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CD work
This week has been a tiring one, the most stress I found defiantly came from creating the CD work. The reason being that it took me ages before finding the right effect / amount of editing that I would be happy with.

In the end after much debate I decided to go for my first and last designs. The first was using a picture then creating an effect called cubism, this involved cutting out squares in a picture rotating them and putting little shades and edits on each piece. This was of cause very frustrating and took a lot of time but I think the end result looks good thus meaning it was worth it

My last design was something of a test of patience, it was to browse the internet for various tutorials on water and make my own image from manipulating the original factor. This in some ways took just as much time as the cubism method mainly, because of the research involved. The amount of research made me very tired most nights but it paid off in the final design making the overall affect look quite good, however there was still a little dissatisfaction for me as I did not like the end result as much as the cubism one.

New Font
To go with the Cd work I needed to find a new font that stood out and really made me think “Wow that’s good” however as the weeks went by I struggled to find the correct font which would make me smile.

However after intense research into fonts I found one which had some grate potential for my logo, however I did not see it working so well on the Cd design. The font is called LotusFlower and it is a free download at dafont.com.

So with much eager ambition I went to Steve with my designs, this turned out to be the best mover ever, mainly as then I found out about the font called avant guard, I really like this font it stands out and also is clear and easy to read making it the perfect font for my Cd work.



Flight Plan
This week was also a success story as I managed to complete my flight plan, I have been holding off doing the flight plan for ages thinking it would be hard, as much of my research showed people using software to complete there flight plans. But after the list we did on Monday I felt I knew what to do, this was helped along by a re lecture on print which included a lot of information that we would all need to no. I my self am glad the lecture was retold as it allowed me to think about the flight plan with a clear mind.

I did struggle at first but I kept typing and ended up with a list of things the printer might want to no which was the flight plan. Although I had some errors I still managed to get it done.

Work to be done
Although I feel I have accomplished a lot this week I know I still have a long way to go. This week I am aiming to get most the work complete as to stick to the original time plan which was to have all work complete 1 week before the hand in date.

I think overall my biggest struggle is going to be placing everything into Indesign without no trouble, I have heard / found out that when saving in EPS (ie the logo) there can be some difficulty when transferring the logo especially if you have it with a solid colour.

The Font still needs changing to avant guard.




This is my last design however i still think it needs a lot of work doing on it to make it industry standard.

Moving Fast!

My three logos although slightly finished still need work. One I need to place a good looking font on there to brighten things up and make the Emit logo look more eye pleasing. Also I think it will make me happier knowing that my logo looks its best although I have to remember not to get too attached.

A good way to improve my logo is to use thicker lines on the 1st design and a more rounded moon on the 2nd design. This makes me happy as well as now I know how to fix the logos to make them industry standard, although making the lines ticker will result in me using less paths so that the logo will still work at a small size.

Inspiration
My inspiration has defiantly been used this week; I have been using my sketchbook to help me design/redesign my work, although using my sketchbook for ideas can sometimes be a bad influences from bad business cards and such. Although I try to stay away from bad ideas they can subluminally influence me.

A happy moment of the week is the inspiration forum talk, this is a place to post and get inspiration, so please take a look if you get time. (DesignForum)

CD Work
This week has been an interesting but frustrating one as I try to pick a design for my CD cover, I have been looking very closely into plants, trees and nature. But as well as this I have been toying with the idea of Cubism as it is a play on words on the artists name which is Qubism.

Although using Cubism would be good for effect it would take a lot of time and would be very hard to pull off, I think so that I don’t have as much stress I will create the basic version of the CD first and then try and do a cubism formatted one.

Fonts
Fonts are another challenging aspect this week as I try to find the perfect font. Even though I have researched fonts and looked at plenty of them I still struggle to find the perfect font for me and my designs. The hardest part is matching them to my designs in a way that I feel they suit although it is not really about me and they way I feel but about the client and his opinions.

Logos!

These are my final 3 logos. Sory for the long wait but my internet has been very slow and crashing upon uploading this week. Also i know about some of the colours not contrasting it was mainly just to see what it looked like. BAD! But it was worth trying.


Also i know about some of the thin lines consistant in some of the designs, was done to ensure they worked at small sizes.

Design, Design, Design

Logos
More logo creating this week brought a design style to my logos which was eye catching. The main type of logo I stuck to was an eclipse of the sun (half) this meant that you could still see half the sun and half the moon.

