logo feedback please

BenJonesDesign

Active Member
Hi guys,

Following on from the advice you all gave me on my post entitled, "How do i get a job in design?" I have come up with 7 new logos. Last time it was said the area I really needed to improve on was, well everything apart from print so hopefully now i'm on the right track with the new designs.

The new logos are:

CORE
CRAVE
Oxy Telecoms
Yeti's Ice Cream
The Trend
Urban Spirit
RJ Publishing

Let me know what you think.

Online graphic design portfolio | Ben Jones Graphic Designer
 
It's good that you're practising... but it seems like a lot of logos in a short space of time (that's an assumption please correct me if I'm wrong.).

Have you thought about what they would look like in black and white/2 colours?
What about in smaller sizes?
How do they fit the brand/company?

Just some food for thought :)
 
well on average each logo took roughly 2-4 hours to finish, with development and initial ideas of course. I can be pretty quick when I get right into it.

That's a good point Becky on the black and white thing, admittedly I haven't tried it with a few of them even though I know it's essential to try it out, but I generally try and keep it in mind when designing.

With regards to the size they have all been done in vector format so are fine when made smaller or larger.

When it comes to the designs fitting in with the company i did do some research on each company type, some times I went with the simply style e.g. The Trend (a clothing retailer) and others I went for the "meaning behind images" right up to the obvious like the yeits ice cream.

That reminds me, I haven't put what each company is about in the descriptions but i'll list them here too:

CORE - Design Company
CRAVE - Design Company
Oxy Telecoms - Telecoms Business
Yeti's Ice Cream - Ice Cream Brand
The Trend - Clothing Retailer
Urban Spirit - Dance School
RJ Publishing - Publishers
 
If I'm honest and I don't mean to sound harsh here - they look like clipart to me.
There's also legibility issues, dodgy font choices and in some cases bad colour choices in my opinion. .
Your main issue is the designs are being produced from 'your' brief in that you don't have a client to be critical of them meaning you will get stuck with an idea if you like it. Researching similar designs is great but you also need a critical eye and you can't always do that with your own brief.

If you haven't already considered it may I suggest you take a look at the current branding contest going on on this very site - linky - then try entering. I can say with certainty than none of the finished designs in that thread have taken 2-4 hours, mine personally, admittedly with CAD models took about 6-7 evenings (about 4-5 hours each - so about 28 hours) by the time you take into account idea's and development and theres still work I could do to improve it.

Reading your about us page it does appear that you haven't done any formal training or work in the field of design so I would highly recommend doing a course to learn some of the basics as having a mac and the cs3 suite doesn't mean you can do good design. It's a bit like saying I have a cement mixer and a trowel therefore I can build a house - trust me you can't.
 
I know what you mean Levi, which is really the reason i'm on here, with feedback from others I can amend accordingly. With regards to taking a course in design, i would love to, but my problems are 1 - haven't got the money 2 - haven't got the time (work full time as an IT manager for a company). Really i would love to get a job as a junior graphic designer or an apprentice graphic designer, I know i've got the talent and the skills, I just need someone to point me in the right direction and "mold me" so to speak.
 
By the way Levi, just saw your entries using CAD, love them. Which program do you use, as CAD is certainly my next thing to learn.
 
My CAD is done using a combination of programs but you can easily reproduce something similar using blender (it's free) and is a good place to understand it, another option is houdini (theres a free version to learn with).

I would however highly recommend you do not learn CAD, focus on an area rather than trying to be a jack of all trades.

Most of the people on this forum specialise in a main area and then have supplementary skills in area's which would be useful, Harry is web code for example, Ken (Krey) is illustration, I'm CAD.

Admittedly I can do other area's but that are not my field but I would never try to con a client into using me over someone I think is better suited - I have done and always will say if something is outside my skillset, in my view it's better to be honest then waste a clients time, it will always come back and hurt you if you try to fake something.
 
Thanks Levi that really helps. I've always felt to get into design I need to know and be brilliant at everything, over the last few years I've done as much as i can to learn the obvious ones like Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign, but i've also been learning Dreamweaver (with a bit of HTML) and also Flash as well as plans to go on and learn others.

