logo update.

Last couple months since I created this blog were filled with work – which means that my skills improved greatly. You could also say that my taste and ‘eye’ for design changed. This resulted in dire need to improve my logo. I decided to give it new look without redesigning it completely – I still love the idea that is behind it.

Still, I felt a strong need to update it. It seems bit wacky to me now, from perspective of time. I started with identifying the problems I saw with old logo first to know what I have to deal with when updating it.

1. Logo was too thin – which made it look too delicate in small sizes
2. I didn’t like how the closed space created by M D and A looks – it seemed too long and thin
3. The end of the M stroke  (on the left) was ok but seemed to be the end of the shape, as if the missing stroke of M letter never was supposed to be there – no suggestion of original shape of the letter
4. Because of delicate nature of the logo D letter seems to disappear next to much wider M and A

That caused me to take a new quest to push it further till it gets where I wanted to be now. I thought I would wait more with any sort of change like that but I feel I needed it badly right now. So here you can see old logo:

I redid the thickness of lines. The position of A between M and D changed – I moved it to the right. Also, the angles of M and A changed – the slope is slightly less steep. Also the letter endings changed – I kept them flat with A and gave the end in M same slope as the other angles in the letters. This is the final result:

To help you visualise changes more I made very simple animation that compares two logos with each other.

I hope you see the new version as an improvement as well! I am delighted with how new more ‘chubby’ version of my logo looks and I think it will serve me much longer than the older version of it 🙂

Please tell me what you think in the comments!

finding designer’s identity.

I am so sorry for letting Wednesday post pass but unfortunately life got in a way much more than I expected. I promise I will try to mae it up as soon as possible : )

Today I decided to tackle topic quite close and fresh to me – finding my own designer’s identity. It isn’t an easy task and I am quite sure there is a long journey for me still in exploring my own identity as designer. After I created my personal branding though on a level satisfactory for me I reckon I got to the point where I can reflect on how far I have gotten here. This post will probably get many updates in the future according to how my thoughts on that topic changed, but I would love to have some kind of record how I developed in that area.

When I started to think about myself as professional designer, or rather – aspiring to be one, I had to come up with some visual representation of myself. First step taken in that direction was caused by “Creative Wrokshop: 80 challenges to sharpen your design skills” by David Sherwin (which I should tackle more properly at last too). The first challenge in that book is to create your own logo. Since I was still rather a beginner, I couldn’t think the way I think now and I was very concentrated on just one idea – incorporating octopus into design ( animal that is sort of spirit animal of mine 🙂 ). This gave me couple options and after some tweaking here and there I got to design I was somewhat satisfied with (at least with the idea itself). The trouble that stood before me then was execution of that vision. By then I already knew that my initials MAD would pay a role in my identity and I wanted to include it into design as well. Since those were my very beginnings I wasn’t the smoothest with vector art and after numerous redo-s I finally reached more or less what I wished. I never was fully satisfied with it. It was definitely a playful logo with lots of personality. From perspective it seems too complicated for me and bit too childish.

While after that I decided on creating new tumblr account dedicated to my design. I chose tumblr since it was platform I knew the best and I definitely trusted it and was very familiar with it. I know now it wasn’t best choice, since sites like tumblr need very regular and often updating to get it going properly. Anyway, I was of course thinking about blog name – what I came to was Typing Circus. My idea was simple – creating more simple design than previous one experimenting with shape of circus tent and comma on its’ top. This idea was cute but didn’t really convey who I am as a designer. I have to admit I can’t really say if I knew that at this point anyways, but still – that was simply not who I was as a creative mind. After a while I left the subject all together, getting involved in various projects and commissions taking my mind completely off the topic as well as letting me grow as a designer both in my skill set and my taste that evolved with me.

I read once on blog called ‘Little box of ideas’ that was an amazing design blog I followed (it is suspended since a while though, unfortunately) that every designer should have a blog for their thoughts and projects, since that would let them expand their knowledge and enable easier communication with other designers, sharing ideas and concepts, design process etc. This is what pushed me forward to start this blog. Before I did that though I wanted to define myself properly with the way I presented myself as designer. This is when I came back to the topic of my designer’s identity and I worked on my logo (which process of creating you can find HERE). Finally, my identity got defined perfectly as it appears to me right now – it is abstract, minimalistic and clean. This is how I want to have myself as well as my designs perceived and I do hope I am succeeding.

So, here you go – my personal thoughts and journey that led me where I am now. I finally reached point where I am confident in myself and my works to call myself a professional and I am ready to expand my abilities and way of perceiving design further. Please feel free to share your story with me, I would love to read it!

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creating personal branding.

Since I started to work professionally and already developed my own logo I decided to take step further and go on with creating personal branding identity for myself as a designer. Quite obviously I started from most popular yet at the same time crucial element – business card. I went through many different ideas and I want to share my design process with you.

First idea that popped into my mind was creating see through business cards printed on the PCV foil. Some problems arised on the way though. Firstly  the price that made them around 4-5 times more expensive than regular business cards, secondly the time wasn’t in my favor and lastly – I couldn’t get the design to the point where I would be satisfied with. Some of best versions (in my opinion) you can see below (click the image for enlarged version):

After resigning from transparent business card idea (I might come back to that in the future though 🙂 ) I set on doublesided design – I wanted to keep idea very close to the previous one but to separate logo and personal information. The next problem that appeared was that  frame made the design look a bit deadly when transparency was out of the picture. That’s when I started to experiment with removing frame, adding color etc. This process you can see on the image below (click it for enlarged version):

Finally the design was established on the adding color, but in more dynamic way than I planned at first. I am definitely really satisfied with final look of it and I will proudly hand those out (which in my opinion is the first test of business card). Here you can see the final version:

After I was done with business card it was the time to start whole branding idea. Based on shape of my logo I created pattern where it was the element creating it. It turned out really cool and I plan on trying to turn it into seamless .ai pattern in near future.

Based on my logo, pattern and color scheme from business card I designed full branding identity (which I hope to someday make a reality! 🙂 )

What I learned from this project is probably that most important is to be ready to resign from some aspects of design, which may work miracles and simply free the idea to evolve into something much better and much more satisfying.

I hope this post will help you through your own design process and stay tuned for next Design Wednesday (and Talking Saturday)!