More help for a novice

[cema]

[img]null[/img] My husband just bought a business and I'm trying to help him create a logo that will work both on print and on a future website. I'm so new at this that what I did looks anateurish. Does anyone have any ideas that a novice could do that would make it look better? Any help is appreciated.

[cema]

[img]null[/img] My husband just bought a business and I'm trying to help him create a logo that will work both on print and on a future website. I'm so new at this that what I did looks anateurish. Does anyone have any ideas that a novice could do that would make it look better? Any help is appreciated.

[Ross Macintosh]

Cema - Here's a rework for consideration. I tried to simplify things and bring in the suggestion of movement.

Your example shows white fringing on the text suggesting you've been trying to assemble the design from transparent gif bitmaps. That method makes your job much harder than just doing it all in xara. Notice how much crisper my jpg export of the totally-xara-made design is.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[carygee]

Great simple logo! Hopw did you produce the motion blur behind the lettering (superimposed rectangles?)

[Ross Macintosh]

I did the motion blur in a round about way. If it provides any insights, here's what I did: First I cloned the H+M and removed all effects (like shadow & bevel) from the clone. I converted the clone to editable shapes and combined them into a single shape which I then cloned and moved far left (off the logo). I gave each of those duplicate shapes transparency (left one something like 99% flat transparency, 80% or so for the right one). I blended between them with a 25 step blend. Guess what? - It looked stupid! Ahh, but with xara all is not forsaken. I converted the blend to editable shapes and immediately combined (added) those shapes together into a single shape which I filled with the golden colour. Next I applied a linear transparency to it fading from right to left. It didn't look so hot either so I adjusted the transparency handle so it was more diagonal and just gave some colour to the edge fading off. I cloned that shape and repositioned its transparency handles so it put some colour at the other edge of the shape. I was okay with the result. I selected the original H+M and brought it to the top.

All this probably makes me seem like I don't know what I'm doing! Well there's probably some truth to that. I get an idea and I rarely know exactly how it should be accomplished. With xara it is easy to experiment. That's what that undo button is for. It is also why Xara Ltd. made so many tools interactive. (If I were replicating something I would probably not have used such a round about method).

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[gwpriester]

I would simplify what you already have like so. The checkered flag seems to be a given for High Performance retailers.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
beehives to me blurs </a>

[Ross Macintosh]

That looks great Gary!

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[cema]

Wow - both are terrific!! Thank you so much.

[dk_art]

" create a logo that will work both on print and on a future website"


My concern would be whether you wanted it to be only a few flat colours or with gradient fills. These examples with gradient fills and shadows look great but for print I suppose it would be more costly to get a bunch of things printed up. You could always have two versions for web and print.

David K
www.dkingdesign.com

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com http://www.dkingdesign.com/stuff/xarax/devil.gif

[gwpriester]

David

You are so practical [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]

Since we had no restrictions, Ross and I (cool logo Ross) pulled out all the stops.

Obviously either design could work in flat colors.

On the other hand, four color printing is really very cheap these days and not that much more expensive than 2-color printing for that matter.

But here are a few 2-color explorations.

By the way, cema, I have a series of articles on logo design for non-designers at Logos for the Design Challenged that might serve as a thought starter.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester" TARGET=_blank>
beehives to me blurs </A>

[This message was edited by Gary W. Priester on August 07, 2001 at 16:07.]