Choose Colors Wisely
At CorelWORLD, a gal came to me and asked for advice on how to make their corporate color (a vivid "teal") appear consistently across all manners of output. This included LCD projectors for powerpoint presentations.
From what I'd gathered, the real issue was them choosing a color initially that reveals limitations in output capabilities of many devices and mediums. I mean, if the same file is viewed on various projectors or monitors and looks quite different, you've got a serious problem.
The age of each device and also it's settings can wreak havoc. This has nothing to do with Draw, everything to do with the colors chosen, and the output equipment used. This includes gloss and matte paper substrates too.
It's a tough lesson, but when designing a logo, a pro designer thinks of the worst-case scenarios and keeps that in mind. That means the logo needs to be faxable, and can also be embroidered.
For me, embroidery is the key. With the FREE plugin for Draw 12 & X3, you can visualize how the logo will look on a shirt. Subtle details such as thin lines and fancy fountain fills are out the window. You can see "what works" and what doesn't. Clients get excited by seeing their logo as embroidery; you're painting a dream in their mind of nation-wide franchising of their concept.
Here's a very quick example:
Want proof that this is the right way to go? Look at the logos for the Fortune 500 companies and notice how simple most of them are in design. They are almost all based on only 1 or 2 colors. The colors chosen can be also be easily reproduced in CMYK.
From what I'd gathered, the real issue was them choosing a color initially that reveals limitations in output capabilities of many devices and mediums. I mean, if the same file is viewed on various projectors or monitors and looks quite different, you've got a serious problem.
The age of each device and also it's settings can wreak havoc. This has nothing to do with Draw, everything to do with the colors chosen, and the output equipment used. This includes gloss and matte paper substrates too.
It's a tough lesson, but when designing a logo, a pro designer thinks of the worst-case scenarios and keeps that in mind. That means the logo needs to be faxable, and can also be embroidered.
For me, embroidery is the key. With the FREE plugin for Draw 12 & X3, you can visualize how the logo will look on a shirt. Subtle details such as thin lines and fancy fountain fills are out the window. You can see "what works" and what doesn't. Clients get excited by seeing their logo as embroidery; you're painting a dream in their mind of nation-wide franchising of their concept.
Here's a very quick example:
Want proof that this is the right way to go? Look at the logos for the Fortune 500 companies and notice how simple most of them are in design. They are almost all based on only 1 or 2 colors. The colors chosen can be also be easily reproduced in CMYK.
posted by Jeff Harrison at
6:53 PM
5 Comments
