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© 2000 by Gary Priester. All Rights Reserved.
Dear Gary,
I am on the Board of Directors of AMERICAN CINEMA EDITORS, Inc.
Founded in 1950, this is the honorary association of film editors
who have distinguished themselves in the field of motion picture film,
video tape, computerized editing.
Our logo was designed in those early days and has made no leap forward
even though we just celebrated out 50th Anniversary. We DESPERATELY
need an up dated logo. Something original, elegant, dynamic, artistic,
slick, cool, colorful, beautiful, will do nicely. You know, the
Gary Priester treatment.
Would you please consider us for a "Makeover Maven Jr." treatment ??
Steven Lovejoy
Board of Directors,
American Cinema Editors, Inc.
As it turns out, Steve and I grew up in the same city and attended the same schools (as I am quite a few years older, however, we did not attend these schools contemporaneously-or even at the same time). And yet, I had met Steve many, many, many years ago. When I was in 7th grade, I was Steve's sister's boyfriend (for a whole week), and visited the Lovejoy household on one occasion. So in addition to communicating with Steve about doing a logo makeover, we had a chance to catch up on what had happened in our respective lives in the ensuing years. It might make an epic film by the time Steve finished with the editing.
Film editing has changed radically over the years as has desktop design. The American Cinema Editors logo, as Steven had observed was, as they say, a bit long in the tooth. While most of the editing today is done on computer, the roots of film editing is film. (Makes sense). Thus I decided film was a good image with which to start the design explorations.
I create a stylized strip of 35mm film with three frames, red white and blue. I skewed the film strip and made a duplicate to form an A. Perhaps not the most original solution but a guy has to start somewhere, eh?
With at least one design on the boards, I utilized my film strip and created a single frame of file with a modified Handel Gothic lowercase a. I made a bitmap copy, applied a modest amount of Gaussian blur and dropped it to the back to make a colored drop shadow. I then applied a small amount of transparency to the film strip to achieve a transparent film effect. I used Handel Gothic Light for the text.
I created my first five designs in the just released version of Xara X. Among Xara X's new features is Customized Brush Shapes. I created a stylized A-shape path with the Freehand Tool and applied a custom brush shape using my single 33mm frame for my brush shape. Increasing the rotation and rotation angle created a most heroic-looking effect. (Did it read as an A? Did it have to?) I used Xara X's new soft shadow effect, which unlike DRAW's, does not require a degree in rocket science to implement. Just click and drag and instant shadow, even on the Floor Shadow shown in this example. (Was this design a masterful triumph of form over substance!)
I used Xara's Mould Tool (similar to DRAW's Envelope effect) to add perspective to a film strip. The result was a stylized A that was by degrees more of an A than the last example. But with a bit of modification, could it be clearer? The text is Zapf Elliptical.
I snipped out the bottom portion of the film frame and removed one frame from the top. Bingo, a logo that said A and film! What could be better, or simpler? What indeed. The condensed text is Zurich X Cn BT.
I had a notion that a script A created with a strip of film would be cool. (Little did I know how much time it would take to figure out how to accomplish this). I determined it would be easier to achieve this effect in CorelDRAW because I could create a single path for the script A, and extrude it to serve as a template. Then DRAW's Envelope effect could be used to attach individual pieces of film to the shape. To know where to attach the individual pieces of film, I used DRAW's new-and most welcome-dashed line editor to create a dashed line to the length needed. I converted the line to a shape and then applied the extrude. Using the extruded example for my guide, I attached each frame of film to the extrusion and when I was done, deleted the extrusion. The final result is a bit rough around the edges, but with another day or two, I think I could improve upon the final effect. I used Harlow Solid Italic for the text.
For my next exploration, I used DRAW 10's Envelope effect (which I'm pleased to announce is back in the Effects menu from whence it had been summarily removed without so much as a by your leave in DRAW 9) to create an S-shape. I flopped a duplicate and then skewed another duplicate to make the crossbar of the A. The script text is Liberty BT.
Am I getting anywhere? I'm not sure. I tried another Envelope shape using my ubiquitous film strip which if you work real hard at it, you can interpret it to be an A. At least the text looks nice. I used Friz Quadrata.
I was getting the feeling that I was spinning my reels, as it were. Nothing I had come up with, with the possible exception of the perspective film A excited me much. And so I figured maybe it was time to let my right brain gnaw on the problem while I went for a three-hour hike in the beautiful hills behind our home. And true to form, when I returned and stared at the screen full of designs, my right brain said ca ca. Say what, I asked. Ca ca came the reply. These designs are ca ca. Why don't you quit ignoring the obvious and do something with ACE? It's simple, it's to the point, and it is what the editors call their organization. Uh, right, I replied. I create three stylized letterforms and added sprocket holes. An Envelope effect gave the letters a flowing appearance. As a counterpoint to the heavy letters, I used Adobe's Kepler Multiple Master in caps and small caps.
My urge at this point was to end the explorations and get on with writing the story, but once again my right brain intervened. "When was the last time anybody edited 35mm film?" it asked impertinently. "You're headed in the right direction but one or two more designs might get you something more of the moment," my right brain admonished. And so I came up with this final design which is my favorite. I created three simple letter shapes using essentially a circle with a straight line added for the a and the e. Using the Ellipse Tool to create the paths and then converting the outlines to shapes made the job easy. I made six duplicates which I offset horizontally and vertically filling every other ace white. The result is simple, and yet has a three dimensional film or tape-like appearance. I used Kabel Medium for the text.
Once again I think I will ask for your help picking the winner. (Last month's reader favorite was the tree shapes cut out of the building shape, with my favorite the fire hydrant and tree a distant second). Will any of these designs make the final cut or will they all end up on the cutting room floor? If you were a film editor which if any of these designs would you rally around. Drop me a line and let me know what you think. You can find me in the Graphics Unleashed Forums
Is your current logo an eyesore rather than a sight for sore eyes? Let the Maven have a gander at it. Send me your logo in GIF or JPEG file format and a brief explanation of why you feel your logo needs a makeover. I'll do my best to guide you in the right direction.
I'm not going to trash Corel Magazine this month because given the fact that the majority of my writing gigs have gone the way of the dinosaur this year, trashing Corel Magazine-even if they still owe me for 7 articles-might be tempting the god Hubris to make the remaining gigs go away. At least the splendid content on Unleash.com is still available. And it still is available for free. Your support keeps these articles coming. If you plan on making a purchase of a book or other training materials, try to buy it here first. If you plan on purchasing music, or videos, or electronics, or computer stuff, follow Foster's link to Amazon.com. If you make a purchase, Foster gets a few quarters and I get a paradigm (or a pair of dimes) to rub together. I thank you. Foster thanks you. Your fellow readers thank you.
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