Vector Graphics is hard

For our next project we are working on Vector Graphics and logo design, something that I have never been very good at. To be clear, I am very enthusiastic about learning something new, but I'm also a little intimidated.

I installed Inkscape onto my computer, but we are using Adobe Illustrator at school. I also found this interesting font generator  It uses a now antique font generation language, originally designed to form templates that could be easily used across characters and platforms. It was a very ambitious project, and helped me in finding some fonts to use.

Before really talking about some of my crazy amateur-sauce ideas, I think that it makes sense to give some context about the kinds of brands that I really have respect for.

Probably my favorite brand is actually ETS Laboratories. I work with them a lot as a winemaker, and I appreciate the simplicity of their design and marketing materials. To be clear, Their "marketing materials" are usually full of really important cutting edge continuing education for the wine industry. Their logo is also pretty great:

It says it all. They measure things. They are a laboratory. They're called ETS. Simple. Delicious.

I like Orange amps. Not only is their sound un-paralleled, they're also pretty slick in terms of design. First lets look at the Logo:

The font is reminiscent of what many consider to be the "golden age" of British guitar: '70s prog rock. During the '80s and '90s all of the producers got into these solid-state amps, and they got a really bad reputation. Ironically, I think that this '70s stoner style has enjoyed far more success throughout music in the last couple of decades then it did in the '70s. So what I like about Orange's logo and aesthetic, is the simplistic yet powerful communication. Also, if you examine the product it's self, you'll see the continuity of design. There's also a reference to Britain's noble heritage with the coat of arms:

One more logo that I really enjoy is the logo for Tor Books. They primarily focus on sci-fi and fantasy books, but I think that you might get that impression from their logo:

Tor means mountain. Their logo isn't really a mountain, but a mountain realm. Like a place of great natural beauty enclosed in it's own reality, a reality that is propped up by the company: TOR. It's scalable. Having only three letters in the name affords them an enviable place in the world of brand recognition. Their other marketing materials could use a little help. But once you see the amateur sauce that I slapped together for this blog, I think that you'll agree that I'm not the one who should provide that help. At least not yet.
Some of my ideas might work for a future winery that I might start some day, maybe they'd work for other ideas. I spend a lot of my free time writing business plans for my "billion dollar ideas", and some of those ideas are expressed in these:

1. Bodega Cassiopeia Martinez (a tiara in the shape of the Walla Walla Valley)

2. Arc ( a lightning bolt)

3. N.Martinez & assoc. (a barrel stack)

4. Binary Citizen (A nine pointed star with a one and a zero in positions reminiscent of a clock)

5. Hex industries (a bee hive, hexagons)

6. Shelter me roofing (tile shapes)

7. Electro-Moto (diagonal lines)

8. Cuttle-tronic (Cuttlefish/robot)

9. Faraday (a cage of concentric squares)

10. CromaT4 (a pointillist grouping of colors)


Another aspect of  logo/brand design, is the color scheme. Every year Pantone decides the "color of the year", and it seems inappropriate to hold any conversation about color choices without discussing it in that context. This year's colors are officially "baby vomit pink" and "oxygen deprivation blue". Don't ask me why those color names came to my mind, but see for your self.

For my color combos, I'll explore the color wheel in Gimp and name them as I sees them. Forgive me for the crass nomenclature, I'm just wandering alone in a forest on this one:

Then we need to find? choose? create? ten fonts. I'm really not sure. I certainly have never been very good at vectoring my way through a font, but I have tried.  So first I'll present three examples from the Metaflop modulator:

1. Sliding hightail

2. Sultry Thickness

3. High steaks

Now four samples from my favorite commercial font site, Font squirrel.


4.Almendra

5. Deutsch-Gothic

6. Kingthings-Versalis

7. Molot
      --This is one of my favorite all time fonts. I just never have a place or time to use it.

And now I will attempt to "draw out" three fonts in my Sketch book.

And now, armed with all of this brainstorming, I'll do my best on my journeys into the world of VECTOR during class this week. wish me luck.