5 Stage. Fourth part (still designing logo and identity)

Color palette. 

How I create my color palette?

I take pictures that I like and I take colors from them, with the eyedropper. Creating a color palette as you can see in the following pictures.

Finally I decided tu start work with these colors but I don´t really care about my color palette.

Working in this I realized that I can´t dispense with no color. A mean. I don´t want to be delimitated for 2 or 5 colors. And just be these colors. Because I can´t feel identified with a color.

Because sometimes I am very oranje person but sometimes I feel very black.

But anyway at the moment I will start using this colors. And we´ll see how works.

As I said earlier in my post: "Stage 5. Personal identity. Second part.", I would like to use my "carrot girl" drawing as a part of my identity.
Because I feel more identified with a drawing than with a vectorized logotype.

So I started to work on it.

I tried to vectorized my drawing just in case I would need to used in a big big size.

My idea was create a business cards with the same image in different background colors (my Pantone identity colors).

Detail of my business cards
Front: my icon with one color on my color palette, in the background.
Back: my logo in the same color on the front background. I decided to just included my website info, because if you find my website there is al info as facebook or email.
Then my subjet: illustration design.
And a little sample of my color palette on the bottom.

Resume of my logotype, color palette, icon/mascot, typography...

5 Stage. Third part

Building my logo.

I come  back to the previous sketches and I mix them in photoshop the parts that I most like it.

Then I vectorized my drawing in illustrator.

Also I make some test mixing a typography with my hand letter.

I like the idea but I can´t find a solution that I really like.
So finally I decided use just my drawing.

Also I have other drawing that I like. So I tried to vectorize it as well.

I really like the other one but I quite like the idea of conserve the line of the brush. 
Because the idea of my logo is look like a handmade illustrator. So that´s why I tried to do this one.
*As you can see in the following pictures. This is a work of Sidney Lim. I discovered him on Behance. http://www.behance.net/gallery/7212089/Dwell-Coastal-Cities-Revisited

 So, here is the second one idea:

If this were for a client would not have these doubts. But I feel is very hard to work for myself.
I quite like both but there is something that I don´t like it and I can´t find what it is.
So I requested help by facebook.

Thanks to more than 120 answers. A 80% liked A, so I decided to start to work in the first idea for my identity.

Stage 5. Personal identity. Second part.

We still with our personal identity.
And we started to think in wordmarks, letter marks, icons/symbols, combination and emblems for our identity.

As I done earlier, I still designing my logo by hand.

For this stage I was working in my letter mark, icon/symbol and combitation (lettermark + icon).

Letter mark Mj

Icon/ symbol Garlyc

Combination Lettermark + Icon Handwriting of my nickname + garlic

.

This is the combination logotype with a new hand drawing typeface of my nickname + my icon: a garlic.

Why a garlic? As I explain earlier, in some of the earlier post, Mariajo Ilustrajo is a wordgame but literaly the translation in english is: Mary garlic.

So I thought could be a possibility to do a garlic as a icon.

This day, we discussed in groups of 3-4 people about our logos. And then we choose "the best one" for show it later to the rest of the class.

My group choose mine.

Feedback:

Again I received a really good and helpful feedback from every one in class and teachers.

Apparently the garlic idea doesn´t work very good for several things.
Some persons said the garlic looks like a nose. A big cartoon nose.
Other people said garlic could look like something for the kitchen, or restaurant logotype, food concept in general.

Also garlic could have a bad connotations. 
Something to sent away vampires...? something smelly?
Some people likes garlic but look like in UK has bad connotations.

And this point is very interesting. Because the same thing could mean different things depending the reading of the country, the situation, the culture, the age, the gender...or just the personal interpretation of every person.

In this case we could think (if we are in the point of view from UK readers):
garlic = something very smelly/ something on the kitchen
garlic = a mediterranean ingredient. So, something exotic.

It could be a bad/ good connotation.


A logotype should talk about ourselves. So we need to think about what we want to
transmit.
And obviously I don´t want to look like something smelly. And be "exotic"/ foreign could be good or bad just depending of every person.

