You will create the identity for your own fictitious company. This identity will include a name, a "brand," and a visual identity (logotype and symbol).
An important piece of this project is creating the artwork for lots of different ideas and doing lots of "market research." Your first file will need to be a grid of at least 6 ideas for your logo. You must print out this file and show it to as many people as possible to gain input. This portion of the assignment (a printed out Illustrator file with 6 ideas and written comments from at least 20 people) must be done first.
For the finished product, you will first tell us the company name that you settled on and how you came up with it. You will explain your company's brand (who your customers will be, who your competitors will be, why your products and/or services are better than your competitors'.). You will show us your file with the grid of your 6 best ideas and talk about how you decided on the very best one to develop and refine into your final logotype/symbol. And lastly you will show us your company's final visual identity (symbol and logotype), on screen and printed out in black and white at three different sizes: actual size, half size (50%), and double size (200%).
The specifications for "actual size" are the following: the smallest dimension needs to be exactly 1 inch high or wide. In addition, the following specifications must be followed very precisely. The symbol and logotype must be scalable (look good and not pixelated at all different sizes). Illustrator lends itself to creating vector art (infinitely scalable) much better than Photoshop, although the latest version of Photoshop has many options for creating vector art. You can choose to use color in your logotype/symbol, but it must also work visually in black and white. If you choose to use color, you must use "spot" Pantone colors if you are using 4 or fewer colors and CMYK if you are using more than 4 colors.
Although logos are often very abstract and "artsy," their main function is to create a visual identity for a company. You will be graded on how well you have thought out your company’s name and brand and how well your symbol and logotype communicate that "brand." You will also be graded on how well the visual piece of your company’s identity works technically, especially how well it communicates and holds together visually at all different sizes, and in color and black and white.
