Logo Design Tutorials: Animals

[andrewharrington]

That's the whole point. You guys are worried that you can't hold a consistent line width when you hand draw something, but the point is that you don't necessarily want a consistent line width. Look at FD's bird here: You see near the front of the bird most of the detail is thin and delicate, including the thickness of the keyline. As your eye moves further back toward the wings, the rhythm changes, so you now have thicker lines and features. Check out how thick the keyline coming off the wings is compared to the keyline at the front of the face. This can give a directional logo some extra forward motion. This is also the reason your keyline looks dead, kmw; it's a consistent width all around (it also looks a tiny bit thin for that logo) when, to me, it is calling out for some variation that will push that fish forward (to the right) like it's jumping out of the water, or... swimming or whatever. It's not that a uniform keyline is bad, but there's a time, place and style where it works, and some where it doesn't do the job as well as a dynamic keyline does. You could also simplify a lot of the detail and linework in there. I don't think that wordmark could be much worse, either.

[The Fixer]

That's the whole point. You guys are worried that you can't hold a consistent line width when you hand draw something, but the point is that you don't necessarily want a consistent line width. Look at FD's bird here: You see near the front of the bird most of the detail is thin and delicate, including the thickness of the keyline. As your eye moves further back toward the wings, the rhythm changes, so you now have thicker lines and features. Check out how thick the keyline coming off the wings is compared to the keyline at the front of the face. This can give a directional logo some extra forward motion. This is also the reason your keyline looks dead, kmw; it's a consistent width all around (it also looks a tiny bit thin for that logo) when, to me, it is calling out for some variation that will push that fish forward (to the right) like it's jumping out of the water, or... swimming or whatever. It's not that a uniform keyline is bad, but there's a time, place and style where it works, and some where it doesn't do the job as well as a dynamic keyline does. You could also simplify a lot of the detail and linework in there. I don't think that wordmark could be much worse, either.

ya I knew that. But you didnt answer my question. There are times when you want a consistent line weight.

[andrewharrington]

Even if you want a consistent keyline, there will still be points where you need to edit the line weight, particularly around sharp points. It's still the same process. Make an offset path and use that as a guide to draw your keyline with the pen tool.

[Pwood]

How's this? It's for a team called the Booze Hounds. C&C welcome.

[kmw_29]

That's the whole point. You guys are worried that you can't hold a consistent line width when you hand draw something, but the point is that you don't necessarily want a consistent line width. Look at FD's bird here: You see near the front of the bird most of the detail is thin and delicate, including the thickness of the keyline. As your eye moves further back toward the wings, the rhythm changes, so you now have thicker lines and features. Check out how thick the keyline coming off the wings is compared to the keyline at the front of the face. This can give a directional logo some extra forward motion. This is also the reason your keyline looks dead, kmw; it's a consistent width all around (it also looks a tiny bit thin for that logo) when, to me, it is calling out for some variation that will push that fish forward (to the right) like it's jumping out of the water, or... swimming or whatever. It's not that a uniform keyline is bad, but there's a time, place and style where it works, and some where it doesn't do the job as well as a dynamic keyline does. You could also simplify a lot of the detail and linework in there. I don't think that wordmark could be much worse, either.

Well, you're right about the wordmark. It was just thrown in, its not really part of the contest design so I didn't spend any time on it. Lucky for me though, you have all the answers.

[quantum]

How's this? It's for a team called the Booze Hounds. C&C welcome.

Not bad. The lines could be smoother and the perspective of the barrel is a bit off.

[Davidson]

How's this? It's for a team called the Booze Hounds. C&C welcome.

you dont need two outlines on this.

you start to loose the dog as the shape of the black outline dominates the logo.

you probably dont even need the white outline either.

[Davidson]

here are another set of bird logo progressions.

[Brave-Bird 08]

Here is a concept inspired by this thread; doing it for my school, Kennesaw State.

Trying to get my vectoring skills a lot better before finishing my NBA redesign, considering I've done too much tweaking and not enough revamps.

