Thursday, December 11, 2008

My Logo

When I met Bonnie Inouye in 2002, she had business cards with her fabulous drafts. There were several versions, and I thought they were the most beautiful cards and I wanted to collect them like baseball cards. After her workshop, I bought Fiberworks PCW, and while making a whole bunch of drafts I wanted to weave, I was also on the lookout for a draft that would look good as a logo.

In late 2005 I had to issue a couple of invoices, so I hastily looked for candidates and selected this, which was my second choice. (The draft was never fine-tuned beyond this stage; it was my attempt at making a tulip-like picture.) I tried grays, blues and finally settled on pale yellows because I wanted either the background or the text, in Monotype Corsiva, in grays and I've always, always loved the grays/yellows combination. But because of the difference in the colors on the screen and what comes out of our ink jet, yellow grew darker, and finally, in order to produce enough contrast to see what's there, it became orange, formerly the one color I loathed! Text was in mid-neutral gray initially, and overall it had a soft, elegant image, or so I thought.

Martin didn't like the logo; he said drafts don't mean anything to non-weavers, and suggested to at least take out the threading, tie-up and treadling to clean it up. He disapproved the pale text because they looked weak and were difficult to read to some (older?) potential clients. So I compromised and made the text black, but I kept my logo.

I'm not so attached to this I'm adamant I'm keeping it; it's more like I'm used to this and can't be bothered thinking about a new one. I also have a digital camera now and know how to manipulate and use image files; these things I didn't have access to in 2005. I also know other ways to present the same draft within PCW, so I could try cleaning it up that way.

I realize logos, typefaces, and colors shouldn't be changed flippantly. But I guess I'm opening up to vibrant colors and perhaps I'm looking to add a bit of spunk in my image as well as in my work.

I bought a Bonnie scarf for Mom, and held on to it for about six months studying it, but around Christmas that year tag, label and card were sent with the scarf. And I can't remember much, though a picture of the scarf has survived in my head. Perhaps I should ask Mom to photograph them.

Sorry, I keep mixing logo, text, and color and there must be proper marketing lingo for all these components, but I don't know them. Right, future towels beckon me. It's going to be a hot sunny day and my cool basement is going to be heavenly.

7 comments:

  1. This year I took pictures of my woven scarves and had them printed onto "moo" cards. I use them as a hang tag for all my wovens now and have had several people make positive comments on the cards. (http://www.moo.com)

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  2. oh I see what you are saying. I wondered about the black lines on the selvedge as they looked kind of strange to me.

    I am a little old school on logos. I know with digital printing, many young desingers throw most of the logo rules out the window. But I still think they serve the client well if you design a logo that is firstly memorable. A memorable logo will also be unique and simple. It should communicate something relevant about the client or service/product they provide. A logo should always work first in black, and then be able to develop into a palette that is appropriate to the identity. Many people make mistakes of picking colors that are the client;s favorite or eliminating colors based on bias without regard to if the color is appropriate. An example is a dentist who had a red logo. Does that not make you think of bleeding gums?

    Does any of this help at all?

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  3. Meg? curious, How many pieces would you be tagging in say one year?

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  4. This has been an interesting series of posts. I tend to agree with Dana and Daisy in terms of how I think of a logo. It's a symbol and should create an association with what it symbolizes, in this case a person. I like the moo card idea, but would still want my little bunny logo somewhere on the card. Not that I'm planning to make cards. I meant to make some sort of tags when I did my etsy shop, but life got in the way.

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  5. I'll come back to the issue later today, Friday. I've been thinking if all this thinking is worth it, ha ha.

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  6. I am not sure that a logo as such is strictly necessary. Of course, it can be fun and recognisable, but your name can serve that purpose too. My problem is commiting myself to something that "seems like a good idea at the time" - I have a lot of ideas like that! That's why my blog is called callybooker and not something clever; I was afraid that what I thought was clever this week would annoy me hugely the next. It took me ages to come up with my etsy name "bonnyclaith" and I am still cautious about it. I reckon I'd need to give myself another couple of years to develop a logo. On the other hand I will still be called Cally Booker and in my wilder dreams I dare to hope that is label people will associate with my weaving.

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  7. Dana, because I agree with Cally completely, I might even get rid of my logo, I'm not sure. Re. tagging, not many. It depends, but never as many as 100 - more around 50 at the most?

    Cally, I agree with you completely, but I'm more wordy... And I thank you for your eloquent comment because it fits with what I think I've been thinking but couldn't but my finger on thus far...

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