Monday, March 30, 2009

5 steps to logo design

The first important step is to know and completely understand what the logo means. You need to know what the logo is representing and how to best make it. You also need to understand and know what the product/thing is that you are making a design for.

Secondly you need to know the rules and principles of logo. You need to know what to use and how to use it right. Like using your tools, one tool may be better than the other. You need to know exactly what the person wants you design and the ideas behind it.

Thirdly you should be able to learn off other’s. You need to study other people designs and take away the good things that make that design a good one. But also you need to be able to pin point what the person did wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes in your own design. So by studying others work you can add and and take out things in your own design so it over all becomes a better piece of work.

Fourthly you need to walk outside of the line that other designers have made. You need to establish your own logo design process that is special and unique to yourself. If you can find your own process the work that you design will be like no one else's and it will either make it a lot better or kind of bad. But you need to keep thinking of new ways to design so when you do find that one way that works it will be great.

Fifthly and lastly you need to learn the software that you are using. You need to know how to use it well so you can complete your logo in a way that makes it look good. If you don’t know how to use your software or methods correctly your finished product will not be as great or good as it could have been if you had known all the right and best ways to create your design.

Pen Tool


Thursday, March 26, 2009

Rectangular Tessellation

Triangular Tessellation




1.
Which tessellation did you find more interesting to do? In what ways was it more interesting than the other? Please explain.
I think they are both very interesting. The animal one I liked because it had some symbolism, yet it was the same thing over again. The one picture one is more interesting and more eye appealing to me because when the shapes are put together they for more than one design. Which I think is very cool. The pictures one forms a very strong hexagon shape, which gives the design even more power and catching to the eye.
2.
Look at your peers' work on the ning . Which two designs do you find the most successful? What qualities make them so successful?
I think Devin’s is the most successful. Because it is very eye appealing and very simple. It was amazing to see how such a simple shape to start off with makes such a great design once it is all put together. Also the colors she chose made it look even better and more eye appealing. I also really like Olivia’s because it is a great design and is one of the few that actually looks like a real animal.
3.
Looking at the Grading Criteria for each design, how would you rate BOTH designs on a scale of 1-4, 4 being the highest? Please explain each grade.
Well I think that my first design is a little bit better just for detail and lining things up. My second design was not as successful yet I still do believe it is eye pealing and worthy of a solid 3, 3.5. So over all my two design I would give them a 3.5 because of there eye catchiness.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Introduction To Tessellation


#1- What is a tessellation?
A tessellation is a pictures or tile, that mostly forms animals or other life forms, which cover the surface of a plane in a symmetrical way without overlapping or leaving gaps. Most of the time the gaps are just as interesting as the filled in spaces.

#2-Write a couple of paragraphs describing the life and work of M.C. Escher. Pick out important facts that describe who he is, how he worked, and why he is famous.

Escher is very famous because he is regarded as the 'Father' of modern tessellations.
During his life, he was very fascinated with filling the plane with pictures that did not overlap or leave spaces. He was born in Leeuwarden, Holland on June 17th, 1898. Escher was the youngest of four brothers. His father was a civil engineer. The family moved to Arnhem where he grew up and went to high school. During his highschool years he became fascinated with pen and ink drawings. In 1918, Escher enrolled in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts. Escher quickly developed his art skills tremendously especially in woodcutting. When he left the architecture school he went to Spain and this is where he got his tiling patterns from. After he visited Spain he visited Italy where he met Jetta, his future wife. He married Jetta and they lived in Rome together where they started a family.
1925 was a very big year for him, he produced some of his first tessellation. It was a block print of lions. He block printed it on silk in gold and silver.Yet after this work which he thought was very good, he was disappointed when many people didn't seem to like it. Yet this did not stop him from designing them. He then started to draw tessellations, of camels, squirrels, and bird. Escher produced his most famous art with the help of his brother yet he kept coming back to his main obsession of plane filling. His ideas were vary important to many forms of art like wallpaper and mind boggling designs. He produced over 137 tesallations, most of which were of reptiles and animals.
Escher died in a home for old artists on 27th March, 1972. Escher improved and made improvements to the different ways one could create tesallations.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Doodle for Google

A Happy, Clean Earth: “ I wish the world to be a clean, healthy, and fun place to live.”

“What I wish for the World...” What I wish for the World is that it can be a clean healthy place to live. A place where the oceans are clean and a place where kids can swim and sail. I wish for a World where animals can live in a habitat and not worry about if it will be cut down.

Sports: “What I wish for the World...” I wish for every person, kid in the world to had a chance to play sports and be active. Every kid needs a chance to be able to be apart of a team, to feel the importance and the entertainment that sports bring to ones life. Being active is a very important in being a healthy person. That is why my wish for the world is to give every person a chance to be on a team and be active.
How did you improve your designs, based on the feedback that you received from your peers? Please be specific... I really worked hard on my letters to make them stand out and be more bold. One of the biggest things I did though was to work on the trees in my first design. At first they were really small and not that defined, so I went back and fixed them making them for defined and stand out more. One last thing I did was to work on the G, with the sailboat in it. I went through many colors trying to find one that matched and looked the best. I even trued to make my own color yet that wasn’t to successful.

What three important things did you learn from completing this assignment? Explain why they are important to your learning as a design student? I learned, and used the magic wand a lot more and got a better understanding of how to use it more effectively. This helped me a lot when I had to create my own images. I also got a better understanding of how to draw and create my own images. The finale thing that I used was the trace tool. This came in handy when I wanted to trace and or make my own image.

Listed below are the criteria for this assignment. Based on the criteria, how successful do you feel your designs are? Please assign each design a number between 1 & 4 (4 is the highest). Justify your decision for each of your designs. I would give my first design a 3.5 because of it simple look, but then also its complicated look. That is why I like my first design so much. Also there are is a very good color scheme that I feel catches the eye. My second design I believe isn’t as successful as the first yet still brings that same intensity and simplicity that attracts the eye. If anything the second one is more simple, yet if I had more time I think I would have worked on the second g to make it better. For those reasons I would give myself a 3.25.

1. Make sure your design complements the shape of the letters in the Google logo, but don't let that restrict your creativity.
2. Experiment with different media to see which one works best for your design (you can even create your doodle on your PC).
3. Don't over-complicate your design – simpler images often have the most impact.
4. Remember that your design could end up on the Google homepage, so imagine how it will look on screen.
5. To find inspiration around the "What I Wish for the World?" theme, try thinking about the future and how you would like it to differ from the present.
6. Remember to use color well and think about how it interacts with a white background.
7. Avoid commercial or copyrighted images.
8. Think outside the box – try to create a doodle that's different from your classmates and hasn't been done before.
9. Feel free to use the space behind and in front of the Google letters, but try to maintain your design's overall balance.
10. Have fun! "Doodle 4 Google" is all about creativity and enjoying designing fun things. Think about how you want to change the world.