More experiments in comics: this one I made by remixing screenshots I took from the live webcam at Abbey Road.
I had a lot of fun looking at people walking across, what with the weird tentative "no you first, no you first" situations that occurred between the traffic and the people waiting to walk across and the goofy hops and skips that people made when walking the last few steps of the crossing, just to signal the silliness of the act. The first panel was a lady who was waving to the webcam and blowing kisses at me. That was very nice.
Wasn't 100% sure whether graphic design applied here, but hey someone pointed me to this thread!
I'm working on a personal project to rebrand a local pizza place, while still keeping with the existing mascot. First step with that is figuring out the logo.
The existing logo on their website, although I need to get a hold of one of their pizza boxes
I've settled on focusing the design around the current mascots face, and I at first recreated it as exactly from the current logo as possible before using that as a base to draw on with the brush tool.
Probably going to go for the one with the thicker lines for the hair/face, as the thinner lines didn't show up too well on a t-shirt mockup.
Finally this from me messing with a bunch of handwritten fonts, may have settled on the fourth one down on the right. (Put this one in a spoiler cause it's a bit long)
NakedZerglingA more apocalyptic post apocalypse Portland OregonRegistered Userregular
I personally do not care for the multicolored line work. I would also consider doing alternate takes on the mascot, as here it just seems like you removed the body and enlarged what was basically already there. But in the new version, the hair it just some random clumps of masses, and im only reading it like that specific hairstyle because i saw the original. Otherwise it looks like she could be wearing a hat, or just that her head is very uneven.
I've settled on focusing the design around the current mascots face, and I at first recreated it as exactly from the current logo as possible before using that as a base to draw on with the brush tool.
Did you try ANYTHING else? and if so can we see what direction you were going in? Or did you just jump right to this? Even in the 3 versions you have, we're just looking at 3 redrawn versions of an existing logo, and honestly i think the original logo is stronger at this point.
I would love to see some redrawn versions of this character.
I personally do not care for the multicolored line work. I would also consider doing alternate takes on the mascot, as here it just seems like you removed the body and enlarged what was basically already there. But in the new version, the hair it just some random clumps of masses, and im only reading it like that specific hairstyle because i saw the original. Otherwise it looks like she could be wearing a hat, or just that her head is very uneven.
I've settled on focusing the design around the current mascots face, and I at first recreated it as exactly from the current logo as possible before using that as a base to draw on with the brush tool.
Did you try ANYTHING else? and if so can we see what direction you were going in? Or did you just jump right to this? Even in the 3 versions you have, we're just looking at 3 redrawn versions of an existing logo, and honestly i think the original logo is stronger at this point.
I would love to see some redrawn versions of this character.
Well I hadn't added any detail to the hair yet as I wasn't completely certain on how the shape was going to turn out. You are right that the hair looks odd without any detail to it. I might be reaching for something too ambitious for my current skills, as I'm not an illustrator in any real sense and this is all done with the brush tool and a mouse. The reason I decided to use a local place as the subject was at the suggestion of some people from another forum. Although they did also suggest giving myself more freedom and simply creating a brand for a made-up pizza shop.
Definitely my opinion that if Annie's were to be rebranded, you'd want to try and stay true to the original mascot. It's the kind of place where I believe people might get confused if they didn't see her on the sign or the pizza boxes.
But that doesn't mean that you have to trace her design exactly. You can still redraw her face from different angles or with different proportions etc. while maintaining recognizability. Try taking a look at what it is that makes her recognizable and see how much you can simplify her design. Say, you could try to play with the spiral pattern in her hair, do something with the glasses or the little chin. Bottom line is, you can deviate a whole lot from the original design while still maintaining her character.
As for drawing skills: I would definitely encourage you to start honing them if you want to become a graphic designer because chances are you will need them at some point. That's not to say you cannot get by without drawing skills, because you probably can, but it's a massive plus for you. Now, for this project you can still try drawing it with vectors, but then I would also encourage you to try some more simplistic designs for starters, since those won't rely so much on your lacking illustration skills. Take a look at someone like Jim Flora or Alex Steinweiss to see what you can do with a very limited shape language.
