The 100 Metre
Somehow, I’m subscribed two or three times to the Teens Conference and AFC mailing lists. That means that whenever I get an e-mail from them, there’ll be two or three e-mails in a row that are exactly the same, and they all ask for read receipts
Updated — With more attempts!
Design is kind of a hobby for me because, well, I suck at it. I mean, I love looking into the theory behind design, like colour, positioning, and typography, but I really suck at it. I have enough knowledge to give it a stab, but I’m not going to be making any money off of it.
Something that doesn’t help is my horrendous drawing skill, which only gets worse on the computer. If you have a look at anything I’ve made, you’ll notice that I never drew a single thing. It’s all photos and type. Hell, I can’t even do bezier curves
Now last year, I wanted to try my hand at a logo for TC but the theme was kinda hard to design for. “Live the Difference.” When I hear difference, I think subtraction. Not the most inspiring logo. This year though was different. “Dash” can evoke all sorts of images, particularly things having to do with speed, racing, cars, and running.
So I opened up Inkscape and started messing around with the text. I hit sxc and started searching for photos. Of course, while I should have been studying for my English exam, I came up with three possible logo prototype-y things.
This was my first stab at it. Searching “dash” on sxc brought up pictures of dashboards. I thought about making a speedometer the logo, except on the speedometer, it’d have years on it instead of speeds, which would indicate life. If you look closely at the speedometer, the outer ring and the accompanying numbers are the ones I made, while the inside set was from the photo. I like this one, but there are a few problems with it.
First of all, the speedometer thing takes up too much space. The limit on size was 4 inches by 4 inches. That made the text much smaller. The other thing was that it only looked good if I used Helvetica Neue Thin and that font was way too thin to use on t-shirts. It became impossible to read at small sizes.
My second attempt was more of a readjustment of the first one. The speedometer ring is still there. The “dash” still has the Garamond Italic thing going on and it’s much bigger because of all the room the huge speedometer used to take up. Now, the font is Myriad Pro, which is much more legible at small sizes than Helvetica Neue Thin was. Still, it looked kind of plain, and I decided to have an alternative to choose between.
This is my third attempt. I decided to try something completely different. I got rid of the speedometer and found a sign with running people on it. I changed the font to Oxide and the smaller font to regular Helvetica Neue. It looks like I drew the running people, but I didn’t. Like I said, it’s from a sign that was kinda shaky, so Inkscape’s edge detection picked it up like that. I cleaned it up a bit and here it is.
At the moment, I need constructive criticism from you. I need an opinion as to whether these are good enough to submit and which one to choose or if I need to do anything else to them. Remember, I’m a noob at this, so please, tell me if something’s really wrong or just doesn’t look right.
Updated
And here are the ones that have been tweaked.
I quite like these ones actually.
I like Attempt #2
its simple and connotes the idea of ‘dashboard’ quite brilliantly :p
only downside is — some ppl might think its too ‘simple’ and then ‘bland’
a christian ‘ikon’ might be interesting to add but overall looks good
Attempt#3 is alright
i think it’d be much more effective if you had the people doing different stuff..
say the “on your marks get set go” positions, or those stick figure captions that are so popuar :P
either way — go study your English :D
time, all three designs are going to get a lot of praise. in your first one, which is the one i like best, is a good concept. dashboard – dash. here’s how to improve upon that design:
the only problem i’d think is that the whole year thing on it is a little too cryptic for people and they wouldn’t understand or notice it unless they were told. another problem you mentioned was size. here’s how to change it: move “dash” over to where “200″ is and then resize the text so the top of the “d” is about 50-70px apart from the “88″. get rid of the friggin arrow. i don’t like it. move down the “in the” next to “dash” and resize so it’s height is same height as the loop of the “d”. get rid of the second speedometer without the numbers. make sure the width of “teens conference 2006″ does not surpass the end of “in”.
in print, do not worry about how thin the text appears to be on your computer. its results will maintain quality and legibility. (especially in print for t-shirt.) all you must remember is to have this at a very high resolution of an ideal size of 1024×768 or more. best in .psd format with all layers flattened, or in adobe illustrator format.
for the rest of your designs… the second one is crap. i’m sorry. it’s nothing compared to the first one so you should ditch it.
and for your last one… i like it, minus the arrow.. i don’t know why you always have it. i get the whole “forward motion” thing, but the arrow is overused, and unecessary. again, make sure the height of “in the” matches the height of “dash”. also, can you make the cross outline, without the oval? and make the height the same as “dash” once again? addtionally, you’d notice the bolding on “teens” and “2006″ if “conference” was thinner. try helvetica neue thin.. or light. you’re probably using light in that one. so go a touch less.
hope this helps. try it and see what happens. or post the results.
Perry:
English is done, actually. I really should be studying chem right about now though. Also, I can’t manipulate the people since it’s actually from a photo.
Sharon:
I know about the high res thing and I know you know about the high res thing. I’m worried though that the people I’m submitting this to don’t. I’ve tried the first one again though, with Helvetica Neue Light instead of Thin.
ah, the tweaking is much better…. possible tweaking upon the tweaked is in the first one size slightly down for “in the”… i didn’t realize how much it stole away from “dash”. or size down on the both of them.. not too much though. the other one is good.
haha..okay okay…i was on PC last year, so here’s the inside story:
when they ask for logo designs. about 2 people end up submitting..and later on..when they continue to ask…they’ll get maybe one other.
so, your odds are pretty high. and i’ve seen other designs…and they’re not exactly logo material. so,lemme just say..your odds are REALLY HIGH.
i like the dash board idea…it’s really smart…maybe cause i don’t really get the other one. but.u know what..if u can’t decide..SEND BOTH! =)
mm….TC06..how fun
Tim2winorbust.
And by that, I meant if you lost, I’ll smash your kneecaps in front of everyone with Blues Lee or w/e guitar Im using that day…and treat it as part of the skit.
Then everyone will marvel at your acting skills, and wondering if thats real blood, bone and tears.
: D
Make us proud.
…or else.
totally irevelent side note — yay you got gravatars up :D
[...] You may remember several months ago, I asked for a critique of some logo design concepts for TC. The deadline for entries was the day right before the volunteer retreat. On the way to the retreat, the logo contest came up, and apparently, “In the Dash” didn’t refer to a race. [...]