At the moment I am trying different styles of type to go with this logo but finding the right one is proving to be difficult. One thing I am going to do is print off a big list of fonts saying the word EMIT so that I can pick the best one. Although trying to match one to the logo I have done is hard as some text styles spoil the logo.

If anyone has some good free typefaces please post a link.

CD Design
This week I also started on my CD design and sketched some examples of what might match the music I have been listening to. Once again I tried to get this light and dark feel across, as the music was both dark and light.

One of the designs I thought of was sun rise inside, sun setting back and night for the front, this to me seemed to get a lot of moods across which I felt from listening to the music. This design however may have some consequences as the writing on the back may be hard to read with the sun shining through the words.

Through research of the artist Qubism John informed me of a culture art called Cubism. This used different cut outs of a picture from different angles to give the onlooker more of a feel of the picture. Through more research I found a tutorial on how to do this on Photoshop. I did a couple of examples however I think that once the Qubism effect took place it was sometimes very hard to actually see the original picture, this produced some problems but with careful editing I am sure I can make cubism work. It will also provide a good play on words as the artist I am doing is called Qubism.

Weekly Events

Finalise 3 logos

Finalise 3 CD designs

Research information a flight document

Get more A1 work

Buy a new sketchbook

Logo creation

This week mainly consisted of creating more logos and trying different variations of the top chosen logos. However once done I had to learn not to get too attached to the logos I was creating as they would soon be commented on.

The main motive I had going with all the logos I had created was one that represented the world and how different things emit around the world. To make sure that I was doing the correct type of logos I asked for feedback of cause all feedback is good feedback so it all helped.

At the beginning of a week I was carrying on with my earth logo with a satellite floating around the earth while emitting signals to the things below. I thought this would show how it picked up different parts / different scenes from around the world.

Learning the client
However quickly learning that this was not the correct logo was good to stop me falling for the one idea, I soon found out via though client (Steve) That a more sun/eclipse logo would be more ideal in this situation. This not only showed how objects such as light could be emitted down to earth but how easily the light could be taken away. This makes it, appeal more strongly in my opinion.

Another reason why I ended up preferring this choice is that I know that it would look good on the front of a CD cover rather than spoiling the look, as my first intended logo would have done.

Finding paths
This title simple means the new software I have learned to use this week (Freehand), although I have learned about this software I still think it is a bit more mysterious than meats the eye. Although to be honest a lot of the options look very similar to Photoshop but this only helps me settle in to the software more easily.

To get my full potential out of this software I will be searching for tutorials to help me get used to the new formats and things that you can do while using free hand. If you have any links that could help please list them below.

Over the week
Learning the edge, by this I mean learn more about the software Freehand and what it can do. Plus find out information on how it can improve logo creation.

Testing and creating, testing my new logo in different environments such as colour and background affects.

Proof of testing, screenshot any tests done on the PC and stick any paper work into the sketchbook.

New sketchbook, this week I will need a new sketchbook for this assignment I feel as if I have already done enough work to fill a new one beyond half.

Logo Crash

This week I have set my self the task of researching logo designs as well as making / doodling my own. Although normally you may think that doodling is easy it does get hard when you are concentrating on the item its self.

The hardest thing for me at least was producing a brand new idea each time, after a while I started doing the same type of logo which was annoying. To stop this I thought back to the lecture on logos and the different types so every time I hit a mental block like this I switched my logo type from Text only design to picture and modern age design.

Thinking of logos

Thinking up the logos required me to look at my inspiration. Looking at other logos gave me my own ideas for mine, however I had to be careful not to subliminally copy the logo.

To try and keep the logo symbol and make sure it was the original specifications that I wanted I used basic shapes to make the logo look correct. However I often found my self overlaying shapes so that they stood out more when looking at them.

Mind Maps

Mind maps have helped me a lot so far when doing the logos, mainly because I just look back on my mind maps to see what’s good / bad about a logo and then look at my mood map to see different pictures and thought on EMIT, this allowed me to be able to create a wide range of logos.

Inspiration

I have a lot more inspiration now after the holidays as I looked up a lot of logo and business card work so that I could view work and detail behind items, I also did a mood and mind map on these items. So now every time I get stuck on a piece of work I just look back at my inspiration, I also have a lot of photo work which I look at for inspiration, these also help me when I seem to be having a mental block when doing work.

Finalise

To finalise my work I have decided that I am going to post them on the forum and on the blog, this will give me a better chance to get more feedback from others. I think as we need to get more real feedback to help us maybe asking around the web for feedback will be a good idea.