This week I was assign to create a logo! While we are all used to seeing logos all over in our society, it is an entirely different experience to create one. I was a bit nervous at first, but decided to really take my time and learn more about creating logos and Adobe Illustrator (what I’m using to create my logo). I went over our class readings and the Illustrator tutorials notes to really educate myself for this project.
To begin this process I thought of what this logo would be for, what message do I want to portray, and how can I make it all tie to my topic, animal rescue. I decided I want this logo to be for my rescue shelter (my one day dream that’s not yet a reality). Throughout my blog I’ve used the word ‘Pawsitive’ and I thought it would be a good idea to include it for this logo, and since I want people to rescue, the words for my logo became “Pawsitive Rescue.” I thought this title would encourage people to think of rescuing in a positive way, while also simply implying to be positive about rescuing animals.
Once I had what I wanted the logo to be for, I started to doodle ideas on a piece of paper. I knew the logo had to tie in with the topic, so the first thing that came to mind was drawing paw prints and silhouettes of dogs that I could possibly incorporate in my design. I was pretty good with keeping my ideas in order in regards to where I wanted what I drew to be incorporated with the words in my logo, but I had no idea how I would begin to create them from scratch using Illustrator!
So, I slowly started to create my logo. I began by using the ellipse tool to create the palm of the paw. I then used the direct selection tool to move in the top corners to form a paw looking palm. I then went back to the ellipse tool and created the four toes. I worked on my spacing and sizing until it all looked good together. To make sure none of these pieces moved around throughout my design process, I grouped them together.
I then added the text, made sure I did not include the ‘a’ in ‘pawsitive’ and left a space there instead because that’s where I wanted the paw to go. I went on to switch my font and size, I chose the font Impact and size 125 pt.
To add some effects to the words, I first went on to change the appearance. I added a black fill, then another fill above that with a gradient and used the effect called Pointillize. These effects gave the letters a two tone look and added lots of tiny dots on them. I learned about this technique in one of the tutorials and decided to use it as it gave my letters an animal print style look to them. Finally, I added a stroke (the gray around the letters) to have a shadow like effect which made them look more filled and thicker. I then made sure to save my work on the letters as a new Graphic Style, which would make it easy for me to use it again on my other objects.
I then moved to the hard part, at least for me ha!, creating the silhouette of a dog. I didn’t really know where to begin so I googled ‘Dog silhouettes’. I looked through the photos that came up and just thought to myself “there’s no way I can do this!” Even the most simple looking silhouette seemed way too hard to even try and recreate on my own. So, I went back to the drawings I made of a simple dog face, which is how I’ve drawn dogs most of my life (not my best work), and tried to break it into simple circles, squares, rectangles or ellipses that I can then put together using the tools in Illustrator.
To create the dog face I first created a big circle. I then created two smaller circles side by side to create the cheeks. I used the Shape Builder Tool so they could become one and placed the it on top of the big circle. It started to look like a face, but it needed ears! So, I created to rounded rectangles and rotated them in place on each side of the face. To finalize my dog I created the eyes by using the ellipse tool, one bigger ellipse in white and a smaller in black.
Finally, I used the same effects from the words for the paw and dog. However, I decided to reverse the fills so the little points wouldn’t show on these two, this way it didn’t all look the same.
5 Comments
femaleflyingsolo
Hello Sinais! What a great project. I have rescued several animals over my life. From horses, cats, dogs, rabbits, and even chickens! Each one has added a unique quality to our household. You should be proud of yourself for having the compassion and drive to make it happen.
Thank you for the detailed explanation on how you worked with Illustrator to accomplish the graphics and text. You thought out what you wanted your message to be and the simplicity of the design works. I adore the paw in “Pawsitive” its placement in breaking up the bold font it creative. Plus, it helps to make the message not as dark and foreboding.
My feedback is in the use of all capital lettering and the solid black color. My recommendation for the logo would be to soften up the font and perhaps just have one graphic of the paw. The two graphics seem to fight each other for your attention in the logo.
I hope you can live your dream of rescuing animals!
Miranda!
Hey!
Great use of a pun in your logo! That’s very whimsical and people are drawn to things that are whimsical and fun. It’s not a random pun either. The pun you use is intentional and fits within the theme of your project. There’s no mistaking that this is a logo centered around animals. Which means people will be able to tell exactly what your business or company represents. That’s invaluable information.
Since your logo is whimsical and evokes a fun response I was expecting that your color and font would also represent this. The black text, with the grey drop shadow isn’t as fun as I was hoping for. My one suggestion here would be to play with different colors and different glow effects. That way the texture you added inside the text is much more noticeable. Right now, it mostly just looks like asphalt, which doesn’t exactly scream animals to me.
My other suggestion would be for you to add some other details to the paw print and the dog face to get these to stand out more against the text. With them being the same color as the text they just kind of blend in and fad out. You could add much more impact to these by changing their color or adding some other fun details.
Excellent work so far however, great job and good luck on your final logo!
jonnamorgan
Sinais,
This is a great logo so far! I enjoy how simple and to the point the logo is. Additionally, the play on word was a great idea. I understand the message of the logo is to have passion for and have a positive association with rescuing animals. I’m surprised to find the dog was difficult to begin creating. I would have never guessed you had difficulties constructing it as it seems well proportioned. What I suggest is using a brighter color that is more inviting on the lettering to make it stand out more. I just associate black and dark colors with not so happy, sad association. If changing the letting color was not an option, having a colored background would be complementary. Another suggestion that might enhance the logo is repositioning the placement of the dog to be near the paw, as if the dog is doing a “high five.” Lastly, I would have enjoyed the dog wearing a smile. I think that would have solidified the message of positivity, while also adding a friendly inspirational factor that people can relate to.
disruptfood
Sinais,
Your logo is adorable!! I can’t get over how cute the little dog face is. I also love the use of the word “pawsitive”. Very catchy and clever. As for feedback, I think the only 2 suggestions I have are making the font color a bit more contrasting to see the pointillize effect you did, and playing around with different fonts. It’s a little hard to tell right now that there is an effect on the letters, so perhaps using different colors will make it easier to distinguish this. I also think that this font might be easier to read if it had a bit more space in between it, so maybe you can find one that is a bit more spaced out? Overall, great job!
sinaisalvarado
After receiving some feedback from my classmates, I am ready to sit back and reevaluate my draft to make some changes that will help the final result. I received comments from Emily, Miranda, Jonna and Ashley. I am very appreciative of their feedback, as it really helped me to see some ways that I can improve my logo. Every comment from each of them included the suggestion to use color, or at least make the different tones I used more noticeable. I will be playing around with different colors and/or effects to give the logo so it has a brighter and more positive look. Everyone liked the words “pawsitive rescue” for the name of my shelter, so I won’t be making any changes to those, however I will play around with different effects to enhance the look of the text. I also showed the logo to my boss at work and she too suggested to add color and like Emily, she said maybe I could remove the dog and just have one graphic, so they do not fight for attention. Overall, I received some great feedback that I will put into work. I hope to enhance my logo with some color and/or different effects.