When I first learned we were going to start branding and
making an identity for ourselves I was so excited. A million ideas were flying through my mind of ideas for a
logo. Examples ranged from my
initials or monogram, to my full name, to flowers, anchors, stamps, arrows,
tribal patterns, popsicles, waves, and even crabs. I thought I would without a doubt come up with several
excellent ideas but when I went to actually sit down and start it was a lot
harder to get started than I had thought it would be. I had been researching online for plenty
of inspiration. I Googled for
hours and also searched Pinterest, which is an extremely helpful tool. When I went to start actually drawing
my ideas, I remembered how terrible of a drawer I am. I can make beautiful design and art on a computer, but when
I go to draw nothing quite turns out how I pictured it in my head. Although, I have learned that this is sometimes
a good thing. My ideas accidentally
change and inspire and push me even further with new developing ideas. After sketching for hours on hours, I
still was not happy. I hadn’t come
up with anything that I was crazy about yet, so I went to sleep and thought I
would try again tomorrow. That
ENTIRE night all I can remember dreaming about was logos on logos and patterns
and designs. This happens to me
every single night after I am doing design work all night. Last semester I was having weird dreams
about HTML and coding, and when my alarm was going off in the morning I was
still half asleep dreaming that an obnoxious siren was going off in the school
and I had to figure out the code to get it to stop. Digital design literally can drive a person crazy!
So to start, I started with drawing different variations of
my name in different fonts—curly, boxy, cubed, geometrically… I really love
typography so I was initially trying to incorporate something fun into the way
my name would look. After the
first critique on my first set of sketches I felt discouraged because after
spending countless hours on my first set of ideas they were basically all
turned down. That means all that
work was for NOTHING. Frustration kicked
in. I focused too much on coming
up with designs using my initials and the feedback that I got told me to focus
on either my whole name as a word mark for my logo or to consider coming up
with an icon or symbol that I could design into my logo that would represent
me.
This past week I spent just as many hours mocking up
numerous designs that went in a totally different direction from my previous
ones. In the end, I decided that I
really liked the ones that incorporated a flower or feminine and curvy looking
designs paired with my name, or the ones that I created with a crab icon. The crab I considered for many
reasons. First off, I am from
Maryland where we are famous for being so plentiful in crabs in our Chesapeake
Bay. Growing up in Maryland, I am
OBSESSED with crabs. I pretty much
eat them at least once a day when I am there. Seriously. I
was picking crabs when I was not even a year old. Also, my zodiac sign is cancer, whose symbol is the crab. I came up with a cute little crab icon
who looks super friendly and playful.
As of right now I am thinking that I am going to expand on this idea and
develop it more because I think the crab logo would look good paired with my
name in a simple sans serif typeface yet can also stand alone on items such as
my cover letter, letterheads, envelopes, thank you notes, or resume.
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