Logo Design

Artist Statement

For this assignment, we worked with logo designs for a couple of different things. First, we were randomly assigned a word, I received lizard, and had to create a logo using the word as well as the word as a theme basis for our design. When creating my lizard logo, I wanted it to be interesting without being too busy, so I chose to add some texture to the lizard and also ended up adding the text onto the lizards body. I chose to have the lizards tail curl around itself because I wanted it to look like a more cohesive shape and design. For the second assignment, I chose to create a logo of our high school as a whole, not just one club or team. Again, I wanted my design to be unique and interesting, with enough detail to be able to tell what the building is, however without using lines that were too thin and wouldn't transfer well when printed. Just like with the lizard design, I used a rectangle shape as a basis for my design so that the general shape was clean and cohesive. I chose not to add anything where the sky would be because I liked the negative spaces the unique buildings of our school create. I designed both logos with the thought in mind of what I would wear on a t-shirt. In both instances, the text is supposed to blend in with the logo itself as I personally do not like wearing big and branded things. Also, if a print were to be made of either logo, the negative spaces I left could easily also be filled with different colors to make more diverse versions of the original.

My first steps in creating both logos was just to sketch various ideas I had in mind. With the lizard logo, I played around with different ways of incorporating lizards into the letters itself, then working with the text on the lizards body, and finally playing around with different shapes. Finally, I had three or four final logos from which I chose the one I liked best. It was a similar process with the high school logo, however I already had an idea in mind, so it was mainly about finding the right perspective. I played around with where to place the text, as well as what to incorporate in words. For instance, I sketched out several ideas where there was text on the top and bottom of the design, however I ended up choosing the most simple and clean design. Once I had all of my basic designs sketched out in pencil, I colored it in with a black marker and also used a fine tip pen to get the details. Finally, the pictures I took of each design were slightly discolored as I transferred them from my phone to my laptop, so I used a simple editing program to just fill the entire background with a solid and crisp white. This was helpful as well as it allowed me to see what the designs would look like in their cleanest, unmarked state.

I experimented quite a bit throughout the process of creating these designs, not all to much with color as it had to be black on white, but with the overall shape, space, and texture. With the lizard logo, I knew I wanted to add some texture to the markings on the lizards body. I also knew that I wanted the lizard to be filled solid black, not just outlined in black. With these basic "rules" I had set for myself, the sketching and experimenting was pretty structured. The first few sketches I did for the lizard logo were primarily big blocks of text, however it evolved more into the lizard being the main focus of the logo. I am glad I chose to follow this path in the end as the lizard looks good both as a frame for the text, but also just as a interesting design itself. The high school logo followed a similar process, although I knew straight away that I wanted to draw the exterior our school. I experimented with the size and perspective, as well as how to go about adding shadows and details without it being an overwhelming design. Throughout both design processes, I wanted to keep a good balance between the positive and negative space, contrast and emphasis to have a clear distinction between the text and the drawing, and unity to bring both the text and drawing together to create a cohesive logo.