Here i have done a digital diary for the logo I created for my media company. It covers 2 variations of the same logo and then an example of the logo sized down to business card size. The program I used for creating the logo was Adobe Illustrator as this works with vector images, which works best for drawings and cartoon styles, makes images that can be easily scaled for different uses and has small output size file.
I started in Illustrator created some simple shapes to compose my logo from. First I made a simple circle with a red fill and no stroke and then made a direct copy of this. The original circle I transform shrank down to a small size, constraining as i went to keep a good shape. The second circle i enlarged and then direct selected one of the anchor points and stretched it out to make a tear drop shape. Next I made a rounded rectangle with white fill and no stroke. I made a direct copy of this shape, by selecting it, holding the alt key and dragging it away. I shrank down this second rectangle using transform and constrain. This gave me the elements seen below.
Next I grouped some of the elements together, such as firstly the large rectangle, with the small circle on top of it and the smaller rectangle above the larger one. To make a camera outline. I then placed this on top of the red tear drop shape and grouped the whole lot together to make a logo. The idea was the tear drop shape is meant to represent a rose petal to go with the name Print Rose Media and the rectangles and smaller circle make up a camera shape to go with media. I had to bring some of the shapes in front of others to get the right look. The finished shape can be seen below.
Next i wanted some text of the company name to go with the logo. So using the text tool I created some simple large text in black of the company name. To personalize this text a bit I selected it all and used to menu option to create outlines from the text. This changes the text into shapes which can then be easily edited. Once I had this option to edit the text individually I ungrouped the text so each letter would be a separate shape. I then changed the colour of three of the letters from black to red, after that I enlarged two of the letters using constrained transform and placed them in line, so the letter I and letter O combined to make a rose shape. This can be seen below as well as the logo and text combined.
The original logo looked nice but from my scamps and design brief I wanted to make some variations on this logo to give the client more options to choose from. So creating the same initial shapes as the first logo, made easier by reusable elements, I then gave the rectangles a black stroke to give the shape more of an outline and changed the colouring of the small circle to white instead of red. These elements can be seen below.
I then arranged the shapes as mentioned previously to make a slightly different logo than before. This can be seen below.
I also wanted to include the company name as text next to this logo. So using the same methods mentioned previously for the text i enlarged two of the letters using constrained transform and then coloured one of the letters the red colour used in the logo. This can be seen below as well as the logo and text together.
I now had two different variations on the logo and the company name text next to it. This can be seen below.
Finally I wanted to see how well the logo worked on one of the most popular formats the business card. So I looked for the standard UK size of the business card, which was 85x55 mm, and then using the rulers in Illustrator marked out some rectangles in black to that size and tried resizing my logo and text to fit at this size. I tried this with the logo's I have created here and then a few different variations and styles I had a go at. The results can be seen below. On one of them I used text to add a few simple company details and a website.
I saved the files as ai format for use on the web and jpeg for use with print. The logos for web use were saved at 72 dpi resolution whereas the ones used for print and presentation were saved at 300 dpi resolution. The lower resolution files are more compressed and can be more easily uploaded and used in web work to take up less bandwidth. Where as the higher resolution files though bigger in size keep all the details and quality for presentation.
When creating the logo I liked how I managed to try some different variations on my logo to give options. Also I think the colour scheme of the red and the black worked well. I didn't like how i got a bit single minded on an idea and didn't try different company names and styles. Also the logo didn't look too good when I tried to include it on different mediums like my leaflet. If I was to do a logo again i would try to not get too stuck one one idea and try more variation on styles.
Here I have recorded a digital diary of the leaflet I made for my assignment. It was a leaflet to advertise the media company I had created for the project called Print Rose Media. The leaflet was created in Adobe Photoshop using photos I had taken previously on my 3.2 mega pixel smart phone camera. I used Photoshop as this is the best format for working with real photos and images and outputs into a bitmap format.