This isn't anywhere near finished, but I want to get some feedback! (for a comparison you can take a gander at the last logo on my sig)

[Davidson]

pretty decent so far.

ill cut to my personal thoughts and ill be savage, cos i reckon you can take it. haha.

* im not sure you need the 'rim light' on the right, it definitely needs needs some detailing to break up the black, but not there.

i reckon once you have some hinting at perching feet or something, you wont need the yellow there.

* you have bisected the wing half way down which i dont think it needs and on the shoulder also.

* not mad keen on the white bits rightnow either. owl looks slightly 'glossy'?

* small points about 'line width', i know i always bang on about this stuff but the negative black on his forehead is too thin

and the black lines in the feathering are too thin right now.

* reckon you can really thicken up the black on the outline and leave the grey till the end.

[Pwood]

How's this? It's for a team called the Booze Hounds. C&C welcome.

you dont need two outlines on this.

you start to loose the dog as the shape of the black outline dominates the logo.

you probably dont even need the white outline either.

I took what you said and updated it. I redid the white outline because without it it looked a little lackluster, I think. But if you disagree, please tell me. Thanks for the feedback, by the way! It really helped!

Any suggestions?

[Davidson]

primo. i like it much better. think the white outline is fine.

[chickenfish13]

I know you've given us a lot already, but I was wondering if you could do a sketch progression with an animal like a bear, tiger, wolf, something like that. If you can't, or don't want too, I completely understand as you've given us so much already, but i'd love to see it.

[andrewharrington]

How's this? It's for a team called the Booze Hounds. C&C welcome.

you dont need two outlines on this.

you start to loose the dog as the shape of the black outline dominates the logo.

you probably dont even need the white outline either.

I took what you said and updated it. I redid the white outline because without it it looked a little lackluster, I think. But if you disagree, please tell me. Thanks for the feedback, by the way! It really helped!

Any suggestions?

I like it, too, though I would like to see it without he outline as well. The barrel is much better, but still a little detailed and wonky, but overall, quite solid.

[medhaug]

I'm new to creating logos so forgive me in advance for the dumb question but are you guys hand drawing and then using a scanner to upload into AI? Thx.

[9erssteve]

I'm new to creating logos so forgive me in advance for the dumb question but are you guys hand drawing and then using a scanner to upload into AI? Thx.

Provided it's relevant there's no such thing as a dumb question, yours is so you've no need to apologise.

It all very much depends on the individual, Davidson who set the tutorial does it all on screen using illustrator and working over say a photo to begin with then working over a line drawing of the photo and so on and so on until it's refined to the end point, as illustrated in his tutorial.

Myself I tend to use a pencil and paper at some point although not always, and not always at the beginning as you might expect. Take for example the Patrick Willis that I did in other tutorial feedback thread, it started on the mac, then when I hit trouble I printed it re-sketched it by hand, scanned that then used that scan as a template in Illustrator to draw over.

It all depends on what YOU are most comfortable with and what gives YOU the best results. There really is no right or wrong. Pencil and paper, or computer and Illustrator they're both just tool sets, one admittedly more expensive than the other but that doesn't always mean it's better. Find what suits you best, but the one thing I would say is if you do draw it by hand DONT use the live trace function in Illustrator to vectorise your work, learn how to use the pen tools in Illustrator properly and draw your own shapes, your work will look better for it.

9erssteve

[medhaug]

Thanks Steve...I was just making sure it was possible to make a clean logo without going to the pen and paper as my drawing skills are pretty horrible... . I love that Willis sig by the way, very well done.

GO 9ers!

[wbhockey26]

A little something I've been working on...getting a good feel I think

[Cola]

^^

I'm not seeing the relationship in your base photo and the logo you are heading towards. The beak is a different shape, the eye area is different, the basic shape of the head seems different, and I'm not seeing the same flow in highlight or possible color areas.

[Windmill360]

what happened to the images posted in davidsons post?