In your opinion what area and what skills do you think I should really put my efforts into?
 
Learning the programs is great, as you need to be able to translate ideas to final product.


But as Levi said maybe some training is in order, not everyone can go to design school, but there are other ways to learn the theories and basics, or at least some better practises. (Although some people will argue the basics aren't necessary... but they're usually people who are lucky enough to work in the industry and gain teaching/insight on a daily basis)

Things like typography, grid work, etc are useful. Even getting into the habit of spending some time sketching and researching the companies you'd be making logos for (and their competition) is background work and time well spent.

Ken wrote an interesting article on researching kenreynoldsdesign.co.uk – Blog-ject 1.6.5 – Research – Application to the Design Process

I was going to add something else but I don't remember what now :(
 
Thank Becky, the research post looks pretty good, certainly makes me think more about the way I process my ideas.

When it comes to learning I should add that I am constantly on tutorial sites looking, learning anything from basic techniques to more complicated ones like the bubble I created in the oxy telecoms logo, (well at first it looked complected but once I had learned it I suppose it wasn't that hard really). With Indesign I always new I had to do more than just look up tutorials so I am currently learning from a course book I purchased which is turning out to be a great help. With this I think my next step is to purchase the same sort of books for the other programs.
 
Thanks Jagix. I have to ask, how do you mean "clip-arty". From my understanding I know that in some instances i.e. the font for yeti's ice cream, looks terribly, and on that I will look at changing the font. How ever all images used, apart from fonts, have been created by myself. Yeti was sketched and then rendered in Illustrator, the character in CRAVE was created in Illustrator and other things, such as the effects in the Urban Spirit logo, were created using different brushed, paths and gradients.
 
Listen to Levi's advice, he speaks sense.

It is almost impossible to create a logo from nothing, that is just based on a fictional company name because you miss the point of what being a designer is all about.

Design is not just about making things that look nice, the point is that u are trying to communicate with your audience visually. Clever gimmicks within logos might look great, but there must be a theory behind your ideas. Why have u done what u have done? What is the thinking behind your use of colour, shape, space, layout etc. What are you trying to say? What message do you want to get across? What do you want the viewer to think? Design theory is a massive part of being a graphic designer that so many people ignore by just making things that look 'nice'

Secondly, to design something it normally takes 2 to tango, you and the client. By designing something you think looks nice only pleases you, but you have no brief, no limitations, no timescales or deadlines or restrictions. If your logos were designed for a real client you would have to ensure it meets their needs, it does what they want it to do, it suits their client demographic. There is so much more to being a designer than just making things look 'nice' and until you appreciate that I don't think your work will ever improve or grow.
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Thanks Dave, I know what you mean. I have done artwork for a few clients and of course I understand the principles behind design. With the designs I have created for myself it was more a way of bulking up my portfolio, the previous examples of logos on my portfolio were getting near scraping the barrel and I new for certain after help from you guys that I had to change it and fast (especially because of an opening at a design company near me for a Junior Graphic Designer so I needed to impress).

I suppose really in the rush of putting a portfolio together that looked better than my previous attempt I did forget the basics and ended up with designs that as you say look nice but really convey no meaning behind the branding of a company.
 
Yeh Ben, I know how that feels to really want to bulk up your portfolio, and theres nothing wrong with wanting to add more work to show off in an interview.

However, I would suggest though that you concentrate on producing 3 really excellent logos rather than creating 12 average pieces of work.

Quality is much more valuable than quantity, especially as a junior designer. You would much rather want your potential boss to think you work slowly, but your work is good so you will speed up in time rather than you work really quickly but produce sub-standard work.
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thanks Dave I will bare that in mind, I do have quite a split personality when it comes to designing at times, sometimes I will be quite slow but at the same time being very much the perfectionist, but at other times I can tend to speed through it which as you said isn't always a good thing at my level of experience.
 
being a perfetionist is a great quality to have as a designer. Dont worry about working slowly, I had the same problem but your work will speed up as you get more experience and work reguarly. Maybe take 3 of the logos you have just designed and refine them until they are as good as can be?
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thanks for that, I'm in the process of redesigning my online portfolio at the moment so it's more eye catching and interactive, i will post it once it's done
 
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