I started by taking two photos of Manchester I had taken previously. The first photo is from the gardens just outside of the Chetham’s School of Music. I framed this photo to show the light reflecting of the water and the whole scene at the time of the day as the sun was setting. The second photo was of a street in the China Town area, this is my favorite part of the city and this shows the signs and lights and busy nature of the street and culture. As the photos were at this point already printed I scanned them into the computer using a digital scanner at a dpi of 300.
Next i was ready to start in Photoshop. I opened up a new document in A4 size in portrait format. My plan was to create the back of my leaflet in one document, then the front in one document and then bring them together on a new document to create the completed leaflet. So at first i started with the back. I used the rulers in Photoshop to set some guidelines on my work space to help me align my leaflet. Next i brought the first image of the China Town street into Photoshop on a new layer and transformed it to fit into place using the guidelines. This can be seen below.
Next on a new layer I added a layer mask effect to the photo of a red colour hue. I think this worked well as part of the design and tied into the company name and logo designs including the red rose. This can be seen below.
Next on a new layer I added a thin rectangle and coloured it grey to use as a border between the image I would be filling the top of the page with and the text and logos I would be filling the bottom of the page with. I also on a new layer added some white box,s over the image, these would be too include text about the company and the work it does, as well as example images. The guidelines helped me arrange these box,s well. I put the opacity lower on the box,s so the original image could be seen and the design effect kept. These changes can be seen below.
The next step was to take examples of images of work I had done, including logos and posters I had created and restored photos and bring them into the document on a new layer for each. I then arranged the images over some of the white box,s. Fitting two images per box, though in hindsight this looked cluttered and i changed it too one image per box in a later edit. The added images can be seen below.
Then on new layers I added text to the remaining box,s of details about the company and what it does. On each row i alternated the order in which the images and text went to improve the design. I made sure the text and alignment was the same throughout . The text added can be seen below.
Next from using online resources I brought in the logos for web address,s and YouTube on new layers, transform re-sized them and combined them with text to add the website address and the YouTube page details of my media company. This can be seen below.
Finally on a new layer I added text giving the contact details and address for the media company. I used the guidelines to make sure all these elements at the bottom of the page where aligned well. This completed the back of the leaflet which can be seen below.
With the back of the leaflet done I moved onto the front. I opened a new document in the same way as before and brought in on a new layer my image of the gardens mentioned above. On the document for the front of my leaflet I again used guidelines to help the design. The first step can be seen below.
To keep the design consistent I added a new layer mask effect for the image and changed the colouring to the same red hue as used on the back. I also on a new layer added the same grey rectangle border. These changes can be seen below.
I then on new layer added the web address for the media company on top of the grey border and using larger text added the company name at the bottom of the page covering the lower part. Using text settings I made the text fill the bottom area. This can be seen below.
This was the front of my leaflet completed too. So to complete the leaflet I opened a new document, this time reversing the values to put it in landscape format and brought into the document on new layers the saved final images of the back and the front of the leaflet. Using guidelines I transformed the images to fit together exactly and each fill half of the page. This creating my final leaflet as can be seen below.
I saved the files as jpeg. The leaflet here was saved at a resolution of 300 dpi for use for print. I also saved a lower quality resolution version to use as part of a website or online promo The lower resolution file was more compressed and could be easily uploaded and used in web work to take up less bandwidth. Where as the higher resolution files though bigger in size keep all the details and quality for presentation and to use as a printed leaflet. I have included images of the leaflet in a lower and then higher resolution zoomed in below.
For the leaflet I liked how i got to use my own images and I think the clean cut style, alignment and planned design worked well. I didn't like how the images looked a bit cluttered and squashed two per box and I wasn't sure about the font I used on the back text. I tried many different font styles but didn't really find one i was happy with.
If i was to to do the leaflet again I would either change the images on the back so they were only one per box or change the design to incorporate more images and I would work harder on the font and typography used .
For our overall assignment over the first level of the
course we had to form a multimedia company. Then as that company design a logo,
leaflet and then promotional video to represent the company. Along the way we
recorded our progress working on these things on a blog and in our sketchbooks.