I suppose I could try for a forward facing angle. Could still have the detail of the chin, and also include detail for her cheeks as well. The hair would look a bit more like... hair I imagine, too.
I agree with everything that NZ and m3nace have said and I'd further like to stress the point of experimentation and iteration, especially at this early stage in the creative process.
Good logo design is often the result of a long, awful, exhilarating, insane process of trying out as many ideas as you can think of, expanding on the best ones and then breaking those down to their simplest elements.
When I was taking graphic design classes the base requirements for a simple logo design would be:
1. Creating at least 30 little thumbnails where you are just exploring as many different avenues as possible.
2. Picking 6 of those designs (which all had to be completely different, not just variations on the same idea) to refine and discuss with instructors, classmates, whoever.
3. Picking 3 of those designs to refine and discuss.
4. Picking one of those designs to take to completion.
At its best, logo design is the boiling down of complex identities and ideas into an immediately recognizable, understandable, and appealing abstraction.
Won't deny that it being an actual character which exists already produces one hell of a challenge compared to my previous work, making the process you talk about a little more tricky. A fun challenge though. Just letting different angles stir in my head gives me some ideas already, although I might be hard pressed to produce 30 which will be entirely different.
I think the biggest problem with continuing to use the existing cartoon is that it lacks an understanding of the physical volume of the character. (this is a problem in the existing piece that is magnified by trying to transcribe it.) The linework is so free of any varying weight that it doesn't read well as a whole. understanding why she's shaped the way she's shaped would probably help a lot.
NakedZerglingA more apocalyptic post apocalypse Portland OregonRegistered Userregular
@Arthil He's a quick site i found. Just to give an idea of how you can take a character, even if it's just a regular person, and apply different styles.
this is NOT my art. http://cartoonkevin.com/
oh, I like that! It's something of a different look for you.
Am kind of wondering what the gold straps and bow at her hips are made of - the strips look too inflexible for cloth, so I was thinking molded metal, but then the bow is ambiguous.
Needing to work on something, I decided to just mess around with recreating things as a logo. My first idea was a wasp/hornet, and I took inspiration from this picture.
First attempt was... okay, maybe a little too solidly geometric. I liked the right one better as the curve to the bottom gave an idea of the mandibles.
The second one here I think is a lot better, I'm particularly fond of the right design. As you can see I was playing around with colors. One could argue that you might be able to say it's a bee, but I'd think a bee would be depicted a bit more... friendly. Hornets are assholes.
Honestly I think the things that really read "wasp/hornet" include (a) the large eyes, (b) the antennae, and (c) the mandibles.
Your logo right now is looking a little too shield-like...it's close, but I think it could be better if you focused on bringing at least one of the pieces mentioned above into the forefront of the design.
Honestly I think the things that really read "wasp/hornet" include (a) the large eyes, (b) the antennae, and (c) the mandibles.
Your logo right now is looking a little too shield-like...it's close, but I think it could be better if you focused on bringing at least one of the pieces mentioned above into the forefront of the design.
I actually did make a set of mandibles for the first design, I'd decided to not use it as I thought the bottom shape had a somewhat mandible-appearance. But that is actually a good idea, I'll see how it looks with the mandibles included.
Edit: That actually didn't take very long.
Made more pronounced mandibles(although I might wanna play with the spacing as I feel the black is too thick around the bottom there.). Also added a set of antennae.
A lot of the time my best work tends to be very geometric, it's a style I've founded I enjoyed working with after creating a cubic piece for a contest. Well that and I managed to make a full on roaring tigers face with the technique.
Most of the time I rarely seem to stick 100% to the reference, it always goes off somewhere else. The tigers reference was just a staring straight on face, the wasp obviously is 'wider'.
