Hello!
For my Logo Project I decided to create a logo for my fashion blog to be used as a personal brand logo if I were a fashion influencer. This logo is designed to be used throughout my blog, as an icon at the end of emails for inquiries, as an Instagram profile photo, etc. to create a recognizable brand to my name.
Before beginning on my actual design within Adobe Illustrator I did some research by looking at other logos used for similar blogging purposes. A very popular blogger from my hometown named “Spokane Eats” really sparked my interest and inspired me. Her logo includes an ‘S’ and ‘E’ standing for “Spokane Eats” inside an outline of Washington. I liked the simplicity of the design but also how recognizable it was.
After reading through the readings assigned for this unit I learned about the Figure-Ground technique and how effectively using negative space can add depth to the meaning of the image. I realized this was an element “Spokane Eats” logo used very effectively. I wanted my logo to also demonstrate this element.
Since my blog is a fashion-based blog I wanted to incorporate something symbolic and recognizable to this overall theme. I have always been inspired by fashion sketches of models designers use to get the overall idea of a piece they are creating. The sketches are typically of figures with long, lean, and a very thin body structures that look like they’re strutting down the runway. I felt these illustrations were very symbolic to fashion and would be a great aspect to incorporate into my design that could make my logo and overall brand easily recognizable as a fashion based brand.
The ‘S’ and ‘E’ initials in the “Spokane Eats” sparked the idea of using my own initials in the overall design. Since the purpose of this logo would be for my own personal brand as a blogger I thought using my own initials would be fitting.
With these two design concepts in mind I began to draft a design creation with pencil and paper. I knew I wanted to somehow incorporate the model figure and also my initials into the design. At first I experimented with having my initials on the shirt or dress of the model. However, when I played with this idea I realized this option would probably not be successful when thinking about the scalability of my design. Having the initials at a very small font size inside the shirt/dress would not be noticeable if the logo was used on something small like a business card.
Since the fashion model illustrations are typically very thin I began experimenting incorporating the figure into one of the letters of the ‘K’ or ‘B’ of my initials. I decided I liked the figure on the left of the ‘K’. Placing the illustration in this location I felt balanced the design and seemed to flow well in a pleasing and eye-catching way.
After coming up with an overall idea for the basic shape of my design I began actually using Adobe Illustrator to construct the design. At first I had absolutely no idea where to begin to construct a basic shape of a long, lean body structure. However, I had remembered using the anchor points tools with basic rectangular shapes and lines to create curved shapes. With the creation of the fashion model sketch I basically just used the shape/line tool and altered the straight lines into curves using the anchor point tool to create an overall body shape. Then I used the ellipse tool with the anchor tool to create the head shape.
At first using the anchor point tool was a bit of a challenge for me to get the curves in the particular shape I was hoping for. Sometimes the points would become pointed or curve in a very pronounced way when I was just looking to slightly curve a line. However, after a lot of trial and error I became pretty quick using the tool.
* TIP: If you are having trouble with the anchor point tool in Illustrator, I would suggest looking at how many points you have in the area you are trying to curve. If there are too many points in the same area this can often make the curve go in crazy directions rather than a smooth curve. Deleting some of these points to only have 1 or 2 in a given area can help in creating a more soft curve to your line! *
Once I had the overall model figure constructed I began constructing the shape of my initials. I used two lines to create the “legs” of the ‘K’. I wanted these lines to have a thick stroke line to match the overall thickness of the ‘B’ that would follow. Next I found a pretty basic font and placed the ‘B’ next to the constructed ‘K’ to read ‘KB’. Overall I was very pleased with how the structure of the design looked.
I decided I wanted the model figure’s dress to be a pop of color with a gradient of pink and orange. I applied the gradient to the legs of the K as well, but for the B I used the orange color take from the gradient used in the dress. I used the same colors from the dress in the letters of my initials to add visual unity to my design. These colors I felt represented the overall fun and flirty theme of my blog aesthetic and my own personal style if I were to actually be a fashion influencer.
After getting some feedback from my peers I began on the revision process of my logo design. Overall, my peers were impressed with my design and felt it did a great job in capturing the purpose of my blog. They also liked how simple yet effective the design was and how I utilized negative space.
One suggestion that I used from my peers was taking the gradient out of the legs of the ‘K’ and using a solid color similar to the ‘B’. I decided to use this suggestion in making the ‘K’ legs a solid pink color drawn from the gradient in the dress. This was a simple change but overall I feel it made the design look more professional and unified.
I also used the techniques from the logo design tutorials to apply the lines of the model and the legs of the ‘K’ permanently to the object so they were no longer just an effect. I used the expand appearance and expand tool under object to do this. By applying this setting on my design I am no able to make my design as large or as small as I want with the lines staying the same at any scale.
Overall, after making those slight changes in my design I feel my logo is effective in conveying my topic. The colors I used were purposeful to create something that represents my style. My design is simple, but uses negative space in an effective way to understand the purpose of my topic. My logo is also fully scalable and can be used big or small.
I had a lot of fun getting some valuable experience with Adobe Illustrator and creating logos! This skill will definitely be helpful both in my academics and also in the working world.
Citations:
Inspiration for my design from the logo of “Spokane Eats” blog:
Kelsey Byus 