Vermont Vultures Concept

[AAO]

I wanted to do a logo of a bird that really hasn't been done, so I came up with this. Right now, I'm kind of meh on it.

[BigShoop]

Vultures are black. I say reverse the black and the red.

.... and they're a little more "looking for victims" and a little less "hi, i'm a bird and I'm looking around".

[AAO]

It would look horrible with the black and red reversed. And the position of the vulture here is perched on a peak, looking for prey, hence its expression looks mean and not happy saying "hi im a bird"

[NoHoJoe]

That's Kinda funny. IF the Vultures repalce the VT Expos, will the mascot's name be called Vinny The Vulutre?

[Sterling84]

Vultures are black. I say reverse the black and the red.

.... and they're a little more "looking for victims" and a little less "hi, i'm a bird and I'm looking around".

Nice. Regardless of how you said it, I think I get what you were trying to say.

Anyway, while vultures may be black (or brown) they also don't have feathers on their heads. This keeps them cleaner and disease-free while they stick their heads in rotting areas to feed. So in essence, their heads are "flesh" colored. Thus, red works fine.

What isn't working is the basic silhouette. Google image up 'vulture'. They are really unique looking animals. Severe powerful beak....strange bendy neck articulation, cool "collar" of feathers, wrinkly mummy head. Its an animal screaming with iconography to be used and you aren't using any of it.

It's the same advice I'd give anyone (and have). Look longer and harder at your subject matter and what makes it look like it looks.

Wordmark is nice though. Real good. Nicely done, just needs to easily relay the concept of vulture.

[RedEye]

Something that kills a concept is not spending a lot of time with pencil and paper and sketching sketching sketching.

Not that this is the case here AAO, but something I see people doing wrong is spending too little time in exploratory sketching and hopping onto the computer too quickly.

I have seen some designers skip any sketching altogether. These designs end up looking stiff and lacking in details that can get worked out on the pad of paper.

Let's face it...if you can't get the pencil sketch to a point that looks 95% conceptually finished then your computer generated piece has little chance of getting there.

Now this isn't always the case with designs that deal heavily in text but an illustrated logo such as these NEED to get worked out with pencil and paper before you even look at a computer. This is where you determine the elements of your subject that can be discarded or MUST be kept in order to give the subject validity.

Practice drawing, and practice, practice and then practice some more....sketch....it's the basic element of art. If you can't master that area you will struggle giving life to your illustrations on the computer. I have seen so many artists apply for jobs and as I go through their books I ask them...where are your sketches....you'd be AMAZED at the number that say proudly..."This was done from scratch on the computer!" Well let me tell you...from an art director's perspective, it's not only horribly obvious in the quality of the work but frowned upon by many of my colleagues.

[pcgd]

Something that kills a concept is not spending a lot of time with pencil and paper and sketching sketching sketching.

Not that this is the case here AAO, but something I see people doing wrong is spending too little time in exploratory sketching and hopping onto the computer too quickly.

I have seen some designers skip any sketching altogether. These designs end up looking stiff and lacking in details that can get worked out on the pad of paper.

Let's face it...if you can't get the pencil sketch to a point that looks 95% conceptually finished then your computer generated piece has little chance of getting there.

Now this isn't always the case with designs that deal heavily in text but an illustrated logo such as these NEED to get worked out with pencil and paper before you even look at a computer. This is where you determine the elements of your subject that can be discarded or MUST be kept in order to give the subject validity.

Practice drawing, and practice, practice and then practice some more....sketch....it's the basic element of art. If you can't master that area you will struggle giving life to your illustrations on the computer. I have seen so many artists apply for jobs and as I go through their books I ask them...where are your sketches....you'd be AMAZED at the number that say proudly..."This was done from scratch on the computer!" Well let me tell you...from an art director's perspective, it's not only horribly obvious in the quality of the work but frowned upon by many of my colleagues.

i'm not neccesarily proud of it, but I don't typically sketch out my designs first.

I know usually with tight deadlines or small budgets you don't have the time to sketch on paper. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but I think some people can work straight on the computer without losing quality.

Maybe I'm a hack and don't know it.

[creativelysain]

Yeah, I agree a lot with what these guys are saying.

Make sure to take note of the details in the head, and neck and take creative liscense with them, and really make them stand out, and make it look great. Here it looks like you just took a bird's head (any bird) and put some motion lines on it, put a little bit of shading, and added a wordmark.