To start off we had to think about what kind of identity we
wanted for our company. This would differ for each of us as we would have
different styles, interests and influences. To think about my company I created
a mind map for the company identity and what target audience I would be aiming
for. These can be seen below. These ideas would influence the style for the
logo, leaflet and video.
The Logo
The first thing I had to do before designing a logo was some
research. I had obviously seen logos in use in everyday products and
advertising all over the place but hadn't broken them down and seen what worked
and didn't and what styles worked for what kind of product. So I started by
finding some existing logos and deconstructing them. I detailed this in my
sketch book, noting what I liked about them and didn't, what style they used
and what product they were for. From
this and more research I found they were some clear guidelines and set rules
for the best way to design logos. Examples being ones such as do not use more
than three colours and that text should be kept simple and readable.
Next I made another mind map in my sketch book representing
the logo I was going to design. Thinking of ideas of things such as what
colours I would use, how I would relate it to a media company, what it would
include. From this it gave me the base to make my first few scamps in my sketch
book. Once I had made these designs I deconstructed them, asking what my class
mates thought of them and annotating points I thought were important. From this
I then narrowed these initial scamps down into some final designs also in my
sketch book and was then ready to go to the computers.
For the designs I used the college Mac computers and the
Adobe Illustrator program. This is as it is the best choice to use for vector images
and that’s what the logo was going to be. When creating the designs in
Illustrator I kept mostly to my original designs but tried a few slight
variations in colour and design. The final logos in big and then business card
style can be seen below. I tried two main different styles for the logo, with
slight colour variations in both.
The logo design overall went pretty well. I managed to get
two styles of logos finished and try them in different colour schemes to give
plenty of options. They also are kept quite simple, clean and scalable. This
means they could be used in many different formats such as on business cards,
posters, websites etc. I also liked how I managed to have fun with a few
changes in Illustrator such as on the text using the O if rose and I of media
to make a rose shape. These are things that weren't always in my initial
designs but the program allowed me a flexibility to try a few new things.
There are ways I could have improved the logo. Looking back
and seeing the logo in different sizes I don’t think I like the look of the
designs and having worked more in Illustrator more now think I could have done
much better. I also think I could have made different styles for the logo; I
went for a more corporate style and would have liked to add more personality in
an arty, fun or urban style etc. I got caught up in a singular vision in the
design process and this kept me bogged down and didn't allow me to see where
different styles may have taken me later on.
If I was designing a logo again I would try more than one
style as well as more than one design. I would keep more of an open mind and
flexible in the design process and also
get more feedback in the design process from others as this would help me to
see a broader range of ideas.
The Leaflet
The next item to promote our media company was an
advertising leaflet for it. The process for this in a lot of ways was similar
to the design for the logo. Starting off with research I found existing
leaflets and deconstructed them in terms of their layout, content, style and
font in my sketch book. From this I could see what I liked and didn't and what
style I might like to use in my leaflet.
After this I made a mind map in my sketch book, thinking of
ideas for content, styles, colours and fonts. I tried to learn lessons from the logo and try
a few different styles. I wanted to use
my own taken pictures in the leaflet so this gave me time to think about what
photos I had taken and which would work well in relation to my media company
and advertising it. From this I made some
designs of scamps in my sketch books for designs for the leaflet. These as well
as considering what I had thought about in my mind map allowed me to consider
the layout I wanted. From these scamps I got some basic feedback from other
class members and came too two final designs. One had a more professional style
and one a more artistic style. The inclusion of my photos gave both styles more
of a personal style and look though and I was pleased about that. I was then
ready to go to the computers.
For the designs I used the college Macs and the Adobe
Photoshop program. I also used jpeg photos I had taken transferred from my
phone to the computers. I used Photoshop as I would be editing the photos I had
taken to incorporate them in the leaflet. In the end of my two original designs I only
managed to complete one fully, but I think it turned out well and the final
work can be seen below.
