Logos Archive - Paper Leaf Design | Edmonton Graphic Design, Edmonton Web Design

Archive for the ‘Logos’ Category

My Attempt at the Worst Logo Ever

November 22, 2010

On November 15, 2010, some fine ladies & gents launched a fun contest for graphic designers called How Low Can Your Logo? The gist of the contest is for designers to “willingly create that which you spend your entire life trying not to create: the worst logo ever. ” It’s an awesome way to bring the design community together and have some laughs, and it was a really fun, quick project to complete.

Perhaps the most fun part of the whole contest is the client writeup, where you get the most jargon-laden client brief to work from ever. Full of contradictions and punchlines seemingly pulled straight from ClientsFromHell, I had a good laugh reading it. Here’s a few sections pulled from the client brief, so you can see what we were tasked to create:

Meet the Client

Excellencico (established in 1996) is a global leader in providing a focused, broad range of services to a world-class, international, region-centric clientele. Excellencico harnesses evolving, dynamic e-technologies to provide unparalleled levels of synergistic e-products to a heterogeneous set of unperpendiculated e-applications…

Direction

Our logo needs to be simple and yet detailed, complex yet spare. We prefer that the logo convey the forward-thinking nature of our company without looking too futuristic or flashy but we also don’t want anything too conservative or neutral. “Just right” is the vibe we are looking for. We believe that “e” best defines our unique approach and core company culture. We’re very drawn to the colors one finds in a rainbow but color wheels are a significant turn-off. I have attached a picture of our puppy. We don’t want the puppy incorporated into the logo but we do want you to capture her spirit and attitude and expect that to be conveyed through design elements.

Pure designnerd comedy gold, I tell ya. Armed with this information, I opened up Illustrator and, with much thought, created this monstrosity of a logo: Read the whole article >

3 Quick Tips for Great Logo Design

November 8, 2010

The importance of having a quality logo cannot be understated. A logo is the face of a business – it’s the first thing clients see, and we all know we’re a first-impression society. With that in mind, there are a few characteristics that any good logo must have, and these traits are must-knows for designers both new and old. In my opinion, there are three overarching goals that great logos meet: they are flexible, they are memorable, and they are simple. Allow me to elaborate.

Read the whole article >

65 March Madness 2010 College Basketball Logos

March 15, 2010

The Madness is upon us! Yes, some of us up here in Canada like basketball (even though our only worthwhile export of late has been Steve Nash, and it’s hard to dribble in snow). I regularly tune in and throw away money when it comes to the annual 64 (now 65, with the play-in) team tournament; this year is no different. However, as I tuned in watch the selection show, a thought came to me: why not compile all the logos of the teams in the 2010 Tournament? I thought it would be interesting to have them all in one place, either for inspiration or to just to see similarities. So I did that, and here they are: all the logos from the 65 teams in this year’s March Madness tournament.

As to be expected, there is a LOT of collegiate fonts and initials. Here are some other random observations:

there is an overload of bears, dogs, and cougars
Minnesota’s “M” is horrendous
there is a definite, noticeable difference between older logo styling (Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, MSU) and newer logo styling (Oklahoma State, UTEP, Marquette).
the Arkansas-Pine Bluff logo (very first) is terrifying. Terrifyingly AWESOME
shame on Sam Houston for using Copperplate Gothic
my personal favorites: West Virginia, Texas, Old Dominion

So wraps up this fun post; hopefully, next time you get a logo design job for an academic institution, you remember to come back here for some inspiration! Enjoy the tourney, and I hope your brackets do well!

*logos courtesy of sportslogos.net.

Rebranding 3rd Street Beat Entertainment

March 3, 2010

Recently, Paper Leaf Design was offered the opportunity to rebrand 3rd Street Beat Entertainment – a group that offers hip-hop dance instruction, as well as show promotions and other related services. It’s always a nice break to get away from corporate design and be able to work with a company based in the arts, whatever branch of the arts that might be. New challenges present themselves, and it’s a good way to avoid getting into any sort of design rut, so we were all over it.

With art direction & project management from RY2 Design Inc., the challenge with this redesign was to make an identifiable & timeless logo for the overarching “parent company” of 3SB, as the gents behind 3SB also run Hip Hop for Hope, Santa’s Kids, Artists Emerge and more under this brand. We needed a logo that maintained a professional look-and-feel, but still spoke a bit to the nature of what 3SB does (without being too literal). The goal was to create something that balanced strength & confidence with movement.

The old logos made use of the easy-to-remember acronym 3SB. However, the design suffered a bit with the combination of a harsh radial gradient in the background, along with a dated 3D effect and questionable typeface choice (I would show them to you, but apparently we don’t have the rights to do so).

Here is the new logo, (art direction: RY2 Design, design: Paper Leaf):

Hit the jump to see the black on white version! Read the whole article >

From A to Z: Building an Identity for a Chocolatier

December 7, 2009

Welcome to From A to Z, where I outline all the steps taken in a specific project. In this particular instance, I’ll outline the workflow from initial brainstorming through to delivery for a complete “identity build” for a chocolatier/artisan chocolate business.

Warning: you will want to eat chocolate after reading this post.

Paper Leaf was approached by one Jacqueline Jacek regarding her desire to launch her own artisan chocolate business here in Edmonton. We were commissioned for three main projects: logo design, package design, and website design. We were excited, for a few reasons.

It’s always a pleasure to be able to build an identity for a business from scratch as opposed to doing piece work here and there – building an identity from scratch ensures that there will be design continuity across the board, which is of a huge benefit to the business. Thus, to be able to start from the logo design and carry it through packaging to the website was ideal for both us and the client. As well, Jacqui is a very focused and driven person – the kind of person who hits her deadlines and gives you the website copy once, and it’s good to go. Great person to work with.

So let’s start from the top and look at the logo design process, after the jump.

Read the whole article >