Logotypes are corporate/organization logos featuring type:
For this project, you’re going to create a logotype to represent a new restaurant named “Café ADK,” specializing in farm-to-table cooking and upstate NY wines and micro-brewed beers. They’re located on Market Street in Potsdam and they’re looking to build a customer base from local college students, faculty, and staff. They were started by graduates of Paul Smiths’ culinary school in Saranac Lake.
A good logotype creates a distinctive identity that clearly communicates an organization’s values. So, to get started on Café ADK’s logo, think about what customers should think about when they think of the restaurant. Is is serious? Playful? Peaceful? Angry? Enthusiastic?
Phase 1: Research
For the first phase of design, do some research on logos that other farm-to-table restaurants, small wineries, and microbreweries have on their websites. Pick at least five logotypes and sketch them in your notebook. You should add notes to each saying what you like or dislike about them—you can learn a lot about design by looking at bad design.
Then, brainstorm at least 15 adjectives that seem appropriate for the restaurant.
Phase 2: Sketching
You can refer to actual fonts and graphic elements online at this point, but it’s important to work primarily with sketching in your notebook. Spend time drawing variations of different ideas in your notebook (six to ten—more is better in terms of exploring), looking back frequently at your research (including logotypes and adjectives). Because you’re going to be graded primarily on your design and type use, you can borrow (ok, “steal”) graphic elements from other sources (font awesome and the noun project are good starting points)
Phase 3: Vectoring
Once you’ve got a few workable ideas sketched out, start working in Illustrator. Use the types of methods Aaron Drapler used in the video we watched in class: Work fast, explore variations by making copies. Don’t delete things: Part of your grade depends on how well you’ve fully explored the design space.
In addition to figuring out exactly what the word(s) should be, think about or explore
- typefaces (you can refer to actual type samples but your initial work will be sketching)
- color
- kerning (and possibly word-spacing)
- tweaking, combining, or otherwise altering glyphs
- rules (lines), circles, or other shapes (in, behind, over, etc. the glyphs)
You need to create at least 10 variations (some minor, some major) in Illustrator.
Phase 4: Crit and Refine
After an in-class critique, create a final version. You can sketch or work in an app—your choice.
Your project will be graded on
- research on other wordmarks (10%)
- exploration of a wide range in initial eight sketches (10%)
- exploration in second phase of five sketches (10%)
- how well final version portrays company identity (50%)
- creativity of wordmark (20%)
Also
Read these tips on designing wordmarks from 99 Designs.
Some places to look at wordmarks/logotypes: