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Logos for the Design Challenged, Part XIX

The Readers (That's All of You) Have Spoken!!!

I have to thank all of you who wrote beseeching me to continue with the Logos series. I received over 50 message, all of which were most passionate about not ending the articles. Your comments and compliments made me a very happy person, and considering what a grumpy old man I normally am, this is quite an accomplishment. To be honest, until the barrage of e-mail fell down on me, I had seriously decided to move on to other topics. But you, the readers, have spoken and I shall continue to produce the logos articles. But this time, as I will explain in a minute, we'll continue in a more interactive manner.

But First, an Important Word from Our Sponsor

While reading a lot of your messages, it occurred to me that most of you have probably never given much thought to how these articles can be made available to you for free month after month after month. Generous as Foster is, for him to pay me to write these articles, and the numerous other people whose articles appear on this site, he needs to generate some income. Makes sense when you think about it. Here's the way it's supposed to work.

Foster puts up a cool web site and provides free content (articles, tips, etc.)
Readers visit the site, read the content, and profit from the free education.
Readers, attracted to the site by the content, buy something from the site.
Foster pays the writers from the money received though sales from the site

Sounds easy enough.

My Reader's Digest version of the Internet Business Model makes the assumption that people will buy stuff from the Unleash.com site, like Foster's Corel books and excellent training videos and CDs, and/or sign up for the Boot Camps.

Problem is, most people don't purchase anything. Not because they are mean-spirited or cheap. It just never occurred to them. They come for the content, and leave. Now Foster has put up a lot of his own money to prime to pump (translation: pay the writers for their articles). But if people don't support the site, then Foster has no choice but to discontinue the free content. And writers like me are out of a job.

I'm not saying you should buy something from the site all the time. But if you plan to buy something anyway, why not buy it from the Unleash.com site. In addition to his books and videos, Foster is an affiliate of Amazon.com, Dell Computer, MetaCreations software, and Cutting Edge (Deb Cook's cool plug-in effects). When you order anything from these affiliates programs from the links at Unleash.com, Foster gets a percentage of the sale. Foster makes some money. Foster pays me. I'm happy, Foster's happy. And you're happy because you continue to get free content.

You can pay a lot of money and subscribe to certain magazines (which I shall not name), and never see anything for your hard-earned money but the very occasional (if ever) quarterly issue every year and a half or so. You could pay even more money to subscribe to this same unnamed magazine's web site, and not get anywhere near the great content you get here. For free. Every month! Like clockwork!

So, before I step down from my soapbox, I make this humble appeal. Please find it in your generous hearts to support Unleash.com in any way you can, and I'll continue to provide the kinds of articles you've told me you want.

Logos for the Design Challenged-Part II

While I'm on the subject of unnamed magazines that don't seem to be around anymore, when I used to write for Corel Magazine, (are they still around?) my favorite articles to write were the Makeover Maven articles. These articles were a lot like the Logos for the Design Challenged articles, except instead of my having to come up with a new and different subject each month, people would send me their logos or other designed materials, and Mr. Maven (as I called myself) would do a makeover for them. If you're up for it, I'd like to continue to offer Mr. Maven's makeover services here.

Here's how it works. Send your makeover requests to me at garypriester@earthlink.net. Don't send me any files larger than 30-50K please. Tell me about yourself or your product, business or service. If I pick your entry, I'll make you the subject of a makeover article. Fair enough?

Here's the fine print. The Makeover articles will be for educational purposes only. I will retain the copyrights to the logos or designs, but you will get to see how the design process works and maybe be inspired to do something even better yourself. If, perchance, you fall head over heels in love with my designs, and decide you can't live without them, we can negotiate a fair price for the design. You are under no obligation to buy anything, but on the other hand, I can't give my design away. And, it would not fair to designers who are earning their living designing logos and other graphic design work if I did. If you are a non-profit, or charitable organization, then a pro bono arrangement might be possible.

Show and Tell

To give you an example how the Makeover Maven works, here are a few examples from previous articles. Mr. Maven's Greatest Hits or something like that!

The Ministry for What?

Scott Campbell, the former editor of Corel Magazine, would forward the makeover requests to me. One package was from the Ministry for the Absorption of Protohumans, Androids and Cyborgs. I figured the sender was some kind of nut and almost threw the package away. The sender was William Holt Penniger, Jr. who as it turned out is a pretty decent composer and electronic keyboard musician. He sent me his card which was printed on his laser printer. William also sent some cassettes of his music. (Figure 2) While listening to his music, I came up with the symbol for the minister, a figure consisting entirely of music symbols. I added this symbol figure and the type to a strange other-worldly background for the logo. I created two surreal images which I used for the background images on the business card, envelope and letterhead.

Run Don't Walk

While I was looking at the business card and makeover request from Road-Runner Highway Signs, Inc., which strangely enough is in Florida, where they have many kinds of birds but no road runners that I know of, the solution for the logo struck me. Like being hit by one of those 16-wheel trucks! A yellow highway sign. Of course. With a road runner on it.

Never being possessed with great drawing talent, and not being able to find a decent piece of road runner clip art, I scanned the bird on the card as large as I could, and created a line outline with the Pen Tool.

The bird on the sign was OK but it was kind of static. It just stood there, which if you're from Foster's neck of the woods, you know is something these birds don't do. Then I got my second smack upside the head. Why not have the road runner, running out of the sign leaving a road runner sized hole behind in the sign. I added some drop shadows to accentuate the hole in the sign and to elevate the bird.

Hire Education

No, I didn't mean to say Higher Education. Laney College is a trade college in Oakland, California that specializes in teaching people useful trades so when they graduate they can get hired. I met Laney's art director, Suzanne Cancilla-Fox at one of Rick Altman's CorelWORLD Conferences and asked if I could do a makeover article on Laney after she gave me her card.

I tried a whole bunch of different designs, some quite elaborate, before settling on one of my more typical designs, the red and blue logo. This design was clean and had a very architectural look. The logo also follows my less is more design philosophy. It's so simple, that it is also memorable with only two elements to remember. It's always been one of my favorite Makeover Maven logos.

Laney's course brochures were all across the board in terms of design. These examples show how Laney could use a 3D, semi-transparent version of the logo and a simple photograph representing the course of study, to create a series of coordinated brochures.

Go Figure

I got a lot of mail from designers who were unable to come up with a logo or design for themselves. I wasn't able to find the before image for this makeover, but as I recall it was a simple all text card. Debra Jackson is a bookkeeper who offers a variety of computer-related services including desktop publishing and graphic design to supplement her income in her off season. She calls her company Carolina Bookkeeping, Etc. Here are two of the designs I suggested for her business cards. I liked the short stubby pencil because it was fun and said both design and bookkeeping. (You may remember a similar pencil that I created for one of Rick Altman's CorelWORLD conferences a few years back).

This design was a bit of inspiration. I was racking what's left of my brain trying to come up with a better symbol than the pencil. And then I said, of course, beans. Another name for accountants and bookkeepers is bean counter. But instead of pinto beans, or whatever kinds of beans bean counters count, I hit upon jelly beans. They are colorful and memorable. And they are a cool way to say bean counter and graphics designer in one image.

One inspiration lead to another and I suggested that if Debra liked the jelly bean idea, she could buy some jars of jelly beans, make a simple label listing her multitudinous services, and pass them out to current and prospective customers.

I Talk, Make That, Sing to the Trees

Sometimes people can't see the forest for the trees. Such was the case with the Woods' Song logo design. The California cabinet maker who sent me this logo had the right idea. Maybe he was just too close to his subject to recognize it.

I tried a lot of designs having to do with wood finally arriving at the stylized W made up of two back to back 1/16th notes. I also changed the slogan from "�Ya jus' gotta know how to listen�" to Hear the Music in the Wood. This is what the clip art character under the tree is doing after all with his stethoscope plugged into the tree. At least that's what I think he's doing.

So Let's See Them

I think you get the idea. Send me your tired, your poor, your wretched, and the Makeover Maven will see what he can do to get you pointed in the right direction. I also enjoyed hearing from those of you who took the time to offer your encouragement and support. I'd like to hear from more of you when you get a chance. Let me know what you think. And if you have any questions, suggestions or comments, contact me in the Graphics Unleashed Forums.

Tutorials by Gary Priester

Read more articles by Gary Priester along with a short bio.

_{Last Updated January 27, 2000.}

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