design

So you probably wondered where I have disappeared to – don’t worry I am here.  Blogging each day is a lot of work.

I have been working feverishly on the design/code for this blog site. In the meantime I have been struggling what colours I want to use. I just wanted to give a quick plugin n to ColourLovers! This site is great. I can browse through thousands of different colour schemes for inspiration.

For other colour inspirations I look at paint chips, and of course nature itself.

At the moment I am loving muted colour tunes. I do have an affinity for greys…so I wouldn’t be surprised if the layout for the site reflected that.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” – Jeff Bezos, founded Amazon.com

There are plenty of articles out there on why branding is important. There are plenty of great articles on the web, so I would like to focus on one practical way branding is recognized – the Logo.

I opened this post with a quote from Jeff Bezos because I think he captures the essence and importance of brand. However, I would push the concept to be more than just the reputation, but the embodiment and personality of a person. The logo reflects this concept and is tangiable means of your brand. It is especially important to me because not only am I selling my photos; I am selling who I am.

In my last post I said I would discuss a bit about my logo. If you go to my flickr site, you will notice that I’ve gone through at least 2 different logo changes. I created these images because I wanted to watermark my photos quickly. I didn’t really give it the proper thought, time, or consideration it deserved. I knew that I always wanted something that would be easily identifiable, but I was unsure where I wanted to go.

On the left is my new design. Unfortunately, I do not have the original sketches of this design concept. However, I can tell you about the thought process into this creation.

The criteria: After creating the last two logos, I knew I wanted something that was completely different. First I created a list of likes and dislikes of the last two logos I created. It went something like this:

Dislikes: Size, Shape, not easy to use, colour, font

Likes: font as graphic image, name, identifiable,

The research: Next I researched what other photographers were using for a logo. Many simply used fonts as their graphic image. I knew I wanted to push this a  bit further. (I wasn’t exactly sure how yet…) I liked the idea of using the font as a graphic image (I obviously used it for the last two designs!), but I didn’t like the proportions and shapes. I felt that the circular look almost dated the logo …(I think I even said that looks so late 1990s!)

Brainstorming: I knew that the design I created had to be identifiable and synonymous with me.  I started by writing down some key words about myself and my style. (I know it sounds silly…who knows me better than myself?)  It was important for me to have a logo that reflected my work. Some keywords included: simple, elegant, and creative.

Finding Inspiration: Even after looking, thinking and processing how I wanted to design this logo, I still didn’t know exactly what I wanted. The biggest challenge of designing a logo for yourself is that you are your biggest critique. You come up with an idea and you scratch immediately because you don’t think it is good enough. Trust me, I think I went through about 10 different designs before I came up with this.  My biggest issue was the shape. When I created the last two images, I felt that I need to incorporate both my first and last name. However, designing with an “A” and a “Q” was causing me a headache. The decision to drop my first name gave me more flexibility, and did not change the essence of feel I was looking for.

Despite dropping the “A”, I was still left with a circular Q. I hated the circle/oval look that my last two logos embodied. For me, it just looked dated and followed many trendy logos. I needed something that said more. As I thought about this, I was thinking more about my cultural heritage. I happened to be looking at a few images of Chinese calligraphy and noticed the standard way the artist left his/her mark – a stamp in red ink. The stamp contained the artists name enclosed in a rectangle. I knew right away that I wanted my logo to have this feel and look. There are many different kinds of stamps, but I like the way Wiki states it: a distinctive mark or impression made upon an object.

The drawing board: Sorry I don’t have the sketches, but I began with just trying to figure out I wanted to place “Quek and photography”. I knew I was going to be using available fonts that came with my Adobe Illustrator. In short, I looked through every serif font I had. I picked serif fonts because I enjoy the way they look. When I designed this logo, I kept three things in mind: scability, proportions, and color. I pretty much solved the scability and propotion issue by inclosing the graphic image in a rectangle. Since I knew that I was going to use the logo as a “watermark” on my images, I made sure my design looked good in some form of transparency. I didn’t want a colourful logo to take away from the photo.

Final Product: I originally wanted to use artistic lines that looked more like a stamp, but I realized quickly that it wouldn’t work well in different mediums. In the end I chose clean simple lines. After I created the image, I waited 6 months to see if I still liked it. I also tested it on different images to see how it looked. Overall, I am happy with the final product. There are a few adjustments I’d like to make, but I think those can be placed on hold for now.

click on image for larger preview