I see that it's just a "for fun logo," but seriously, you're better than this (don't take that the wrong way, you have a lot of talent, and know you can do some really nice stuff) you just have to play around with the idea a little more, before you finalize the idea.

I hope all that made sense, and I'm not trying to be too harsh. For example, I've posted a vulture-type idea I had for a team that went un-used, and while I know it's far from perfect, (or even all that good), it took me 3 days before I had it in Illustrator. So just remember to flesh out all of your ideas, then get in and put the finishing touches on it in Illustrator.

My vulture attempt.

[BigShoop]

Vultures are black. I say reverse the black and the red.

.... and they're a little more "looking for victims" and a little less "hi, i'm a bird and I'm looking around".

Nice. Regardless of how you said it, I think I get what you were trying to say.

Anyway, while vultures may be black (or brown) they also don't have feathers on their heads. This keeps them cleaner and disease-free while they stick their heads in rotting areas to feed. So in essence, their heads are "flesh" colored. Thus, red works fine.

What isn't working is the basic silhouette. Google image up 'vulture'. They are really unique looking animals. Severe powerful beak....strange bendy neck articulation, cool "collar" of feathers, wrinkly mummy head. Its an animal screaming with iconography to be used and you aren't using any of it.

It's the same advice I'd give anyone (and have). Look longer and harder at your subject matter and what makes it look like it looks.

Wordmark is nice though. Real good. Nicely done, just needs to easily relay the concept of vulture.

Ok, i suck. haha

[sideshowbob]

I think that the vulture in the primary should have a body, not just a head. I like the wordmark though.

[andrewharrington]

It looks a little flat, and low on depth, which is the direct result of all the points mentioned by Sterling, RedEye, and lightblue. If you take a gander at lightblue's vulture, while not a perfect image, he's added a nice bit of depth by showing the head behind the body. Think about how eyes and brains work when trying to add that extra element. In lightblue's case, all he did was overlap body parts. You could do shadows, warm/cool contrast, size relationships, or any combination of principles like these to fool the viewer into thinking your logo has depth, which is what it lacks as of now.

[AAO]

Got a good set of critique here. Appreciate and understand all that's been said.

As for sketching, I always have to sketch. It's almost impossible for me to start out at the computer. You guys can determine if that's a good or bad thing.

As for this concept, I took maybe 15 minutes sketching the actual head, shorter than how long I usually take.

I'm gonna come back to the concept later. That's what usually helps, is after your first stretch of working on the concept, then leaving it alone for a day or two, then coming back to it to see what needs to be changed.

[Shumway]

I had to check to see if this was an actual new concept, with all these "throwbacks" of yours resurfacing. I like the way it looks now. Maybe a body would look good for an alt. logo. Kind of how the Ravens had, maybe still have, and alternate logo with the bird with wings spread. I think the head works fine with the text above it. As far as sketching before going to the computer, that's always a good decision. I never like to just dive right into a concept. I'd rather draw countless small sketches than get frustrated looking at the computer screen.

[Stampman]

It needs wings--I think that could help.

[slapshot]

All the advice about sketching is great advice. Don't underestimate how quick ideas can come to you with just a few quick scribbles. What can also work is to step away from your art for a while, especially if you've been putting a lot of consecutive hours into it. You can often be pleasantly surprised with the insight you might bring into your work after not looking at it for a few days.

I can't figure out what's happening where the beek meets the head. There are a lot of sharp angles made by a solid black shape that doesn't look like shadowing to me. I think you need to show a bit more detail in the beak itself so that dark area isn't as ambiguous.

The wordmark is not working. Your V looks too similar to your U. And the V in the secondary vulture logo (with the V-collar) doesn't resemble anything in the wordmark either, and I think that inconsistency hurts your logo more than it helps it. If you want to use that wide V with the vulture head, then you need to switch to a wider font.

[ltravisjr]

I sketch as well. At first very very rough thumbnails with basic placement to determine if an idea is even worth pursuing. Then I sketch the real deal until I have an outlilne I can trace.

I suppose if you have a Wacam or other tablet, you can just sketch on it as if it were a real piece of paper. I wish I had one of those.

LT

[AAO]

Wacom tablets are horrible, IMO. They never really work that well. I prefer the good old sketch and vector method.