It's not about adhering tightly to the reference so much, at least not when you're working up designs for logos and things. It's more about stripping back the extraneous bits, figuring out the fundamental iconic elements that evoke an idea or an image. But how much you want to push or pull back on those depends on what you're trying to convey.
For example, I'd agree with ND that when it comes to hymenoptera, eyes are a significant feature. By downplaying that and lengthening the jaw:eye ratio at the expense of the forehead, you've produced a more stolid, mean-but-dumb look. Going the other way could invoke a sense of predatorial alertness, but reduce the impression of strength/reliability. So now you've got some ideas down, I'd be looking at coming from the other direction - what is this for? What do you want people looking at it to feel?
I suppose I didn't really design it with that in mind, it was all just an exercise in taking something and recreating it. When it comes to the eyes I wanted to keep them small, as usually larger eyes are something you'd connect with "friendly" and "childish".
Maybe one thing it could be used for is the logo for a gaming group, the type that plays competitive games and such. I'd never present this as a full logo as it is. The head would be an addition to the logo. This one is a good example of what I mean:
Here's the tiger I was talking about. I think I'd like to go back and maybe add a tongue at some point, but this was made very differently compared to the wasp. I made the base shape and all the details for one side, and then reflected it. I'd also make the upper teeth wider, there's a lot of empty space between them and the jowls.
I'm realizing a lot of this stuff is looking like sports team logos.
I'm not saying you have to go with larger eyes, I'm just pointing out the different options. Although there are definitely ways to make large eyes seem threatening.
Anyway I realize you were mostly playing around with shapes but at some point you will generally pick one to refine and develop. At that stage there needs to be some kind of metric applied even if it's a personal preference rather than a purpose.
Posts
I want to do a stupid western story.
I had a lot of fun looking at people walking across, what with the weird tentative "no you first, no you first" situations that occurred between the traffic and the people waiting to walk across and the goofy hops and skips that people made when walking the last few steps of the crossing, just to signal the silliness of the act. The first panel was a lady who was waving to the webcam and blowing kisses at me. That was very nice.
Been thinkin' a lot about Shadow of the Colossus,Dark Souls, and Taylor Swift these days.
Georgia O'Keeffe
Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/
I'm working on a personal project to rebrand a local pizza place, while still keeping with the existing mascot. First step with that is figuring out the logo.
The existing logo on their website, although I need to get a hold of one of their pizza boxes
I've settled on focusing the design around the current mascots face, and I at first recreated it as exactly from the current logo as possible before using that as a base to draw on with the brush tool.
Probably going to go for the one with the thicker lines for the hair/face, as the thinner lines didn't show up too well on a t-shirt mockup.
Finally this from me messing with a bunch of handwritten fonts, may have settled on the fourth one down on the right. (Put this one in a spoiler cause it's a bit long)
I've settled on focusing the design around the current mascots face, and I at first recreated it as exactly from the current logo as possible before using that as a base to draw on with the brush tool.
Did you try ANYTHING else? and if so can we see what direction you were going in? Or did you just jump right to this? Even in the 3 versions you have, we're just looking at 3 redrawn versions of an existing logo, and honestly i think the original logo is stronger at this point.
I would love to see some redrawn versions of this character.
Well I hadn't added any detail to the hair yet as I wasn't completely certain on how the shape was going to turn out. You are right that the hair looks odd without any detail to it. I might be reaching for something too ambitious for my current skills, as I'm not an illustrator in any real sense and this is all done with the brush tool and a mouse. The reason I decided to use a local place as the subject was at the suggestion of some people from another forum. Although they did also suggest giving myself more freedom and simply creating a brand for a made-up pizza shop.
Definitely my opinion that if Annie's were to be rebranded, you'd want to try and stay true to the original mascot. It's the kind of place where I believe people might get confused if they didn't see her on the sign or the pizza boxes.
