Creating a logo
Every now and then, I like to update my social media headers and logo. I’ll be adding more work to my on-line portfolio, and I may make a few tweaks to the site as well. To start with, I have changed my logo. The one I previously had was lovely, but I do feel that it was rather fussy, with too many flowers and leaves. I felt that they overpowered my brand name, emmajayne-designs. I made the decision to simplify it. I’m going to go through the design process for you, from initial drawings to final design, and I hope this may help you when creating a logo of your own, or for a client.
Creating your own logo can be quite challenging, especially when you are your own client. In my experience, you can easily be over-critical!
Creating a logo
Before beginning any sketches, I took time to think about my style and the type of work I produce. I produce patterns and illustrations and I enjoy experimenting with techniques and scale. I love colour, so this would all have to be represented by my logo. I do like detail, but I also believe in “less is more”, meaning that if something doesn’t need to be in a design, then perhaps it shouldn’t be.
Once I had decided on the direction my logo would take, I started sketching a simple type-lockup and then developed these in Adobe Illustrator, using different fonts. I played around, varying the font sizes within each type-lockup.
This is the one that I felt most happy with. I love the texture and its laid-back feel. The text fits snugly within a box, which is easy on the eye, notwithstanding the mix of lowercase and uppercase fonts.
After seeing what the logo design looked like reduced, I decided that it was too weak, due to the textured font. For the logo to stand out and be clearly seen, I would need to strengthen the characters. To do that, I hand painted the text, using watercolours. The previous design idea also looked too graphical; more suitable for a graphic designer. I want to show people that I’m an illustrator, so hand rendered text would demonstrate this much better.
I also added a cute bird and flower illustration, just for extra detail.
In this idea, I’ve created a textured round-cornered box. It still has something missing and this idea just isn’t ‘wowing’ me!
I decided to flatten the text in Illustrator and to apply solid colour to the text. I also changed the linear box into a solid shape. Now it’s getting much closer to what I want, but now I’m not too sure about the colourways.
This colourway is much better. It’s playful, yet sophisticated at the same time. I love the flesh coloured background against the olive green text.
Here’s a useful link to help you when creating a logo of your own. Next is to upload some of my latest work and tweak my on-line portfolio.
Emma Jayne x