Business Card WIP

I'm currently in the process of creating a logo and brand for myself in my Portfolio Fundamentals class. This is one of the final designs I have made for my business card. I may go back in and change some things but right now I'm stuck on the color. These are the two I'm trying to decide between. Let me know which one you like better.

Logo Designs

Today I worked on my logo a little more. I modeled it in Maya and imported a rendered image into Illustrator so I could create a vector image of it.

(If you want to see how my logo was developed up to this point, check out THIS post.)

These are just a few ideas I came up with. So far I like #2 & #3 the best. I don't really like the look of the hatching and cross hatching I did in #4-6. I've got another idea of how to do the hatching and cross hatching that I think will turn out better. I also am not completely set on the colors yet.















Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

"You really wanna know my process?"

"It usually starts with a 'HOLLA!' and ends with a creamsicle. And then if there's time in between, Thundercats... HOOO!" (Five points if you know where that quote is from.)

(UPDATE: I realize that there is a lot of text in this post. I won't be offended if you decide to just look at the pictures.)

Today I had to create a couple of sketches of a logo for myself in my Portfolio class. I had already created a logo for myself so at first I was just going through the motions but I ended up with an idea I liked more than what I already had.

Looking at the sheets of paper I drew on I realized that I could see my thought process through the drawings/sketches I did and thought it'd be a cool idea to post it here on my blog with a small explanation of what I did and thought. That way other people could gain a little insight into my creative process.

(I didn't have a lot of drawing materials with me so I sketched things up with a black pen and used a highlighter to test out/experiment with color.)

I started off my writing my name down hoping to get some sort of idea from the way it looked or from the shapes of the letters.




I decided to stick with my initials since I don't really have an object or animal that I believe represents me as a person or an artist. I tend to write my letters stretched horizontally so I decided I wanted to somehow incorporate that into my logo. I also wanted to take the letters 'C' and 'N' and somehow combine them into one graphic symbol. These are two ways I thought of combining them.

#1. I used the capital letter 'N' along with a 'C.'
#2. I also tried it out with lowercase letters.







Ultimately I thought those two logos were a little too simple and boring.

#3. While I was deciding on how I felt about those first two logos I doodled a few blobs and added a 3D effect to them that I really liked.
#4. I liked the 3D effect and tried it out on one of the initial logos.







Maybe it was the 3D effect or maybe it was because I made block letters instead of the single-strokes but I realized that #4 looked familiar. It took me less than a second to realize that my idea looks a lot like...








It kind of bummed me out that I pretty much replicated TWO logos that are pretty well known. (I guess it's a good thing I'm not going into Graphic Design.) I decided to move on and find new ways to combine the two letters.

#5. Instead of stacking it horizontally like English text I tried stacking them vertical like Japanese or Chinese calligraphy.
#6. Then I toyed around with the idea of making the letters look like part of a cylinder.







#7. Since a cylinder is a three-dimensional object, I decided to take it one step further and apply the 3D effect I had tried out earlier to make the logo seem like a cylinder with pieces cut out of it. I didn't like this design cause it kinda looked like an 'N' with a halo and that's definitely not what I was going for.
#8. This idea was actually created last out of all my designs. I came back to the cylinder idea because I didn't think thought this idea through enough. I tried to add my middle initial 'I.' I didn't like this concept either. To me it looked too tribal. It looks like a tribal drum or stool or even a tribal toilet. As a result, I didn't explore the cylinder idea any further.







I really liked the idea of having a logo that looked like a simple object/shape with pieces cut out to show my initials.

#9. Instead of using a cylinder, I started using a cube. Here I used a lowercase 'C' and a lowercase 'N.'
#10. I once again tried using a capital 'N' instead of a lowercase one. I also added a bar on the bottom left so that if this was a real three-dimensional object, it could plausibly stand the way I drew it.

I really liked the direction I was going in. I like the idea that it was a "three-dimensional" object because I do want to eventually have a career in the CG arena of animation as opposed to the Flash or Traditional 2D side of the industry.







This is where I started toying with the idea of including my middle initial, 'I.'

#11. Here I tried changing the orientation of the letter 'C.' To me, having it rotating a different way from the 'N' made it harder to read. Plus, this attempt to incorporate the letter 'I' looks more like a sideways 'F.'
#12. I went back to the initial orientation of the 'C' and tried to combine #10 with #11 to create a capital 'I.' I can't really explain why I don't like this one, I just don't.







For some reason I was set on incorporating the 'I' in to the logo.

#13. I took #12 and tried extruding the capital 'I' to have it stand out better.
#14. After drawing #13 I noticed I could simply extrude a lowercase 'I' and make the entire logo less visually complicated.
#15. After extruding the 'I' in #14 I tried to extrude the 'N' as well.







I haven't exactly settled on a logo just yet. I'm probably going to go with #10, #14 or #15. I really like the basic shape and idea of those three. #14 & #15 seem a little too over developed. (#15 more than #14.) I'll probably even play around with the thickness of the letters and the angle it's viewed from.

I actually haven't settled on color either. I don't know if I want to just use different colors for different faces of the object, if I want to stick with the hatching/cross hatching I did in these sketches or some combination of the two.

This logo creating process is by no means over and I definitely welcome any opinions or suggestions.

(This post was a lot long than I expected it to be. Hopefully someone found it at least a little bit interesting.)