One of the most common tasks for a designer is to come up with a logo that represents a brand/business/service/product/etc. It’s not easy. A logo has to be simple but it can convey a lot:

The first thing you want to do when figuring out a brand identity is to consider some words and associated images that might fit.

You’re going to design a logo for my class. So, the first thing to do might be to come up with some descriptive words that will help you figure out what the logo should look and “feel” like.

Here are the results of that little poll. Check out these words and ideas to help you come up with something suitable for your logo design.

Once you have some ideas for the direction of your design, you want to consider what type of logo it’ll be and what it’ll be used for:

Ideally, you’d want a logo that could be scaled up or down by adding or removing text. Once a brand has some recognition, or in a place where it isn’t as important to get all of the information across, you can use a simple Wordmark, Pictorial Mark, or Abstract Mark.

Because you’re designing a logo for a “brand” that isn’t exactly world famous, you’ll need to incorporate some kind of images/shapes/icons/etc. and some text to form either a Combination Mark or Emblem.

A couple of sites/resources to consider:

fonts.adobe.com – you have access to a massive library of fonts. Don’t go with something easily recognizable or standard. Think about those descriptive words and pick a font that conjures up some of those emotions/descriptions/reactions.

The Noun Project – Many of you can draw really well. I can’t. At all. So I often need a little help with the artwork. The Noun Project is a great place to start.

A logo needs to be scaleable! You need to be able to use it in places where it’s going to be really tiny, like on the side of a pen, and really huge, like on a billboard. In order to be that versatile and adapt to any size/scenario, it needs to be a VECTOR design! Use Illustrator!

If you need a simple, effective tutorial to help you get started with the program or review what you might have forgotten, go here: Get to know Illustrator tutorial

Upon completion, you will have to assess your own logo and hand in a reflection. Later, you will take a look at everyone’s logos and help assess theirs based on the same criteria:

• Appealing (Does this logo catch your eye and make you want to pay attention?)
• Interesting (Does this make you interested and want to check out the business/service/place?)
• Creative/Unique (Does this stand out as being different and creative?)
• Memorable (Later on, if I asked you what the logo loos like, would you remember?)
• Appropriate (Does the design suit the business/service/place and its target audience?)
• Clear and informative (Can you tell what type of business/service/place this logo is for?)

Fill this out when you are finished your own logo. Be honest and provide some real thought into the choices you made:

Mr. Donohoe is considering setting up some cool new clubs in the school, but first he needs to get the word out and get people interested. He wants you to help design some posters that will be appealing and will let people know about this exciting opportunity.

He wants to set up:

• Electronics Club
• E Sports League
• Video Game club

There will be a meeting on Oct. 18 at lunch time in room 118 (Electronics). Anyone interested is asked to attend or see Mr. Donohoe if they can’t or want more information.

I would suggest designing these for print on 11 x 17 paper, but 8.5 x 11 or larger are options.

Thought-starter samples: He sent over some images of things that he thought might help with some basic information and inspiration, but the design and content are up to you:

Our lovely librarian, Ms. Lontajo has asked for some help advertising a condo that her family wants to rent out in The Phillippines. She is looking for something that could either be posted online or printed and handed out.

You can visit the library if you have any questions. Photos and info are in the hand out folder HERE

Ms. Butcher is spearheading the creation of a new Westwood Special Olympics team! They need a logo and some team t-shirts to wear.

Create a logo/graphic that combines (perhaps) the Westwood logo and the Special Olympics logo (samples), or somehow identifies this as our new Westwood team.

What that looks like is kind of up to you! Come up with some ideas/concepts and we’ll run it by Ms. Butcher.

First event is Sept. 28, so we need to get a fairly quick start on this one!

When I was a kid, collecting trading cards was a big thing. I had trading cards for all of the major sports, some music ones, and even trading cards for TV shows like Star Trek, Welcome Back Kotter, and Happy Days. (Yeah, I’m old.) There were even U.S. Military trading cards.

Now, you’re most likely to find sports cards, but there’s also a huge line of Manga based games and stuff (Pokemon, Digimon, whatevermon.)

The cards would be a set with a similar theme and design, and the goal was to collect the set (or at least your favourite ones or the ones that would be most rare/valuable.)

You’re going to design a set of at least 8 trading cards (although have fun and keep going if you like!) Then you’re going to put them together on a sheet, print them and cut them out.

Think of how cool it would be to have actual cards for your hockey/baseball/football/volleyball team! You could make real cards for student council, Westwood teachers, the place where you work, etc!

You could design your card using any of the major Adobe apps. I preferred InDesign. The standard size for these cards is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

InDesign:

Photoshop:

Samples:

IMPORTANT TIP:

Have a similar layout and ESPECIALLY a SIMILAR BACKGROUND! When you put your individual cards together on a sheet for printing & cutting, you’ll want a BLEED area that works for all of the cards. I found it easiest to NOT include a bleed in the design, but use my background as a background when I laid out the cards on one sheet.

I was able to comfortably fit 16 cards on one sheet of 11″ x 17″ card stock:

You can use my grid if you like (unless you have a better idea, which I’m open to!) and add your own Guides to help line up the actual cards. My grid: TradingCardGrid

We have been approached by our division arts coordinator to submit a design for a very exciting project – a large scale banner that would be hung on the school division office at Portage & Moray. Your art could be hanging in a very public, very large way and represent our community to anyone who passes by!