I think the leaflet design went well on the whole. I ended up with a design that I think looked
professional and clean cut. The photos I had taken of Manchester looked good
and tied in to the theme I was going for of being local and a part of the up
and coming North West design scene. They didn't need a lot of effects or
editing and worked as good source material to build the rest around. Also from
previous lessons I remembered learning about the right way to use the rulers
and align your work and after putting effort into this when designing I think
this showed.
There are ways I could have improved the leaflet. I had some
trouble on the typography and struggled to find a font I was happy with and I
though matched the piece and in the end I think the font I settled on detracts
from the professional look. Also I would have liked with more time to have
finished my second design from my leaflet too as this had a different style and
would have given more overall options to choose from at the end. Also I wanted
as content on my leaflet to include some example of my work but in the spaces I
provided for these they looked a little squashed in. Finally as had to leave
out the logo I had created previously from the piece as stated before I was not
entirely happy with it and think it took away from the design.
If I was designing a leaflet again I would make sure I
finished designs in multiple styles to give more options. I would make sure I
was working on better source material to create from to begin with such as a
better logo designs. I would also make sure my layout fit all the elements so
they could be seen well and work with the design.
Promotional Video
The final thing was to create a promotional video to
advertise our media company. Like the past parts before it, this all started
with research. We researched various promo videos online, ones with different styles,
for different products and using different shooting styles. Having not done any
film work before I also needed to learn the different types of shots and effects
you can use whilst filming to recognize them being used in existing videos and
adapt them myself in my video.
Next was again to do a mind map for the video. Thinking of
ideas of content for the video, shot styles, music I wanted to use etc. This
lead to a further breakdown in a pre-production pack which included storyboards,
a shot list, a shooting schedule, a production location sheet, a resource list
and a risk assessment sheet. Only when all this had been figured out could shooting
begin. Shooting was done over one day with a production team of me and three
other class members. The details of all the pre-production and then filming can
be seen in previous blog posts.
After filming the footage was given to me as separate video
files for each scene to be then edited into the final video. The editing was
done over a process of a few weeks and was done using the program of Final Cut
Pro. This was used as it is a well-known easy to use editing program that gives
professional quality. Over the editing I cut the footage and put it into order,
changed the sound levels on certain parts, added effects such as footage in
footage and titles. I also added external graphics of work I have done and a
music track soundtrack to go over the parts of the video without dialogue. The
final video can be seen below.
After completing the videos for ourselves, we watched them
back as a class and filled in some review sheets on each other’s video, marking
them on things such as shots used, editing, effects, sound recorded, soundtrack
and more.
I liked the final video that was completed. I managed to
experiment with different shot types and effects when shooting and they all
worked well. The video had a flow and kept pretty close to the storyboard it
was set by. I also managed to include examples of my work in the video. From
the feedback from the review sheets I found other class mates also liked my
video commenting on the effects, soundtrack and managing to incorporate my logo
in there.
There are ways I could have improved the video. At one point
in the video I have made a mistake in the editing and the sound level drops too
quickly and this makes it obvious, I should have eased the change in and looked
more professional. Also the end screen graphics though giving contact details
looks a little unprofessional and more time could have been taken on this In
the scenes where I am using different video equipment I wish I had used other
actors here as with me in all the scenes it doesn't look like a company but
rather an individual. Finally I did a lot of the dialogue improvised and for
parts I should have scripted and prepared more to look more confident when
speaking.
If making another video I would double check all editing to
avoid any small mistakes. Make sure all elements and graphics going into the
video are high quality to begin with. If there was to be any dialogue included
I would also make sure if I was reading it I was more prepared and confident.
Conclusion
In conclusion though there was a lot of mistakes I made
along the way and ways my work could have been improved I had a lot of fun designing
and producing all three parts of the project and I learned a lot of skills I am
taking onto level 2 and hopefully into the job market.
After finishing the three parts of the first level project I have gone back over the work and evaluated it from a mix of reviews from my class mates and my own views.
