Recently, it became relevant that I develop a logo for myself, so I dived into my sketchbook for some quick ideas to get me going. My two main thoughts involved a cube (Lined up isometrically or a little lower in angle) or something forming in the shape of a capital G, which is my first initial. Not too many people have names starting with G, so I feel that it's something rather personal that represents me. It's like one of my points of uniqueness.
I also took a rabbit, or a creature similar to a rabbit, into consideration with my design. Quite a bit of my presence online involves a bunny (Many usernames on art-based sites, and other places, are typically either Bunytech or Bunnytech, for days when I can actually spell check my information before hitting the 'done' button) and there is a lot of positive symbolism that comes with the image of that animal. Rabbits carry symbolism of luck, speed, wit, and motion (preferably in a forward direction). I want people to perceive me as a positive or energetic person, one that has the motivation to get stuff done.
So these were my sketches, and matter messing with the cube and the rabbit, I started to focus my attentions on the rabbit, as you can see below. I chose the colors Purple and green for personal reasons, but they also carry symbolism I'd like to affiliate with. The color purple is synonymous with both creativity and royalty, though the former is more of my goal with this model. Green, synonymous with nature, was a color I chose more to symbolize the green GO of a stoplight. I felt it went well with the idea of motion.
To start, I began messing around in illustrator with a box, but promptly gave up and decided to favor the running rabbit(?) idea.
I wanted to curve the rabbit into the shape of a capital G, letting it bend in the general 'C' shape, with it's ear pointing in to form the 'G'.
The most key thing I learned, in my opinion, was how to effectively manipulate strokes. With the aid of the might width tool, I finally surmounted one of my greatest challenges and conquered the vector path (To a pretty great extent). With this leap forward into illustrator, I have seemed to overcome my previous hurdle that was my relative intimidation from illustrator. Being used to the pixel-based programs of Photoshop and Autodesk Sketchbook, it was certainly a mental leap for me. I desire to be able to go further into the conveniently infinitely-scale-able realm of illustrator, for more versatile designs!
Taking into account the picture above, of my nearly full art-board, I felt that I did well in the department of experimentation, I even tried things I felt may look stupid just in case!
And below, you ca see the finished(sh) product that I came up with! I was a fan of many of the designs, but some came out to cluttered, or took too much focus from what I personally wanted to achieve.
The end result was, in the end, the running bunny, which doesn't QUITE look like a bunny, but I feel it is close enough, looking like more of a jackrabbit with a cartoon-ish motion blur dashing behind it. The inner green circle turned into a green ring, which then became a hoop when i accidentally shifted one of the legs behind the ring, and by a happy accident, I had the bunny suddenly jumping though the newly made hoop. This flew by really well with others that saw it, and myself, so i gave it (the ring) a gradient to finish it up. The gradient gives a kind of a sunrise feel to it, and adds some visual interest beyond the flat shapes and color.
With that design in my head, i tested in in gray-scale.When I transferred it, i ditched the ring gradient, for it didn't add to the design at all in that state, and it looked much more balanced without it, but it still needed a bit more POP. So give it that visual interest, I gave the lighter colors, namely the ring and the eyes, a bit of a glow to contrast with any darker backgrounds that it may be placed on.
That gave it a nighttime feel, and I can almost see a stark contrast in terms of daytime/nighttime between the two logos. I am very happy with the result!
In the future with these kinds of designs, I will try to do a batter job of catching little visual quirks that mess up the intended focus of the piece. I'd hate to come up with a nice design that people do not catch the cleverness of. Next time, I will make sure to take a step back form it, and collect much more feedback! But for now, I am quite content!
