PLEASE NOTE: All CMIT modules have now been withdrawn,
and are unavailable for the 2010/11 academic year
These web pages and lecture notes are left as reference for those students
requiring CMIT modules to complete their programme only, and are not an
indication of modules currently offered.
Logo Design Task
For this assessment you must design a logo and associated brand materials for an organisation and document the process in the form of a critique. The critique, artwork and essay should be assembled into a portfolio for final submission. You must include a disc containing electronic versions of everything in the portfolio.
The logo
You can take an existing logo and re-design it, or you can create a new logo from scratch for a fictitious or real organisation.
The critique
Aim for around 1,500 - 2,500 words - the content is much more important than the length. Use illustrations to show the progression of the design during the semester. Include examples of existing logos that are relevant to your own design. Include the specification as well as the finished design.
Present the finished logo on a single sheet of white paper suitable for a pre-press scanner.
Design business stationery showing how the logo will be used with other brand elements. You should provide a letterhead and business card. You may also prepare mockups of how the brand might be used on promotional materails, buildings and vehicle livery.
Design the layout for a brochure, annual report or other multi-page document that demonstrates how your branding would be employed in other paper-published material.
Create a disc containing the logo and letterhead design in vector format, plus all other work in the portfolio (it's up to you whether you scan sketches etc and include them).
If you have sketches, idea boards, etc then include them as an appendix.
If you carry out surveys, use focus groups, etc then present the conclusions in the critique and include the raw data in an appendix.
Sample work will be available later in the course to provide ideas and inspiration.
Some hints and tips
1. Logo
The logo is to be designed for general use, such as on advertising, merchandise, uniforms, shirts, equipment, vehicles, as appropriate. State in your critique the sort of 'objects' on which the logo will be expected to be used - perhaps scan in pictures of such objects and superimpose your logo on them.
Consider the problems of how the usage of the logo may affect the design, e.g. printing it at different sizes may affect the amount of detail you can have and how small text can be; this may mean you have to design more than one version to take these factors into account. Comment on this aspect of the design process in your critique.
Give thought to the style and size of typeface for any text on the logo. State the name of the typeface within your critique. Give reasons behind your choice of typeface in your critique. Include details of typeface for body text and headings in multi-page documents.
If smaller versions of the logo are required (eg for business card use), and you have had to adapt the design to take account of this, submit full size artwork for the smaller versions as well.
2. Letterhead
The letterhead should be A4 plain paper; there is no need to consider paper stock.
The logo you have designed is to be included on the page at an appropriate size and location.
Include contact details, for example the postal address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail etc. Give thought to the style and size of typeface for these details, as well as to their location on the page. Explain the reasoning behind these design decisions in your critique.
Include a sample letter presented on the letterhead to demonstrate your design decisions on margins etc. (Do not use your own name in the letter as this will destroy the anonymity of the marking process.)
Give thought to the style and size of typeface for the text of the letter. State the name and point size of the typeface within your critique as part of the specification. Give reasons behind your choice of typeface in your critique. (You would have to do this if designing a letterhead for a real client).
Give thought to the width of the left and right margins either side of the text of the letter (avoid the margins being too narrow) and to the amount of space above and below the text, i.e. the amount of space between the text and the logo, contact details etc on the page.
You may have problems printing text or graphics as close to the edge of the paper as you might wish. If this happens, print them as close to the edge as you can, and comment on the problem in your critique.
3. The Critique
The critique can be of any length, but a guide length is about 2000 words. You can certainly write more if you wish although there are no extra marks just for extra words.
Do include illustrations in the critique. Illustrations can be particularly useful for presenting more meaningful analytical discussion of the original design(s) of the logo and of any visual material you may have used.
If you are redesigning an existing logo then an illustration of the existing logo must be included in your submission and it must be analysed in the critique.
Use the critique to state the source of any textual or visual material, not your own, which has been used in your design.
The critique should include as a minimum:
- An analysis of the company’s function
- An identification of the company’s 'customers' - i.e. to whom does the logo have to speak?
- Examination of its market stance
- Analysis of existing logo and competitor's logos
- Analysis of brands in competing industries
- Brief description of design process
- Supporting material for design process such as focus group outputs, survey results, etc
- Sketches, mood boards, extracts from creative process
- Visual research
- A bibliography of material you have read in connection with developing the design
- A thourough analysis and justification of what you have designed, bringing out the good and bad points of your solution
- The final logo artwork
- Examples of the use of the artwork; letterhead, business card, multi-page document
- A specification of the brand including colour values, dimensions, positional information, associated information such as brand typefaces
Consider your portfolio to be the basis of your presentation to a client. Imagine you need to sell your design in order to win a lucrative contract. You need to provide enough information to convince a potential customer that you will provide a professional service and that their money is safe in your hands.