Idea Inspiration

For this project I decided to create a clap board with my last name at the bottom, indicating movies by me. This idea relates to my course topic because my blog is all about movies, past and present. I wanted to create a unique logo that not only projected that, but also gave an indication that it was content designed by me.

Design Process

I was inspired to create a clap board when I did a simple google search of movie symbols. The main thing that came up was a clap board. There were numerous pictures of actors standing next to them, or directors holding them during a scene. I thought a good way to represent that my blog was about movies would be to create my own clap board.

A significant element in my design is the banner I created that says Ford Movies. This signifies that the blog is about movies that I find interesting, and think that people would as well. It also helps establish that the design is by me.

The design process I used from beginning to end was first identifying what I wanted my logo to look like. After I did a google search of symbols for movies and identified the clap board I then started to look at how I could accompany balance throughout the design. To try and figure this out I went back through the tutorials I completed to see if I could find an idea from that.

I really liked the idea of a banner and attempted to create balance through the design by adding one. Once I had added the banner I added simple text, and then did my best to center everything so it looked balanced. In the original draft of my logo I did not properly center the words on my banner, so I went back and properly arranged the lettering, thereby adding more concrete balance to my design.

Technical Detail

I went about collecting elements to create my project by first going to freeimages.com and downloading a free image of a clap board. I then uploaded the image to Illustrator. I went to my layers and locked the image, that way while I worked on it , it would stay in place.

I also created a second layer for the cut out of the clap board. Then I used the pen tool and traced the clap board until I had the whole image traced. I then hide the first layer and was left with the traced clap board.

I then filled the cut out with the color black. I then went to the rectangle marque tool and added rectangles inside of the clap board to design the appearance of a real clap board. After I made sure to fill the rectangles with the color white I used the shift key to select everything I had designed.

I then right clicked and selected the group button so that I could move the whole design around. I then created the banner based off of the third Illustrator tutorial.

The biggest challenge I faced while designing this logo was making the banner. I had difficulties changing the font color, as well as finding a good color for the banner itself. I also struggled with grouping all the elements of the clap board, but after playing around with the materials I was able to group everything.

In my original design I chose the whole banner to be gradient with dark lettering. After receiving comments from my classmates about the banner I knew I would need to fix it. Many of my classmates thought the banner looked to small, and the coloring made it hard to read, along with the lettering not being centered correctly.

After receiving my classmates advice I changed the banner entirely. First I ungrouped the banner so I could work on each part individually. Next I made the lettering bigger, along with properly centering it on my banner. The next thing I did was change the color of the banner.

I wanted more of a solid color that would make the letters easier to read and fade into the background less. I decided on the color black with a slight gradient, that way I could keep a little bit of the gradient with a stronger more legible color. I then changed the edges of the banner to the same radial gradient style as the top section, but editing the gradient to show more differentiation in color then I could do to the top section due to legibility.

The last thing that I did to revise my logo was change the lettering from black to gold. I decided to use this color because I thought it went really well with my logo design, along with really making the letters stand out.

Sources and Materials