your ideas. (4 different digital versions of ideas) Start a new Illustrator document that has 4 artboards, each artboard is 4in x 4in.   One logo will go in each artboard.

Things to Consider

• Try to create a feel or theme to your company concept.
• Try different logo designs to create different feels for the company
• Keep your logos CLEAN and simple.
• Use color combinations that make sense for the logo

4. COLOR FINAL
   After developing four logos, pick one that you want to refine and use as your final concept.   Create a new 8in x 8in Illustrator document and resize the logo to fit entirely in that area. Save it as ColorLogo_(YourInitials).
5. BLACK & WHITE
   After you’ve made your logo, consider how it will look when photocopied or faxed. If it looks muddy and incoherent when converted to black and white by a copier or fax machine, its time to get back on the computer and make a separate version of your logo that is purely black and white and ready for anything. The black and white version may differ somewhat from the original, but it should retain the overall look and feel. You may find yourself converting a solid shape to a hollow shape or vice versa.Pick one of the four logos that you like the best to convert to black and white.  Create a new 8in x 8in Illustrator document and resize the logo to fit entirely in that area.  Convert the logo to black and white! Save it as BWLogo_(YourInitials).
6. SAVE and SUBMIT
   You will submit your final 8″x 8″ color and black and white logo into the Network Drive as an Illustrator Document.  The color logo should be called ColorLogo_(YourInitials) and the black and white logo should be called BW_(YourInitials). BE SURE ALL LOGO COMPONENTS ARE CONVERTED TO OUTLINES.

ASSESSMENT

You will be required to hand in the following:

• A blank page of sketches
• Your 4 color logos that fit into a 2” x 2” area.
• Your color logo fit into a 8” x 8” area.
• A black and white version of your logo put into an 8” x 8” area.

The rubric below will be used to grade your project.