So, my conclusion is that I will discard the idea of the garlic in my logo. 
I was just testing different ideas but I wasn´t very sure about this one. Because also in Spain I don´t need to explain anything. A mean, If I say: "My name is Mariajo".
People knows -ajo means garlic. Is something fast. Spontaneus. People doesn´t need to stop and think about what ajo means. 

But for english speakers "Mariajo" or just "ajo" doesn´t mean anything. so probably if I put a garlic as an icoon in my logo, probably most of the people will ask me, why I have a garlic in my logo if I am an illustrator.
And I should explain that Mariajo means Marygarlic. 
So wouldn't be something fast and spontaneous in the people's minds.

 Some of my notes. (very messy "spanglish")

Emblem Garlic character?

Matt proposed to me work in the idea to create a character with the garlic icon. Maybe exploit the idea or just ignore it!

But after the feedback of the people in class. I don´t really feel like working in that idea .

So I had other idea for my emblem. I think an emblem should be as the logo, very recognizable and I have a little sketch of a lovely girl that I used in so many t-shirt designs, mugs, bussines cards... and a lot of people recognized with that character.

So I am thinking to work in that idea algo to use it for  my business cards.  Because I think is already a part of my identity.

This is the picture:
"Carrot girl"

I tried to do some tests in photoshop with her as emblem...

Stage 5. We start to design our personal identity. First part

We still improving our skills on inDesign and we started to build our personal identity.

Own visual identity: this will include a logo, typographic and colour palette that can be applied to my online portfolio, stationery, CV etc. In an earlier post (stage 3) I classified, define/identify different types of logos. So, after that I will start  by designing my own logotype using your name or pseudonym.

For  my identity I will use my pseudonym: Mariajo Ilustrajo.

Why this name?
It is a word game. My name is María José but everybody calls me "Mariajo", because is shorter. And about Ilustrajo: Ilustr- is because I am an illustrator, so ilustr- is the root of illustrator and ajo- rhymes with Mariajo. It is like a...fun name! And it is easy to remember.
So I already have all my social media with Mariajo Ilustrajo or just Ilustrajo as in twitter: @ilustrajo.


*I have realized that this name is not that easy to remember in this country or just the pronunciation. Because "j" sounds very hard and difficult in english language.
Anyway...lets go to see how works.

In stage 3, I started to play with my name changing just kerning, contrast, space, etc. As you can see in the following image:

I started with a simple typography, sans serif (Helvetica). But I can see this typography is very "cold" for me. I don´t feel identified with this typography.

Then I tried with a serif typography.

(Minion Pro and Nueva Std)

Also I tried with other different typographies as you can see in the following images.
(PortagoITC TT, CM PARTY HEADLINE, Brain Flower, Honey Script, Cracked, cinnamon cake, Own Written...). 

And I quite like some of this examples but even these typographies are still being a bit cold for me. 

I consider myself as a very analog illustrator with a very fresh and spontaneous line.
So I think would be a good idea start to do some sketches of my logo by hand.
And see how works.

I did some sketches with pencils, brush and inks,  different markers...

After hundreds of sketches, I chose some parts from the different sketches, and I build the logo by photoshop. Then I vectorized it by illustrator very quick.
And this is the result:

I showed my logotype progress to the rest of the class. And I received some good and helpful feedbacks.



People said things as: 
my logo is very illustrative. So, it shows what I do.
Look like handwriting, so very good because it was my intention,
It has a lot of energy. And I think is very good because I am a very energetic person. And also I think is a good quality.

About "bad" things...several people said it could look a bit "Disney". And probably it is true. And I don´t feel like I want to show a Disney face. So I have to work on it.

One of the contribution from my teachers was:
What happens if I reduce my logo a lot!?

A logo should works in all sizes...very very small like for a letter or an envelop or very big as for a building.

 

Some of my notes. (very messy "spanglish")

*Also we talked about what our logo says. And we compare it with the good example of balumba/ tacote.
Which one is "balumba" and who "tacote"?

Is it my logo soft? acute? agressive? nice?...? Is my logo balumba or tacote?
Balumba. Very balumba.