Here’s the idea that we’ve been given:

My hope is that students will each take a St. James landmark/monument and transform it into a symbol of inclusion. For instance, a group takes Grant’s Old Mill and turns the water wheel into a Sacred Circle and the water flowing over and past the mill is made orange. Maybe another group takes an airplane and covers it with the inclusion flag. I am hoping that students will come up with ideas of how to change images that people associate with St. James and transform it to look more indicative of our changing community to show that we are diverse and that we embrace people of all cultures and walks of life.

Your job would be to think of St. James landmarks or community icons or things that represent this community and turn them into something inclusive and welcoming.

Because the finished product will be so large, you would need to create vector artwork using Illustrator! Actual photographs won’t work here, but you’d likely need to create art based on actual photos/locations.

You would need to incorporate the school division logo and possibly the colours that it uses. You can find logos HERE.

I don’t have any other specific information yet about the actual size or requirements of the finished artwork or a due date yet, but will update once I find out.

Your job here is simple. Make me an advertisement (designed for PRINT – although you do NOT have to print it) for some product/service/band/sports team, etc. that you are interested in. You can use any program you wish. Personally, I’d recommend Photoshop, but if you don’t know Photoshop and aren’t ready to learn, use Word or whatever you’re comfortable with. Heck, make it on paper if you really want, but you’ll have to look back on this and make changes/improvements to it later, so having a digital copy will really come in handy!

The ad needs to have one or more images

The ad needs to have one or more block of text.

The ad needs to be creative and interesting.

Other than that, the rest is up to you! Make an advertisement about something you’re interested in. I want the ad to tell me why this thing/person/event means something to you. Get me as interested and excited as you are!

Try to think about an advertisement’s purpose. Where do you see them? What should they do? If I place this ad in a magazine or newspaper, what am I hoping will happen? Those are some thoughts to consider.

You can (and probably should) look at some examples of PRINT advertisements. Online ads can be different, so make sure you are considering that this is designed for print. I have some magazines that you can flip through if you need inspiration, or you could look for some samples online.

Along with your advertisement file (named FirstAd or ConcertAd, etc. Anything untitled or unnamed won’t be opened!), you will hand in a reflection. I’d recommend creating a Word document and calling it AdReflection, or something like that. If you know InDesign or some other way of doing the reflection, that’s fine. If writing isn’t your thing and you’d rather just talk about your work, come see me at lunch.

Reflection questions:

1. What does a “good” advertisement have/do? How do you know if an ad is “good”?
2. What did you do that is “good”? What do you like about your ad? What are you proud of?
3. What do you think could be improved on your ad? What could you have done better? If you had to do it again, what would you change?

Put some thought into those questions and explain yourself well for full marks! If it’s really short or not in full sentences, you won’t get full marks. This isn’t a writing class, so spelling and grammar and all of that stuff don’t really count, but they always help to make you look more intelligent.

Congratulations! You’ve graduated from Graphic Technology school and it’s time to head out into the real world and set up your business!

Well, something like that, anyway.

For the majority of the rest of the semester, you will be setting up a portfolio representing a new business that you will be starting. The obvious suggestion is to set up a design business, but if you know that you’re more likely to want to be a mechanic or hockey player or teacher (HA! Don’t!), you could choose the nature of your business. Whether you decide to actually pursue this type of work after (real) graduation or not, you could set yourself up for a nice little small business that could help you down the line. Regardless of whether you use it or not, it will look great on a resume (which you’ll also design!) and will look impressive when you go to apply for a job.

So, step one is to think up a name for your business! If you think you might use it professionally down the line, do a quick search for any names you come up with and make sure that there isn’t already someone using that name in Canada (preferably the world.) Come up with something that describes who you are and what you do. For example, my graphic designer pal Stu kind of got lucky with the name “Stu Art,” which seems so obvious and simple, but it really describes the business, and it’s clever, because it’s, like, his name and stuff…

Step two is to start designing a logo for your business. Stu came up with this: which again seems pretty simple, but it’s clever and does the trick quite nicely. You want to choose colours that will convey the right feeling, so choose wisely. Make meaningful choices. When choosing colours and fonts, think about what it is that they make you feel & think. What do you like about them? Why do they “work” for you? You’ll have to explain why you chose the colours and the typeface(s) you did, so choose wisely.

Here’s a very good guide that explains some of the major types of logos and important considerations.

I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND coming up with more than one version of your logo/look, and getting some feedback before you go any further!

Once you’ve got all of that, you’ll need to design a variety of items for your business that will make people aware of your services and give them some way of contacting you. It would be good though for you to use your real contact information if you’re comfortable with it, but you can use the school as your contact if you wish. Ideally, these could actually be posted and used in the real world, but at this point, they don’t have to be made public if you don’t want to.

The more you come up with related to your business, the better your mark will be (assuming that you do a good job of all of the items!). Your finished project should consist of:

• Logo (including meaningful font and colour choices)
• Business Card
• Resume/qualifications
• business letterhead/sample cover letter
• Advertisement (designed for print and/or online, up to you)
• Social Media banner (Website, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
• Website or interactive document
• Print banner
• Promotional items: shirt, magnet, key chain, mouse pad, mug, water bottle, hat, etc.

Starting now, you are responsible for your time. In order to run your own business, you need to manage your time and work well within a deadline. You will be marked on how productively you spend your time! Time spent on Facebook, your phone, or just not being productive WILL LOWER YOUR MARK.