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Let
Go My Logo
Article by Don
Herion
The one thing I did not like about the
logo was its overall width. The eye is forced to travel too far. So I decided
to stack my type vertically. This shifting also allows me to increase the size
of the sickly teddy bear.
 |
| Final line art logo |
Personality of colors:
- Black, Blue, Gray - Power, Strength, Trust
- Red, Orange - Passion,
Danger, Power
- Yellow - Light, Energy, Hope
- Violet - Sophistication,
Love
- Pink - Femininity, Peaceful
- White - Purity, Innocence
- Green
- Growth, Money, Jealousy, Life
NOTE: People suffering from
red/green color blindness have trouble discerning between red and green. So avoid
using them together.
We also associate colors with times, places, and events.
For example people think green and red during Christmas, brown and orange for
Halloween, pink for Easter and green for St. Patrick's day.
For my logo
I wanted to use bold, bright colors indicative of children's toys. Color should
always be used to support your form. The words 'the' and 'doctor' stay black.
I played with a number of different ways of adding color to 'Toy' since that is
the word I wanted to emphasize. Here are several.
 |
| Try different color combinations |
I liked
going yellow, blue and red for 'Toy.' But I found the sharp corners of the font
to be too extreme so in Illustrator I applied a rounded corner effect, softening
the shape and adding more contrast when compared to 'Doctor.' I also shifted 'the
Toy' a little to the right and down. I then added a drop shadow effect to 'Toy'
bringing it into the forefront.
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| My logo |
Final Thoughts
This is
by no means the only possible design for my fictional company (I wrote this article
and created this logo in a day). In fact, there is no perfect design for a logo.
One lesson an old design professor told me was your first design concept is inevitably
wrong. Keep working it, don't hesitate to start over, but the key is to experiment.
Don't hesitate to get other people's opinions. Ask fellow designers and potential
customers what they think. Show them several of your designs. It's called focus
group testing and every major corporation does it. Creating a good logo is hard
work but it is a great way to build credibility for your company.
