New Assignment: Logo Design Exercise

Students, 

You will create a series of logo designs to explore different logo creation styles and then sketch and design a final logo design for use in your portfolio as a work sample. Once complete you will use this logo to create an identity package, which is our next project. Read the assignment details thoroughly!

I recommend you use Illustrator for this project. You could use the final logo design as the center piece to your final portfolio website, so consider logo themes that describe you and will work well in different environments.

Overview - Rules and Principals of Logo Design:

1. A logo must me describable

2. A logo must be memorable

3. A logo must be effective without color

4. A logo must be scaleable. So it should look good at 12"X12" and 1"X1".

Logo Design Assignment Details:

There are 5 logo examples below, you will create your own logo designs, 3 for each of the 5 styles for 15 designs. You will then design a final design utilizing the best of all styles, for the final design you will pencil sketch different designs before evaluating the best choice and completing final artwork.

Create an imaginary company, organization or think of what you would like to do if you begun your own business. For instance if I was doing this assignment I would create logo's for Wilson Enterprises, Wilson Design Group or Wilson Co. etc.

Create 3 versions of each of the logo style examples below:

1. Typeface only: Create 3 logo's using a different font for each one. Pay attention to spacing between your letters. Think of clever ways you can make a simple font-only logo have impact. Use color, proximity, contrast to your advantage.

2. Typeface's combined: Create 3 logo's that use 2 different fonts, make your font choice strategic to add emphasis and draw attention.

3. Typeface plus an art element: Create 3 examples of an arranged logo that uses a typeface plus some simple elements, rectangles, lines or dots. Sketch on paper to aid your creativity if needed.

4. Typeface plus a shape or symbol: Create 3 examples of a logo that uses a typeface and an image or symbol that is relevant to your logo's subject matter. Sketch on paper to aid your creativity if needed.

5. Shape or Symbol logo with typeface: Create 3 examples of a logo that makes the symbol or shape dominant and the typeface subordinant. Sketch on paper to aid your creativity if needed. Include a written explanation and description of your symbol or imagery.

When these versions are complete you may begin the final stage.

6. Final Logo: You must pencil sketch 3 different logo concepts, they must be original designs. When complete you will pick one and render it in Illustrator. Think about what your ultimate logo would be, sketch that and refine it. Then create that final logo with Illustrator or Photoshop. You must turn your pencil sketches in with your final work, you may sketch in your notebook if you like. Remember the Rules of Logo Design as stated at the beginning of this post.

Due Dates: Logo designs 1-5 are due friday

Previous Student Logo Designs:

- Mr.W

New Project: Portfolio Development

Hello Students,

Having a polished and professional looking portfolio is key to your success in finding work after High School and moving on to developing a career. Download the ROP Portfolio Handbook to use as a guide for creating your own portfolio.

Portfolio's are due by the 30th, must be ready for presentation, evaluation and critique. You will complete a digital version first, as a PDF file for evaluation. Class winner will be able to print and prepare their portfolio for inclusion in the Portfolio Showcase competition. Binders and sheet inserts are available for class winner only.

Remember that the best portfolio in class will be sent to the portfolio design competition that ROP has at the end of each school year, your portfolio will compete against other graphic design classes across the county, and there is a prize.

A judge evaluates print portfolio's from past entrants...

Portfolio Development Assignment:

• Your portfolio must be created in Indesign and final file must be a PDF document
• Use the Pages palette to create multiple pages for your portfolio
• Your portfolio cover, table of contents and all materials should look clean and consistent. Use consistent design style across all aspects of your portfolio

Your Portfolio must contain in this order: See portfolio handbook for more details...

• Cover page with your name, class title, year. Spend some time on this, it should show good design skill and be reflective of your personality
• Table of contents
• Letter of Introduction
• Resume
• Handwritten Job Application 
• List of References
• Letter of Recommendation -  cannot be from your ROP teacher or a family member
• 3 or more work samples with written explanation about the work, why is it important to your career choice? What did the project entail, what were the challenges and difficulties? Give us details.

How Your Portfolio Is Evaluated:

• Contains required content and format
• Well organized
• Free of grammer problems
• ROP related work samples
• Shows creativity
• Nice appearance
• Shows skill development
• Appropriate for use in job search
• Professional appearance
• Nice presentation

Use this as a rough guide to laying out your own portfolio...

Ok have fun!

- Mr.W

Student Showcase: Hand Lettering

New Assignment: Posterize, Color and Type Fill

Hello Students,

This new assignment is meant to help you change the way you see color and tone. A photographic image is rarely flat in color, there are subtle changes in tone. This assignment lets you begin to "see" the highlights, shadows and colors that make up a photograph. You will create 3 versions, one using greyscale or monochrome, one with full color (your choice) and one using text only.

1. Think of a favorite actor, artist, musician, band or author... find a photo of them using the internet. Your photo must be a minimum of 1000 pixels tall or wide. It must be a photo and cannot a 3D image or a painting or drawing.

2. Place your photo into Illustrator on a document that is Letter sized, and begin to trace the color, shadows and highlight areas of your photo using the pen and pencil tools.

3. Use FILL only. No STROKE. Make sure you pay attention to your color chips, any images using stroked objects will not qualify for credit.

4. You will make 3 versions of your artwork... one using greyscale or monochrome color palette only, another using full color of your choice (experimental) and another using text only. Use the text fill, text on a path and clipping masks to convert your artwork to text copy only.

First version, greyscale or monochrome is due on monday.

Student Showcase: Type Faces