Design Questions

[werbear]

So I've been looking over some of my past posts. Thanks a ton for all of your tips, tricks, and constructive criticisms. I'm trying something new and different. I have a concept in my head for a Nebraska Mammoths. Below are my initial sketches and a beginning mockup. Several questions I have for anyone who would be willing to endure some stupid beginning questions.

1. Somebody wrote on one of my other learning threads to think in terms of shapes rather than lines. I think it might have been sparky and I think I'm finally starting to understand that (thick skull and all). My question is how do you end your line shapes. Do you taper to a point every time a line intersects another line? or do you make it more like a picture and just flow one shape into another?

2. How do you give depth? For instance I'm looking at the ear and I'm not sure how to set the ear off from the rest of the body.

3. How the heck am I going to make this thing furry?

4. Is there any one of these that shows more promise than the others? I'm kind of shying away from the circle and more towards the exploding N because I found a real life circle mammoth logo, and the perspective of the walking mammoth strikes me as looking odd on the side of a football helmet...

[mcrosby]

1. Thinking in shapes is definitely a big step. Once you start doing this you get more of a logo and less of an illustration. You want bold shapes that work well with each other. Try to build your logo with as few main shapes as possible. The simplicity of this will stop you from over-illustrating. Build your logos in black and white, the shapes should be simple enough to be easily supported in B&W. As far as how to end shapes/where they meet: In some places you can bring them to a point, in others you may want to overlap one shape over another. There are a good mix of these things in this logo:

Various circles or ovals build up the lines of the tail feathers. On the lower feathers the shapes meet other shapes and form a point. The shapes of the upper feathers are overlapped.

2. Depth will come from deciding which shapes to overlap and which to combine. Your ear shapes will be in front of the head/body shapes near them. You also want to think of which lines should be thicker due to shading. The above Gamecock logo shows this, the low lines of each piece are thicker, as light is from above (you can see this best in the wing). Another way of adding depth is to add highlights or lowlights. BE CAREFUL, it is easy to add far too much of this and let it take over your logo. You want your high/low-lights to compliment the logo, not become a focus of it. High/low-lights are a great way to add in a tertiary color as well.

I'm pretty terrible with highlights/lowlights most of the time, but this example is something I'm quite proud of.

3. Furry is the most fun, and usually helps me get that 'fierce' look everyone seems to want these days. You want to add 'indents' or jagged edges to your basic shapes to get that furry feeling.

The above logos were done 4 years apart by yours truly. I was obviously still learning quite a bit on my first try, and my lines were thin and complex. I hadn't learned to exaggerate shapes from my reference photo into the simple shapes a logo should have. The second attempt was much better. I added 'fur' by making the 'indents' you see on the bottom of the cheeks and chin. Don't go overboard with this, it only takes a few to get the point across.

4. Your first logo shows some good promise. Bolden up your lines, simplify your shapes and do your best to get various shapes to work with each other. Your shoulder shape should follow the same curve as your spine shape. Your trunk shape could follow the same curves as the tusks.

Most importantly, just keep practicing.

Hope this helps!

[mcrosby]

Seeing things like this helped me really start to comprehend what drying by shapes meant:

Fraser Davidson is one of the best in the business.

[St Louis Cardinals]

I would get rid of the hair. kinda looks like a bowlcut

[werbear]

Thanks for the help mcrosby. That was definitely a great lesson in design. Much appreciated. I don't necessarily want to get rid of the hair st louis, because It's one of the few things that make a mammoth distinct in my opinion. But i'm open to change. Here is my first draft trying to emphasize shape.

[mcrosby]

Most of your lines are still WAY too thin.

[werbear]

What about something like these....