Major Project: Logo Refinement

  I spent some time today workin out an appropriate logo for Wessex Biowonders (which could work fine as its own company. I like the WX combination but I'd say my favourites of these are 4, 6 and 7. The main angle I was going for was something that reflected the aesthetics of the 1970s so I did some digging into 60s and 70s-era branding. Company brands like Motorola and Sony have been relatively unchanged since the 1950s while others like Renault adopted an aesthetic of clean parallel tramlines.

I might stick with 7, as it is one of the stronger outcomes. The least convoluted and possibly most echoing the period-appropriate trend of bold lines and clear imagery..

Major Project: More Logos More Creature Heads

  I got drawing more logos but I feel like I'm honing in on an idea. I was drawn to the W-X combinations like 29 and 37, but also the iconography of 25. I think I can make the W-X combo distinct. I tried playing around with alternatives all the while thinking of how other companies manage it. While the common theme is it's simple and straightforward, designs themselves vary wildly from monograms (Volkswagon,Uber, Virgin, AOL, First Great Western) to iconic (Monsanto, Lloyd's, Birdseye) to abstract (Amtrak,, Ubisoft, Legendary Pictures, Mercedes-Benz). Abstract icons are interesting as there is imagery in their logos. Maybe Smithston-Wessex could simply be something like "Wessex Frontiers" or "Wessex Frontier Interests".

  As suggested by Phil, I spent the afternoon watching Splice. I thought it was going ot be a standard Alien-esque haunted house film due to the marketing angle (the back of the jewel case for instance has such lines as "an uncontrollable mistake that's about to break loose and rip their world apart into tiny pieces"). But it wasn't, and chimed with my story much more closely than I expected. I might have taken inspiration as the creature in it started off quite alien, but over the course of the film developed into something much more human. Its almost a shame the creature developed the way it did as earlier instances such as its baby phase and the first creatures shown - the latter of which were practically blobby translucent slugs - were much more bizarre. But I can understand why it developed the way that it did, as the story had tones that related to parenthood and growing up.

  The themes were there, and I find myself likely to take inspiration away that will help a lot on this project to sell a convincing creature design.

Smithston Wessex Logo Experiments

  This morning one thing cycled though my mind: I started wondering about a logo for Smithston-Wessex (Theme-wise I suppose it makes some sense the art-of document looks a bit like a corporate brochure or report document. So this logo would appear on the corners of pages.

  There is a lot of experimentation with the W because David works more specifically for Wessex Biowonders. But I wonder if a renaming is in order as there's perhaps too much of a Weyland-Yutani vibe from the branding (1, 7 and 12 especially). Though I may keep the horizon line.

Group project: Logo Rework

  It turns out that once again what I have provided isn't to the entire group's liking. It seems what half the group wants is something friendly and creative and the font I provided is too rigid and cold. Due to other projects and assignments going on I do not think there is enough time before the online greenlight to make a completely new design so I decided to work on what I already have and try to make it nicer.

  One of the key principles of the argument is that the logo doesn't look like something put out by a creative company with too much emphasis on the text when they'd prefer the focus to be on the graphic. I didn't want to start another argument that went nowhere so I decided to accept the feedback and work with what I already had.

Forge Narrative Project: Logo Design

  After making progress on the character project today I looked at polishing up Forge Studios' logo/title. From the start I had looked into the idea of looking like metal, something that would genuinely look straight out of a gorge or smithy's mould. When it came to lighting I had the idea come to be that the light could be centred around the glow of the O. And to give more definition I added some edge lights within the interior of the letters.

  I chose to work on this one because this was the typeface the group was most agreed-upon with using. Hopefully what I have created goes a little way towards alleviating the feel that the flat colour design was more suited towards something formal like a law firm as opposed to something for a creative design studio.

Forge Studios Logo Design Progress

  This morning I spent a little time investigating font styles for the studio's logo. It would be nice to make this shiny and embossed, like something made out of cast iron. But before we get to that phase we first need to work out the font we are using.

  The one thing we could agree on was our O would be a diamond with a furnace or fire in the middle. This served as the basis of what fonts would suit our style as the various fonts would have to compliment the shape.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

  I have investigated various thicknesses and degrees of condensing, as well as looking to see if our style suits a thick heavy blocky font or something more carved and refined. The last two I experimented with the diamond being larger than the font to see if it could fit.