Education, Graphic Design

Assignment 04.08: Logo Development and Refinement

Jason W. Howell
February 20, 2024

Goal

The pri­mary goal of the assign­ment is to explore the intri­ca­cies of logo design, includ­ing semi­otics, abstrac­tion, fig­ure-ground rela­tion­ships, and adapt­abil­ity, through color, form and asso­ci­ated with cre­at­ing and devel­op­ing a visual iden­tity system. 

Objective

The objec­tive of this assign­ment is to select a logo through a process of refine­ment that directs the the color, typog­ra­phy, form, imagery and mes­sag­ing of the visual iden­tity and accom­pa­ny­ing brand­ing. The solu­tions will be explored at sev­eral lev­els and through visu­ally con­sis­tent appli­ca­tions in a diver­sity of media.

Background Reading

Brand Identity

Guidelines

Color Psychology

Color Theory

Assignment

Using the work from pre­vi­ous assign­ments, please choose the best solu­tion from the three solu­tions pre­sented. The final logo and solu­tion will be selected for a com­plete visual iden­tity. As a reminder, the orig­i­nal list is below.

  • Per­sonal Choice
  • Auto Oasis (car)
  • Church of per­sonal choice
  • AMP Elec­tric (elec­tric)
  • Poe and Asso­ciates (engi­neers)
  • Fence Co. (fence)
  • Green Hill Memo­r­ial Gar­den (funeral)
  • Tulsa Over­head Door, LLC (garage)
  • Green Acre Sod Farms (grass)
  • Cat­nip Cot­tage (ken­nels)
  • Metro Machine Works (Machine)
  • Bruner’s Old Time Meat Mar­ket (meat markets)
  • TNT Secu­rity Ser­vices, LLC (secu­rity)
  • Win­dow World of Tulsa, Inc (win­dows)
  • Preaus Land­scape (land­scap­ing)
  • TRC Dis­as­ter Solu­tions (restora­tion)

Part One

While part of the ini­tial research process, the brand goals are also essen­tial to deter­min­ing the color adap­ta­tions of the black and white logos. Doc­u­ment the rela­tion­ships between col­ors and brand goals and mean­ing. Using the selected logo, and pre­vi­ous exer­cises, present three choices for a range of col­ors that will rep­re­sent the stated brand goals. Pay care­ful atten­tion to the future use of the cho­sen logos’s pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive forms, as well as adap­ta­tions for var­i­ous back­ground tones. Sub­mit sketches, research and color swatch sam­ples to the appro­pri­ate dropbox.

Part Two

Using the selected logo, and pre­vi­ous exer­cises research and cre­ate coor­di­nated color solu­tions for each for use with both print and elec­tronic media. Keep in mind color har­monies and implied emo­tional responses. Present a basic ver­sion of both RGB and a CMYK full color logo ver­sions in for dis­cus­sion. Cre­ate and print a PDF with a sin­gle logo for each color mode.

Part Three

With the col­ors choices and mean­ing solid­i­fied, begin to adapt each basic choice to address the nec­es­sary stan­dards of each media form. Each file will have adjust­ments to com­pen­sate for the lim­i­ta­tions of the media, but color should appear the same. Cre­ate the fol­low­ing versions:

  1. Black
  2. Sin­gle color spot, no gra­di­ents or tints
  3. Sin­gle color CMYK, no gra­di­ents or tints
  4. Sin­gle color RGB, no gra­di­ents or tints
  5. Two spot color, no gra­di­ents or tints
  6. Sin­gle color CMYK, no pro­duc­tion restrictions
  7. Sin­gle color RGB, no pro­duc­tion restrictions
  8. Full color CMYK, no pro­duc­tion restrictions
  9. Full color RGB, no pro­duc­tion restrictions

Com­plete the appro­pri­ate tem­plate with the cor­rect logos. Name each file accord­ingly: company_numberof colors_style_colormode.ai. Place a PDF ver­sion of the tem­plate in the appro­pri­ate D2L dropbox.

Assessment

  • The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine exer­cise score: Assign­ment Grad­ing and Assign­ment 04.08: Logo Devel­op­ment and Refinement

Techniques

Cre­ativ­ity, brain­storm­ing, plan­ning, exper­i­men­ta­tion, file hier­ar­chy, struc­ture, nam­ing conventions

Supplies

Paper, pen­cil, appro­pri­ate soft­ware, pho­tog­ra­phy source, USB drive, mis­cel­la­neous mate­ri­als, tem­plate files

Deadlines

As defined by cor­re­spond­ing cal­en­dar item, drop­box, dis­cus­sion or con­tent topic description.