As for drawing skills: I would definitely encourage you to start honing them if you want to become a graphic designer because chances are you will need them at some point. That's not to say you cannot get by without drawing skills, because you probably can, but it's a massive plus for you. Now, for this project you can still try drawing it with vectors, but then I would also encourage you to try some more simplistic designs for starters, since those won't rely so much on your lacking illustration skills. Take a look at someone like Jim Flora or Alex Steinweiss to see what you can do with a very limited shape language.
Good logo design is often the result of a long, awful, exhilarating, insane process of trying out as many ideas as you can think of, expanding on the best ones and then breaking those down to their simplest elements.
When I was taking graphic design classes the base requirements for a simple logo design would be:
1. Creating at least 30 little thumbnails where you are just exploring as many different avenues as possible.
2. Picking 6 of those designs (which all had to be completely different, not just variations on the same idea) to refine and discuss with instructors, classmates, whoever.
3. Picking 3 of those designs to refine and discuss.
4. Picking one of those designs to take to completion.
At its best, logo design is the boiling down of complex identities and ideas into an immediately recognizable, understandable, and appealing abstraction.
edit to add: @Iruka 's awesome posts in BrushwoodMutt's thread about volume and construction, I think, might be really pertinent/useful:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/32326414/#Comment_32326414
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
this is NOT my art.
http://cartoonkevin.com/
Twitter
Am kind of wondering what the gold straps and bow at her hips are made of - the strips look too inflexible for cloth, so I was thinking molded metal, but then the bow is ambiguous.
Twitter
I'm making a sketchbook for vancaf wooo
Not super pleased with how everything I doodle always turns into something really creepy
Why can't I just draw giraffes or cats or something, jesus
First of 30 pages colored.
Hiking Essentials
First attempt was... okay, maybe a little too solidly geometric. I liked the right one better as the curve to the bottom gave an idea of the mandibles.
The second one here I think is a lot better, I'm particularly fond of the right design. As you can see I was playing around with colors. One could argue that you might be able to say it's a bee, but I'd think a bee would be depicted a bit more... friendly. Hornets are assholes.
An evil creepy giraffe would be pretty cool to see.
Honestly I think the things that really read "wasp/hornet" include (a) the large eyes, (b) the antennae, and (c) the mandibles.
Your logo right now is looking a little too shield-like...it's close, but I think it could be better if you focused on bringing at least one of the pieces mentioned above into the forefront of the design.
I actually did make a set of mandibles for the first design, I'd decided to not use it as I thought the bottom shape had a somewhat mandible-appearance. But that is actually a good idea, I'll see how it looks with the mandibles included.
Edit: That actually didn't take very long.
Made more pronounced mandibles(although I might wanna play with the spacing as I feel the black is too thick around the bottom there.). Also added a set of antennae.
Gotta say this is a fun exercise.
Most of the time I rarely seem to stick 100% to the reference, it always goes off somewhere else. The tigers reference was just a staring straight on face, the wasp obviously is 'wider'.
For example, I'd agree with ND that when it comes to hymenoptera, eyes are a significant feature. By downplaying that and lengthening the jaw:eye ratio at the expense of the forehead, you've produced a more stolid, mean-but-dumb look. Going the other way could invoke a sense of predatorial alertness, but reduce the impression of strength/reliability. So now you've got some ideas down, I'd be looking at coming from the other direction - what is this for? What do you want people looking at it to feel?
Maybe one thing it could be used for is the logo for a gaming group, the type that plays competitive games and such. I'd never present this as a full logo as it is. The head would be an addition to the logo. This one is a good example of what I mean:
Here's the tiger I was talking about. I think I'd like to go back and maybe add a tongue at some point, but this was made very differently compared to the wasp. I made the base shape and all the details for one side, and then reflected it. I'd also make the upper teeth wider, there's a lot of empty space between them and the jowls.
I'm realizing a lot of this stuff is looking like sports team logos.
Anyway I realize you were mostly playing around with shapes but at some point you will generally pick one to refine and develop. At that stage there needs to be some kind of metric applied even if it's a personal preference rather than a purpose.