Pantone essentials

Here is a vid I found on Youtube that explains how to use Pantone swatches and the difference between them. This is very handy to learn, because this helps you to choose the best colors to print.

Credits too Hyatts for uploading it to Youtube.

Typography

An inspirational movie explaining typography. Directed and animated by Boca and Ryan Uhrich.

Credits too Boca and Ryan Uhrich.

Don't try to be original, try to be good

I found a great inspirational short film with Paul Rand. It is a small tribute to Paul Rand a great graphic designer who made logo's for big firms. Like IBM, UPS and ABC and many many more.The short films contains allot of great inspirational features and great explanation about design.

Netkalorien v2 / Available

This is one of my entries for Netkalorien contest. Netkalorien is a website that is targeted primarily at women looking to loose weight without dieting. I combined the idea of a computer because it is a website and mainly people use a computer to access the Internet. And a bite out of it because people want to loose weight without dieting.

But this logo could also be used for a company that got a website that sells food online or recipes of dices they have placed online.

Inspirational liquid art

I found a very inspirational collection of pictures on Flickr. It is a collections of water taken with a high speed camera by Luiz Luxvich. Sit back and be inspired by the wonderful pictures.Credits to Luiz Luxvich

Sea Trial

This is my first entry for Sea Trial. This logo is for a racing sailboat and the owner of the boat is a Lawyer. I made htis logo very subtle with the S and the top of the T forming a sail. And using a smooth written typeface for a bit of luxurious or formal look.

How to design a brandname

I often see companies who have the same name as others. If you searched Enjoy Design you would get 9 design companies from different countries, some with great designs and websites some that are really bad. Also on the hand of the website design you can see which are great and which are not a professional website.

http://www.enjoydesign.de looks great and for sure you can see it is a great design website just by looking at the logo they got and the website. When you look at it you would directly contact this company.

http://www.enjoydesign.nl first impression a glass of juice or wine, you'd be thinking its a drinks or party company. Then the logo just the capital E of the Old English font just no inspiration used to design there own logo. If you go further you see the logo self got 3 typefaces and a small unreadable link below the name. Also a double splash screen which is not needed. You should go to this company because the owner is a dropout which have not learn everything at the design school, he only finished the first year which is a test year where you only learn the programs but not how to design. Also when you look at the website every page is made out of a single picture which is not the way to built a website.

What to avoid in making the name
It is best to avoid names that are used by other companies that are in the same branch. So search the name on Google first to see if it already exist or not.

The name should be easy too say and short and not a whole sentence or a sum up of words. Mostly 1 word minimal and maximal 3 words.

Don't be smart by thinking you can use a name in Latin or any ancient languages. Cause mostly they're hard to speak and people can't remember them or know what it actually means.

Avoid words that sound allot more fitted for other kind of companies or are adult tinted while is should not be. Or sound close to a insult or is negative.

Don't add web links ( like .com) because it is humiliating or degenerating the costumers like that they don't know where to search for your site. Because if they want to search your website they would know the name and eventually find it through a search machine.

How to make up names
There are certain ways to make a name, I will sum up a few that mainly works the best.

1. Your own full name or a parts. If your name is special and there are not allot of people who is called that way you should use it. Or a part of your name that is special and use that or added something you do or sell. And when you search Google and you only find yourself and nobody else or no companies that is named that way it good to use it.

2. Parts of words combined. This is a great way actually to make new words. Like Fruzil a name I made for a school project. Fruzil is a non existing word and got no meaning in any language. But it is created with the part Fru and zil. Fru from many languages that uses these part for the begin of the word fruit, like fruit, frutto, frutti and frutta. And zil because it is an Brazilian company. And combined is Fruzil. It is short and easy to say too. The problem is not all words become something that not exist, so always check the word online or in dictionaries.

3. Two words combined. You don't have use your name and ad what you sell, you can find words that could be match or resembles what you do or a good feature of your company. Like PayPal that help to transfer or pay with and its a helper or a pal.

