Personal Logo - Graphic Design

My personal logo.

Finally, after a lot of work, I have completed my personal logo. There is a lot of symbolism in this logo, and I am excited to share my latest project.

The Pre-Design Process

Thumbnail Sketches

Before we were able to start in Adobe Illustrator, we had to draw twelve thumbnail sketches, and select our favorite design. The design I ended up using evolved from a much simpler design to a more complex design as I came up with more ideas.

Previous Knowledge

Other information that we had learned earlier this semester proved to be very useful in this project. Color psychology, font personality, and shape symbolism all played a role in this design. 


The Different Elements

Each part of this logo plays a part and has reasoning behind its design and placement.

Text

My initials, "BMW", are lowercase in sans serif font and shown in the center of the logo. Now, there's a reason that they are shown lowercase and not capital. I feel like I'm someone who would rather stand back and let other people do the talking, than talk myself.  I feel as though I'm more of a shy person rather than loud and outspoken.

Wood Block

This wood block represents a few different things. One of the topics that I enjoy the most is architecture. I love learning about different styles, the way architects convey feelings and expression through their work, and how each building has a different feel and its own unique personality. Wood has always been a common building material in buildings, so I felt as though adding this block would show how architecture is a big part of my life. The block also represents the more abstract and less defined characteristics of my life.

Ruler

The ruler represents, unlike the wood block, the more defined and set characteristics of my life. So, you may think to yourself, "what does this mean?" Well, when I say "the more defined characteristics", I think more of sports, music, and school, things like that. Architecture, for example, is more abstract, because I really just like architecture in general, and not any particular part of it. The ruler also shows the more mathematical side of me as well. 

Pencil 

I used the pencil to show the more creative and "artistic" side of me. I say "artistic", but it's not the type of art people would normally envision. It's more of an architectural art, coming up with designs for buildings and other structures. It's also very important that I'm able to think creatively, because many designs that I have created start from scratch. Although I get a lot of inspiration from other architects and buildings, you still have to design your plans to fit your needs and style.

Leaf-Like Shapes

These shapes have quite a bit of symbolism, and mean many different things.These shapes are supposed to represent the different parts of my life. Think of it as a family tree: the oldest generation is shown first, then the tree branches off into the rest of the family. That's kind of the way it is with my logo. The "tree" starts at the "bmw" initials, with the different leaf-like shapes branching off into the different aspects of my life. For example, some leaves could represent music and the three instruments I play, some could represent sports, such as basketball, school (different classes), architecture, etc. Although they are all different colors due to their diversity, they all have the same shape, which explains how all of them are, in one way or another, intertwined with each other.

Overall Shape and Design 

The exact shape of my logo is quite hard to identify. In fact, I don't believe there is one. You could say that it is a rectangle, but, no, that's not quite true. The overall feel I tried to create was sort of a half-rectangle. Imagine the ruler and the wood block as the bottom and left sides of that rectangle, with the pencil cutting through it on the bottom left and my initials and the leaves filling it. The top and right sides are open. This unique design gives you the sense that there is some stability; a good foundation that the logo is being built off of, but there is still the future ahead, and I don't now what it holds. so, in a way, my past is shown in the bottom left, and, as you work your way diagonally across the rectangular shape, you move into the present, and then onto the future.



Future Alterations 

What I Would Do Differently?

Don't get me wrong, I really like the way my logo turned out, but there are always things you can do to improve. If I was going to tweak the design of this logo, I would still keep the font of my initials the same. However, I would change the colors of the leaves so they're only cool colors (green, blue, purple). I feel as though this would make the logo look less bright and more appealing to the eye.

One of the major changes I would make is make the logo seem a little less "busy." There are many different aspects to this logo, which isn't bad at all, but I think creating a simpler logo would convey the same message but be more memorable. I think I would take the ruler, pencil, and wood block out, and replace it with a nice pen, lying across the bottom. Much less in the logo, but still a whole lot of symbolism.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this project. We were able to be very creative and showcase some of what we can do in Adobe Illustrator. At the same time, our logos also tell a bit about ourselves to the audience, and how we are all unique and amazing in our own way.