Logo Design - Business Branding

Good business branding is vital for business success.

Constistancy in  logo use, and business branding ensures customers "see" your business and recognise it.

A simple guide to logo design is;

1. Study ALL the company information.
2. Research the company industry, the target market, business competitors.
3. Brainstorm and sketching ideas
4. Work sketches into design concepts. Ask for feedback from collegues/friends.
5. Shortlist the various concepts
6. Initial presentation and discussion with clients.
7. Refine or redesign concepts
8. Send final drafts to client for review.
9. Upon final approval, provide the required file formats.

This process can take up to a week or as long as a few months, depending on how much back and forth occurs between the designer and the client. (and of course the budget). It is good practise to include logo design options for horizontal and vertical usage, colour options such as two colour, greyscale and negative options.

Once the logo has been approved, you then move onto branding all areas of the business. It is customery to use elements of the logo and the logo colours, when branding the business. Branding can encompass all parts of the business including;  vehicle signage, uniforms, stationery, email signatures to name a few.

Example of logo design process
http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/logo-design-process-and-walkthrough-for-vivid-ways

Style Guides

As part of the branding exercise some companies, esp. those with a large base of operations, develop a  brand style guide. This is a guide for designer/advertisers to use, to ensure the branding of the company is not compromised.

A style guide explains the correct ways to use the company logo, which fonts to use, colour options. It specifies the clearance space around the logo, how to use the logo and how NOT to use the logo, and which logo option should be used in specific circumstances. The style guide can also detail the type of photography to used.

An example of corporate style guide can be found here, fo rthe NSW State Government and Joomla - freeware

http://advertising.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/downloads/page/nswgovernmentbrandingstyleguide_0.pdf

http://www.joomla.org/images/logos/Joomla_Brand_Manual_10-02-2005.pdf

Comic Book

A comic is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, and is often accompanied by dialog (usually in word balloons) as well as including brief descriptive prose.

The first comic book appeared in the United States in 1933, reprinting the earlier newspaper comic strips, which established many of the story-telling devices used in comics. The term "comic book" arose because the first comic books reprinted humor comic strips. Despite their name, comic books are not necessarily humorous in tone; modern comic books tell stories in a variety of genres.

The United States has produced the most titles, with only the British comic and Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity of titles, though manga has many more followers and dwarfs American comics in readership.

Underground comic books

As the name suggestsUnderground comics emerged in retaliation to the established comic industry in the late 1960s. These titles were published and distributed independently, almost never sold at news stands, but rather in  record stores, or by mail order.  These comics reflected the youth counterculture and drug culture of the time. Many had an uninhibited, often irreverent style; their frank depictions of nudity, sex, profanity, and politics had no parallel outside their precursors.

Alternative comics

The rise of comic book specialty stores in the late 1970s created a dedicated market for independent comics in the U.S. The first such comics included the anthology series Star Reach, published by comic book writer Mike Friedrich, and Harvey Pekar's American Splendor, which continued sporadic publication into the 21st century and which was adapted into a  film in 2003.

Some independent comics continued in the tradition of underground comics, though their content was generally less explicit, and others resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned companies or by single artists. A few were experimental attempts to bring comics closer to the status of fine art.

Graphic Novels

The term graphic novel was first coined in 1964 by Richard to distinguish European works from American comics, which were more genre driven.  Graphic novels use either an experimental design or in a traditional comic format.The term is employed in a broad manner, encompassing non-fiction works and thematically linked short stories as well as fictional stories across number of genres

Graphic novels usually have a more complicated plotline and complex character development when compared to comics.

There is some critism of the term graphic novel, as some suggest it is just a comic - with better binding.

Digital comics

This terms refers to comics created entirely on a computer or comics released digitally. This type of comic has grown dramitcally with the rise of the internet, particularly Apple's iPhone and iPad, many major publishers have begun releasing titles in digital form.

Some of the most popular platforms for such release are Graphicly and comiXology.

In 2011, a completely free digital comic sales platform named Whizu.com was launched, enabling creators to post their own comics for sale immediately.

Another method of digital distribution is to create the publication in its entirety and have it hosted on a digital storage locker site, such as YouSendit.com. (This method removes anyone between the creator and the customer.) The customer purchases the publication by Paypal or Credit Card. Then the customer receives in their email the download link of the file. Some of the popular formats are CBR, CBZ, ePub and PDF.

Notable digital comics
This list includes some hybrids of digital and traditional media.

• Mr. Punch, by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean (September, 1995). Hybrid: mixed media, digitally manipulated. DC Comics
• Astounding Space Thrills, by Steve Conley, (1997). Hybrid: inked in Adobe Illustrator. Image Comics / Web comic
• The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln, by Scott McCloud (1998). Hybrid: penciled on paper, "inked" in Photoshop with 3-D backgrounds. Homage Comics
• The Dome: Ground Zero, by Dave Gibbons & Angus McKie (1998). All-digital. DC Comics
• Delta Thrives, by Patrick Farley, (2002). All-digital Web comic
• Pocket God by Ape Entertainment,^[2] (August 2010). iOS application, also sold in print.

Posters Design

Posters are a versitile mass communication method. They have been used for centuries as a form of mass promotion.


Types of Posters

Many posters, particularly early posters, were used for advertising products. Posters continue to be used for this purpose, with posters advertising films, music (both concerts and recorded albums), comic books, and travel destinations being particularly notable examples.


Design Considerations.

• SIZE                 How big is the poster going to be?
• PLACEMENT Where will the poster be hung?
• MESSAGE       What are you saying?
• AUDIENCE     Who are you saying it to?

For example
A poster will not be effective if there is too much information to take in, if for example it is posted on the main street. the graphic should be understood in seconds are people walk/drive past. Small type will not be read.

Poster Printing

Many printing techniques are used to produce posters. While most posters are mass-produced, posters may also be printed by hand or in limited editions. Most posters are printed on one side and left blank on the back, the better for affixing to a wall or other surface. Pin-up sized posters are usually printed on A3 Standard Silk paper in full colour.

It is possible to print large posters on standard home or office printers, by priting the poster in tiles.

Poster Resources

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/study-room-resource-poster-design/
http://www.puertoricanposters.com/

My tip.
Keep it simple. Make it bold