Logo Design

In looking for retouching symbols I knew that one of them was the pen tool, I wanted to look for a different version of the pen tool because I wanted to stand out and not follow the same as what others would do.
 I looked at the feather logo because it still a pen and its semiotics is that of high class as well as old and established. I do not think that this logo works however as the pen doesn’t relate to retouching at all so people might not understand why it as been used.

Because I knew I needed to change the logo and find a digital pen I used this symbol for the Wacom tablet and the graphics pen, this is more easily recognisable as a retouching symbol because of how often tablets are used in retouching. 

If I was going to continue into retouching then I would definitely explore this tablet theme more and try to create a 3D looking logo where my name appears to come out of the tablet screen, as I think that would help me stand out more, however as I have been hired by a photography studio I am going to redesign my website with my photography to show off my skills in the work that the studio does so that I can advertise myself as a studio photographer and direct personal clients to working with the studio; I have permission from the manager to use the studio for personal clients when the studio is not busy as this will still generate advertising and repeat clients.

I personally like the logo designs where a camera has been incorporated into the designs; I have experimented with different camera shapes and different fonts to design my logo.

These are the camera shapes I used to work with my logo:

These are some of the designs I have created, as I was creating the designs I did not save all of my designs however these are the major changes that I have created:

For the first designs I used a camera shape and placed my initials into the lens, this is a common design in photography logos and I wanted to see if I could make this work for my own name. I started with the black text but decided it looked to plain and that I needed to change the font, I scrolled through the list of fonts available within Photoshop and found that I preferred the script type writing over fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman. I think that curved writings look more open and friendly whereas Arial would be good for business’s which need to come across very serious and professional; in the creative industry there is more leniency about the ‘look’ of the business and what is expected. My favourite from these first designs is the final one with the red coloured font. I think that is I was going to be shooting mostly new-borns and children after I left university then I would only play around with the purple font more as this seems to be a good match for that kind of photography; but because my focus is on retouching I do not think I will use this colour.

I do like the contrast that the red has against the black and white so I think I am going to be focussing on that, as well as this being related to the branding of GC Photo-Grafics.

For the second designs I wanted to use my initials to create the shape of the camera body, at first the font seemed too rounded and curved to be part of the camera design, I changed the font through the available options but nothing seemed to be working, I think that if I want to use this design I will have to draw out the initials myself using a line tool in order to get the look I am wanting.  At first when creating this design I had my text black but I decided to use colour in order for my initials to stand out against the camera and make it obvious that that is what I was doing.

The third set of designs was a redesign of the first set; I used a different camera outline that made it look more like a digital camera rather than a film camera. However I do prefer the first set as I prefer the camera shape. I think what puts me off is the line above the shape that would be the “shutter” of the camera, this is distracting and I do not think it fits in. I did not experiment with this design, as I did not like it that much, but out of the set I prefer the middle design, I think that shade of purple works really well with the design.

The fourth set of designs did not work at all; I think this is because I removed the circle from the middle so it just appears as a square. At the time I could not work out what was missing so I changed from using my initials to using my full name, this works better but I still feel that this design does not work.

The last camera shape is my personal favourite, I think this is because of the detail within the camera shape; it fills it out and makes it look more professional. I put my name in the camera lens like I had previously but I found I preferred the shutter detail in the lens; this has more connotations of photography.  I then tried to find a way to make my initials emerge from the side of the camera however I did not like this design. I went back to changing the font, I tried to find a more suitable font, and I found that the curved fonts looked better as this looks more professional and friendly than the hard and rigid square designs.

 I like the last design the most because my name appears friendlier yet still remains professional, I have mixed it up for the ‘photography’ to add contrast and draw attention to it, I think minor changes are still needed as I want to blend my name in more with the camera lines so it appears as one rather than my name just stuck on top of it.

One thing that I had to pay attention to: is the spacing between the letters, in the first few designs my name appears too spaced out and looked like two different words.