Logos for the Design Challenged, Part I

It's fair to say the primary reason most new owners buy CorelDRAW is to create logos and business cards. In my humble opinion, this is a little like using an atom bomb to swat a fly! It's also fair to say that the majority of DRAW users have never had formal art school training. And to say that DRAW is a little overwhelming is an understatement. Given these facts, it's not hard to see why many new users run screaming into the night after their first session with DRAW, never to return. Bummer!

So, what's important is to have a positive "Out of Box Experience" as the computer manufactures like to call it. That's were I come in. In the months to come I'll show you how to create cool-looking logos with DRAW, even if you can't draw a straight line with the Freehand Tool, and even if you have never attended an art school. Truth is, there are literally thousands of pre-designed logos at your disposal, if you know where to look. I'm talking about distinctive type faces, Corel's Symbol library, special characters, decorative fonts and more. For this first exercise we'll discover how a single initial set in a decorative font, in this case a capital G set in Firenze, (pronounced fir-en-zee) can be used, off the shelf as it were, to create a handsome logo which we'll also place on a business card.

Eight Ways to Skin a Cat

I really shouldn't use that phrase owning five cats (along with eight hens, four doves, two finches and one extraordinary canary) but I use the subhead to make a simple point. Good logo solutions usually only come after a lot of exploration, so I'm going to present eight ways to enhance our pre-designed logo, the capital G. If your name is not George, Gloria, Gary, Geraldine, Greg, Garth, Gina, Grettle, or any other name that begins with a G, feel free to substitute your own initial. If you don't have Firenze installed in your font list, you can either install it from the CorelDRAW CD ROM 1 (fonts directory) or use a similar such as Poster Bodoni.