9 Blog Exercise: Logo Design

Most commonly recognized by their three stripes, the Adidas logo above makes use of the basic elements of scale. As shown above the three varying diagonal stripes leads the viewers eye along the company name. Since we commonly read text from left to right, the scale of the three stripes also increases from left to right. Furthermore the slanting stripes and variation in sizes creates an abstract cubist form of an actual shoe facing the to the left causing our eye to also travel back and forth through the company name. In addition, the basic colors of black and white allow for a strong contrast emphasizing the negative and positive spaces of the logo. Also the simple colors establish a clean, crisp, and fresh logo design, which is representative of their shoe and clothing styles and designs. 

The above image is a logo design for a famous Russian Landscaping company. In the above logo the basic element that stood out to me was the use of color. When i think of a landscaping company i think of very earthy colors, like browns, and greens, however the colors for this logo are very bright and exotic. For one, the logos bright colors helps catch my attention, especially since there are a lot of bright and vibrant colors. Another thing that i found interesting about the logo was that the different colors and shades of colors creates a dimensionality for the logo, for example the back hind leg emphasizes darker shades of colors which tells me that that leg is in the background picture plane. In addition, what helps compliment the colors and how they express dimensionality is the shapes that are used, the polygonal forms help to represent the abstract forms of actual shadows or tonal shapes on an actual body, and emphasizing that idea with the use of different color shades allows the logo to "pop" and seem three dimensional.

Similar to how the Adidas logo creates movement through the scaling of shapes, the logo above creates movement through line. As stated previously, we are accustomed to reading from left to right, therefore our eyes are accustomed to travel in that direction, from left to right. The above logo emphasizes this through the use of a black line that is thick in the beginning and gradually narrows as you lide along the curvature of the line. Furthermore the path that the line draws mimics a stylized cursive "e" for the company name Elastic Software. In addition, the colored orbs help in assisting through the movement of the line from their color and size. Starting from the left most, lightest colored orb, if you travel along the line the orbs gradually get smaller and darker in shade of color. 

8 Blog Exercise: Visual Thinking

The above test was attempted by my girlfriend. She chose choice "E" because she believed that the order followed a square, triangle, square sequence. It took her about 2-3 minutes to answer.

The above test was taken by a classmate in one of my other classes and he chose option "C" because he felt the pattern followed a "line, shape, line, shape" pattern but he was unsure because even though option "C" is a line, it still forms the shape of a triangle. It took my friend about 5 minutes to decide on a final answer.

The above test was performed by my older brother, and he was able to find all 11 squares in the image. It took my older brother about 10 minutes to solve because he said that at first he didn't notice the larger squares, and he kept recounting.

The above test was performed by my younger brother and he was only able to find 7 squares. It took my younger brother about 5 minutes to solve because he said he tried to work fairly quickly, and that some of the colors would throw him off. He had failed to notice the 4 other squares because he said that he didn't think about them or pay attention to them.

6 Blog Exercise: Visual Perception

When searching for logos, I usually look for the designs that are simple, but at the same time clever and complex in concept. When i think about logos, i feel that they should represent and help the viewer to describe what it is that the company does, or helps the user remember the company's name.

In this sense I guess you can say that I focus and utilize top-down processing more. For example, I tend to focus more on logos that present a certain meaning, or i try to understand certain aspects of someone's logo, like the name of the company, and the image they have designed for their logo. A great example of this is the logo for the "Spartan Golf Club."

When I see the word "Spartan" I am already focused on seeing a spartan soldier or a helmet, and at first glance you can see that the logo is a Spartan helmet. However at the same time if you focus more on the details of the image, you will notice that there is a golfer in full swing creating the shape of the helmet.

This example helps to illustrate the constant linking and re-linking of the image of the helmet and the word spartan, and the golfer with the word golf club. 

I found this logo interesting because it had fit my search criteria for finding logos that i like. The design is simple, but complex in concept and very clever.