First there was the creation of the logo for our multimedia company, here are the final designs:
In these designs I managed to make two different designs and tried these designs first in different colours, then in different sizes such as business card sizes. The logo managed to be scaled down to this size well. Also from these designs I tried a few different styles of design for the text and I liked how these turned out, such as using the o of rose and the I of media to make a rose.
Though there were some areas I think could be improved in the logo design. I think I could have done the overall design of the logo better, in hindsight and when transferring the logo into different mediums such as using it for the leaflet for example I have found I don't like the design. An idea might have been to make a range of logo styles, I went for a corporate style, but think I should have also tried styles such as more personal, fun or artistic. In designing the logo I got stuck in one vision for my design instead of considering more alternatives, but I can learn from this for next time.
Then there was the creation of the promotional leaflet for our multimedia company, here are the final designs:
I like how the final design ended up for my leaflet, I think I managed to produce a professional, clean cut design. The photos I had taken of Manchester worked well on there own and didn't need too many effects and changing to add to the overall effect and style. From previous work I tried applying alignment and on the leaflet used design rulers and spacing for best effect. This helped with a more professional look in the finished leaflet.
There are still some areas that I think can be improved on the leaflet though. The typography on the leaflet back gave me some problems and even after trying many type styles I didn't find one I was entirely happy with and still think it looks a little unprofessional. Also after learning from the logo work I wanted to try some of my different designs from the scamps I created in my sketch book and might go back and make some further designs. In the final design I also think some of the pictures of my work included ended up a little bit stretched to fit in the aligned design, I might make a second version with one picture per box instead of two. Finally as a cross over from the logo design, the logo I previously created I wasn't entirely happy with and I was reluctant to include it in this leaflet along side the company name.
Finally there was the filming and editing of a promotional video for the media company, here is the final video:
After completing the videos for ourselves, we watched them back as a class and filled in some review sheets on each others video, marking them on things such as shots used, editing, effects, sound recorded, soundtrack and more. From the comments I got back from these sheets people liked the use of video effects, the soundtrack and the way I managed to incorporate my logo in the video. Myself I was pleased the video gave me the chance to use different shot types in the filming and some different effects in the editing and I think this comes across well in the video. From keeping to my original storyboards mainly the video kept a general flow to it. I am also pleased I managed to include some examples of my work so far in there.
Looking back on the finished video there's still definitely some changes I would have made. At some parts when the video switched from non dialogue to dialogue scenes the soundtrack is dropped to allow the talking to be heard, but this is done too suddenly and stand outs, more work with key frames would have improved this. In the dialogue sections I also wish I had made a script for it and practiced it, as I seem a little unsure in my words on film. In the section where it cuts to myself using different video equipment I wish I had used more of my filming crew for this, so it looked more like a media company than just an individual project with just me in all of the scenes. Finally I think the end screen though getting the information across of the name and contact details for the company looks a little unprofessional.
I am hoping to improve from the things we've done and learn for level 2.
In this third week of editing I have been adding some examples of my work and then a sound track and effects to my video.
From my original pre-production I wanted to add some examples of my work into a scene where the camera zooms over my shoulder and then focuses on the screen. From this I wanted to make it look as if the images where actually being shown on the screen of the computer. After trying a few different ideas with this, such as resizing the images and changing the opacity of the top image to make it blend in to the screen I decided that the contrast between the original jpeg images and the video I am trying to blend them into was just too different and it couldn't be done well without major editing of the images before importing them. So as a new idea I cut from the video scene of the screen and then went to a slideshow of the images in a sequence, I then changed the opacity of the images a little to make them look less white and bright and go better in the sequence of the film. The files were originally brought into Final Cut Pro by saving them from Illustrator and Photoshop as jpeg files and them importing them in and finally placing them in the video timeline.
After that I wanted to add sound to the sections of my video without dialogue. Adding a music track for the non dialogue scenes and then sound effects to a scene in the video where I speed up my typing for comedy effect. The sound files I found as mp3 files from the internet, I then imported them into Final Cut Pro and placed them in a audio channel below the video, cutting the track where appropriate.