4. Use the initials. This could be of a sentence slogan or names, like Limakis that used the initials of the slogan:"less is more and keep it simple". And what is great there are no companies called Limakis however there are people who have last name called Limakis. How ever the initials should make a word that you could speak out and not just some gibberish. And also this need to be searched if it already means something that is should not be or excist or not.

5. A word written or spelled differently. This is fun to do with words. Like DZINE, which is a blog but when you speak it it sound like Design. And zine is partial of magazine which got to do with news and blogs.

The rest is up to you to find the names and words to use. Play around with synonyms to find great words. And make sure there easy to remember and to speak. And use a brainstorm to find loads of words to play with and use a Mircosoft words with it to find synonyms. Try to have make a brainstorm session with multiple personnels, because with more people you can come up with more words and other might think of something you never thought of. The could also help with combining words and changing them to a name and help searching to get a name fast and develop a good one too.

Logo design process step 3. Design

Sketching is the most important part of all. What I often see if that allot makes the logo directly in Illustrator without any sketching done. The previous steps were a very important to do before sketching, there prior if you have no idea where to begin or what to make. The brainstorm and the moodboard are to use as an inspirational source to work from.

Research
How ever due that there are allot of logo's in the world, you still need to avoid making something that is the same of others. So always do a small researched on Google. Always type in what they sell or parts of the name or what you have found in your brainstorm in search for images, and also add the word logo to it. This way you could find different logo's that could have something to do with the same company. However this could also be an extra inspirational source but this is prior to use as to see what already exist and to learn what to avoid in your designs. But you could easily spot which direction to go to and which kind of typeface is used for that category.

Another great site to find the logo of similar companies is brands of the world, there allot of logo from different countries all over the world. You search logo's by countries, categories and by authors. The best is to search by categories to find most similar companies.

Sketching
There are no rules in sketching but just that you could put it on paper what is on your thoughts. You don't have to use expensive tools or pencils. What is really nifty is to have a blackbook. Its called a blackbook cause it is a book to remember things, like a black box on an airplane. The book could be of any size or any color it just only have blank pages in it where you could sketch the idea and not forget it. You should always keep this book around because you could get inspired anywhere you go and just a idea or a design in your head, and this way you could put it in the black book and remember it. I've got multiple black books around the house on different places so I don't have to walk to the other room, because I might forget it while I am getting that book. The latest blackbook I got is from my school.Design
Now on designing the logo, to make a logo to work and to also to look like a logo there are certain rules you need to apply.

1. Look at the perspective from new costumers who don't know the company. Allot of new designers misses this point. They often make logo's that are unreadable or that it actually say something else. For example Mc Donald's logo everybody know the M stands for and under the M you see the the name written full, which is very good and perfect. However I see allot of beginning designers who want to make the initails of the name as a logo, but do it all wrong. They make a big logo with that initial but writes the name next to it or under it without that letter. That would make from Mc Donald's to C Donald's making it to stand for something else. So always look at it from new costumers perspective because you might know what it stand for but the new costumers don't.

2. Don't make a painting of it. Don't make the illustration too detailed. Often most designer are great in drawing realistic pictures but logo's should be simple or an abstract shape of something. If you would have to make a logo of the Mona Lisa you would not take the whole picture over in to the last detail. You would take the most known overall shape like the outlines of the body and the noticeable uneven background. And never use clip art or photography as a logo. These may only be use as a advertisement possibility but not as a real logo.

3. Work on your alignment and perspective. A logo should be perfectly aligned unless it is meant to be crooked. People often find if something is not perfect is it bad. So always watch your alignment so it perfect in the middle of that things aimed to the same direction or in the same perspective. Also watch your kerning because not all font or typeface are perfect. They often need a little fix in the kernings. Because some kerning could make the name become 2 seperate words.

