FINAL LOGOS:

 

LOGO IN CONTEXT :

 

CONTEXT :

My job was to design a logo for “Kindred Yoga Studio”: a small yoga studio based in Shunyi who are looking for a fresh look. They expressed that their audience was mostly young women and wealthy people. They aim to have a dynamic and diverse community. In my logo, I tried to show the keywords that represented the company:

• Strong: The shades of green, especially the darker shade, are bolder yet toned down. This turns away from the idea of physical strength, but rather mental strength that will support how someone is on the outside.
• Ethical: The minimalistic design could represent the simple idea of right and wrong. The person represents the idea of having moral values and finding one’s truest self.
• Harmonious: By using colours that work together and that are all shades of green, it hints at the idea of togetherness and unity.

PLANNING :

When planning, I decided to use the resources on DX to help think of ways I could come up with ideas. I came up with shapes, fonts, ideas/keywords and colours. I used bullet points to come up with brief ideas that would help shape the way my logo would turn out.

 

PRACTISE + VOCABULARY :

Throughout the unit, I used several websites such as The Bézier Game to practise using the pen tool in Affinity Design. When playing, I realized that there were a lot of things that I didn’t actually know, such as using the option/alt key. But, the most valuable thing I took away was that although using fewer nodes may be more convenient, opting for more notes means that the end product could look much nicer.

We also learnt about different vocabulary when it came to typography, such as:

• Kerning: The space between two letters
• Tracking: The spacing between a word
• Leading: The space between the lines of text

Although I did not apply some of these typography concepts in my final logo, I did keep them in mind whenever I was reflecting on possible improvements. I did, in fact, use tracking in my final logo in the little subtitle below the logo as I wanted it to fill in the empty space nicely without any gaps.

 

DRAFTS / IDEAS :

In the beginning, I played around with some ideas, with my three original ideas being the top left, top right and middle left ideas. From the beginning, I centred the colour of my designs to be green, as it was a colour I have always correlated to the ideas of yoga, meditation and peace. Later, I received feedback from my peers, which included:

• The font I used for the top left logo was a very generic script font, and a better font should have been chosen
• Avoiding using the peace sign and play around with other signs instead
• The man on the middle left logo felt too sharp
• The colour of the middle left logo had the best colour that didn’t feel too glaring
• The contrast in the top-right logo felt too much

I made two more logos after that, but I still liked the idea of the middle left logo, so I stuck with it. I decided to round the corners of the ‘K’ slightly, so it didn’t feel too sharp. I also opted for another green as I thought the shade used felt too unnatural. I used a colour palette website that helped me find shades of green that I thought would fit best (see the final logo).

 

IMPROVEMENT :

At the beginning of the unit, I was sort of lost when making a logo for the Panda Book Awards. This may be partially down to the fact that I already knew what the original logo looked like, so making a new one felt harder. However, the logo seems somewhat too childish and didn’t give an “award” feel. I also put text around the bottom right of the circle, yet it can’t be seen very well at all, which was a mistake I made when choosing the colours. There were definitely a lot of things that could have been improved from the logo.

By the end of the unit, I had a much better understanding of what made a good logo. I implemented colours, adjusted shapes and played around with typography to share the message I wanted to express through my logo.

 

BREAKDOWN OF DECISIONS :

• The emphasis on the ‘K’ by turning it into a character was so that there was one memorable part of a logo that anyone could recognize. It would also add flexibility when it came to possible designs on real-world items (e.g. the stickers)
• The colours were selected as it was the best colours that could represent the “down-to-earth”, nature and sustainability aspects of yoga. It’s also a colour that is often associated with such ideas.
• The font is a sans-serif as it would show the simplicity of the activity – it’s also dynamic with how it can be interpreted. Serif would seem too “old-style” while a script font would seem over-the-top for something that focuses on the idea of being true to one’s self – a rather minimalistic concept.
• Lowercase was chosen because uppercase would seem too aggressive and bold. It wouldn’t fit the concept.
• The sub-text is there to provide context, as not all people might immediately under this place to be a yoga studio. It’s also why the ‘K’ can be used as a logo on its own after people know it’s a yoga studio.

 

FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS :

• Using the actual capital ‘K’ on the font as a reference for the shape of the person as it’s a very questionably shaped ‘K’ (doesn’t exactly look like a ‘K’)
• Testing different fonts in the sans serif community

 

BONUS :