After getting back the raw footage from my video shoot, last week and this week I have been editing. I started off by receiving separate video files for each scene shot. To begin with these were all imported into Final Cut Pro the program we are using to edit our promo videos. From here I checked each of these videos one by one in the player to remind myself what the scenes comprised of. To help myself later when I wanted to make them into a time line and reorder the scenes to match my pre-production I then renamed all the separate scenes. Then I dragged them onto the timeline in Final Cut in the right order, the rest of my first week time was spent cutting the scenes, getting rid of any excess footage. There was extra filmed footage before and after some of the scenes where we were getting into position, checking the angle, checking the sound etc and some scenes were filmed that were not needed in the final timeline.
For the second week I focused on adding extra titles and effects. Starting off I took two of the separate video clips that were imported in to Final Cut and placed one above the other in the timeline. This allowed me to do a video in video effect that was planned in my timeline. I set some key frames at the start and end of the video in video so I could make the video zoom into a frame and at the end shrink away at the end. Then I added some text titles at the beginning of the video to introduce it. This is done in a similar way with text being placed above the video clip in the timeline. I experimented with some of the texts when adding, trying scrolling text and text in a typewriter style. Also I made a screen picture in Illustrator showing the company logo and some contact details to import and show at the end of the video.
There's still some effects id like to add, I want to add some music and sound effects to parts of the video and I want to add some examples of media work I have done as embedded pictures in the video.
Here are some pictures of the video and timeline in Final Cut Pro.
On Monday 18th February we did the filming for our promotional videos. We worked as a production crew of myself, Harry, Birgit and Michelle and swapped roles of directing, filming, sound and runner for each of our individual film projects.
When working on my shoot, we used the one main camera, which we kept on a dolly that we adjusted for different shots and scenes, the microphone on the camera which we plugged in or unplugged depending on the scene and in the filming in the main room we used two additional lights as well as natural light to stop any shadows and reflections. As props i was filmed using we used a second camera, a sound boom and a large sketch book and photo book.
When filming we had to get the grip of a few different production skills, with the style and set up being different on each of our shoots. For my shoot we had to film on the move whilst tracking me, had to use different types of shot such as close up, over the shoulder, pov, high angle and had to keep track of the sound levels on the camera microphone. For Birgits shoot we had to work in closer detail, with most of her shots being in zoom and close up we had to make sure the angle was right and that all reflections and shadows were taken out so she could add effects later on in the edit. For Harrys shoot there was a lot of dynamic movement and a mix of long shots and close ups on the same scenes.
We tried to follow all the procedures we,d been taught when filming, such as making sure the dolly was level when we,d adjusted its position, using the headphones on the camera to check the sound levels before we filmed the scenes with my dialogue, making sure there was no shadows and reflections by using extra light or blocking off light. One constant procedure we had to keep reminding each other of was to keep white balancing the camera every time we adjusted the camera position and shot.
For my shoot we tried to follow all the health and safety procedures i set out in my pre-production. Michelle as runner on my shoot made sure all the walkways were clear for the section where i walk and talk to camera, that the noise was kept down by closing all the doors to other classes in areas where we were shooting and no other students and staff walked in shot. Also there were additional procedures to follow such as avoiding trips on the cables for the cameras, lighting and computers in one of the rooms we filmed in.
Im looking forward to getting the footage back next week and to start editing it and making it closer to how i imagined it in my storyboard.
Once we had done research on existing company promotional videos and set up an identity for our media company we set up to make a promotional video for our own company.
We started by completing a post production pack, including storyboards to set up the sequence, style and story of our video.
A shot list to define each shot, its shot type, location, duration and order there to be filmed in.
A shooting schedule to plan our day of filming.
Location recce to work out for our shooting locations there suitability for shooting, access to facilities and identify any possible lighting or sound issues.
A resource list for any props, costumes, people and equipment we may need and were we will source them from.
Risk assessment to look at what could go wrong and decide on suitable measures to prevent loss, damage or injury.
Finally there's a script to define what dialogue is going to be in the video.
