Logo Design

In this week's assignment we have been asked to design a logo that represents ourselves.  This again is something that takes me outside of my usual comfort zone but I do admit I had a lot more fun with this than I had initially anticipated. 
 
I started by watching the videos and then reading the article that were included in this week's module.  The most important information I took from the first video, Graphic Design: What's in a Logo was the way you can develop a logo.  While it may start as one concept it, the final design may be something completely different.  I mean of course I knew this, but to see something go from a firework to a series of differing sized circles one inside the other was quite interesting.  Makes you wonder about many of the images we have seen today, what was their original concept.  I myself preferred the more stylized version of the circle rather with the ideas shooting out of it. 
 
Next I reviewed the reading and the PowerPoint.  The PowerPoint in particular helped me to understand the terminology associated with branding and logo design.
 
Now I was ready to create, at first I literally just sat there.  Where do I even start, so I started with my name.  Then I started to draw myself, yea that stick figure is me, I'm wearing a graduation cap and holding a diploma.  This is something that is so very important to me, I must finish school FINALLY and reach my goal.  At 37 years old though it has its challenges, working full time, raising my 17 year old daughter, starting a new relationship and making time for family and friends.  That's when the idea of a balancing act hit me.  So I drew scales.  Then I starting toying around with using my initials.  I decided I didn't want the scales to be so in your face as scales more subtle and the same for the initials but how to combine them?  This took me the longest time, I had to step away and really think about this.  Then it came to me, what about the curves of the letters coming together.  So that's when I came up with the area you see in the box.  I placed a heart on one side and a diploma on the other to show the most important aspects of my balancing act.  The heart representing my family and my relationship and the diploma representing my college education. 

 

I then took my ideas to the computer to finish my logo.  I used Word 2010 to complete the stylization and came up with this as my finished product.

 



 

As you can see I moved the heart to the bottom of the D, this was to showcase that ultimately family, especially my daughter, is the single most important thing but that I can do both and that I will keep rising and reach my goal of becoming a college graduate.  The most important discovery I had in creating this logo was that as long as I keep trying and push through, I can accomplish anything.  I have to keep my goals in mind and break through my initial discomfort.