Symbol Methodology
Going into this first project in GDES1, I wasn’t completely sure about my skills on Illustrator, but I was willing to give it a shot. My main topic for this project came from my love of yoga and meditation. With a world that tries to make everything quicker and more timely, meditating is one of my favorite things to do. “Zen” had to be my topic choice.
However, brainstorming six words revolved around the world zen seemed difficult. I used words such as: “energy”, “buddha”, “lotus”, “balance”, “peace”, and “sun” to portray something that is such an abstract idea. However, as I got to sketching and creating stylized images, I quickly began to realize that despite my abstract idea, I loved my icons to look and mean something, much like how yoga and medication mean something to me. I figured that since the topic was abstract, the actual logo itself did not have to be completely so. My final images included the buddha and lotus, especially.
On the grading scale, I feel like I learnt a lot from this project, especially getting used to the program. I believe I did my A-effort work in this project, despite my lack of abstract symbols. Pathfinder was one of the most important tools needed massage the logo together and make it work cohesively. Its harmony seemed to work well, and the symbols as a whole seemed to go well together and as a collection. Because it was black and white, the silhouettes were very important in showing dimensions. However, this proved difficult in its scaleability. When downsized, the edges seemed to blur and become “blob-like”. If I were to do it again, I would make it even more basic and keep the lines very simple so that if it were downsized, the image’s vision wouldn’t be affected. I also feel like I would have added more negative space to improve its form downsized.
Gradewise, I believe my symbols were quite successful. Though I enjoyed looking at others work, I am very proud of my own and feel like they were stronger than most; especially, I loved how they looked on vinyl. I think my buddha symbol with the lotus hat may have potential of being a “real logo” because of its prominent message.