4. Stick with the trends. Allot of new designers often don't look at what other companies does and what the trends is at the moment. Most important is to learn what new applications there are to make a logo and what trends there are set by great designers. Just search different logo website to get you inspired and to learn what trends there are. Also think out of the box while designing because the simplest designs often already exist. But also keep in mind to stay close to what the company does and the category of design. You wouldn't make logo for a serious company that fits more for a toy store.

5. Correct programs. Allot of people knows Photoshop but it should not be used for making logo's, because it is not a vector based program. Vectors are line for shapes which can be resized to any extend without loosing any detail. Photoshop is mainly bitmap and also bitmap with coloring and also the effects and filters. When you resize bitmap it would loose details and even become pixelated. To make logo's you really need to use a vector based program. And any effects applied should be resizeable. Illustrator is a great program to make a logo because it uses vectors.

6. Don't use photo's or cliparts. Why not use it while you can acces them. Photo's and clipart are mainly not used because most of them got rights reserved by someone and if you use them you are doing something that is not legal. Also because these are not vector based and looses details when you resize.

For the rest it is up to you how to design the logo. For great websites for inspiration look at the links on the side of this site.

And learn and improve your skills in programs to make logo's. The more you know how to use the program's in different ways the more ways you can make a logo. If you never learned how to make shine or glossy web2.0 logo you could never make one. So learn different skills and practice them.


Design process
1. Brainstorming
2. Moodboard
3. Design

Re-redesign Wacom

As most designers who follows the brand changes the most recent change to Wacom logo was not that appreciated by most designers. The web 2.0 illustration of a abstract things designed by Wolf Olins was by far from anything that got to do with Wacom tablet or design. For more information click here to read it at Brand new.

Design Contest have made a small contest for designers who wants to join the Design Team. It wil be one of the 3 wins the designers need to join the Design Team. If you want to participate in this contest, follow this link for the rules and discription and see the other submissions. The deadline of this contest will be 1st of January in 2008 and everybody is limited to 3 entries.

Important Notice:
This is a DesignContest.net community contest and, as such, it is not affiliated in any way with Wacom Inc. The purpose of this contest is to display the skills of independent designers and to show that they can often produce work of better quality than acclaimed design studios with world-famous names. All participants will retain copyrights to their work. The winner will be given the option of donating his/her work to Wacom Inc.

However I am already in the Design Team I still fancied to participate in this contest, because I also don't fancy the new logo because it have no meaning of what it is or about.

This is my first entry for this contest.Because I have a tablet pc I have a different look to tablets then other. I actually see the arrow on the screen underneath the pen and following every move I made. And because the pen is the arrow I made the shadow of the pen to be the arrow, meaning the pen is the arrow on your screen.This is a revision of the first design which was bit negative dark for a logo. This one is brighter and with a better typeface

Marker render of my watch

This is an old render of my Adidas watch last year. This was an assignment for D&P to make a marker render of something that got a gloss. This was drawn out of the hand no using perspective technic.

Logo design progress step 2. Moodboard

Making a moodboard is often not needed, because you know what the company general does and wants. But often you might bump into a company that does not lay in your lane, and might get you in a design block. A moodboard is just a collage with pictures, text slogans and different materials on it. I often see allot people just pasting everything on it without making any effort setting a real mood on it.

When you make the moodboard you need to think it should look like and not just a collection of stuff about the company. And also sometimes you can re-use the same moodboard for different companies with the same mood.
This is a moodboard I made for setting the mood for companies would be interested in the packaging design department of my school. Here you could see the mood is clearly allot of white clean and straight. Picture of a design company office and different things that got to do with the companies. This moodboard fits very good with Limakis because its very clean and also simple.
And this one is the moodboard for new students that would be interested with the packaging design department. Here you can see clearly there are allot of difference between the two moodboards. New students are rough uncut diamonds that also have radical idea and are extreme busy. You can see it is very busy, playful and rough. Not everything is cut straight or made standalone and the colors are very busy, criss crossing and allot of colors. Few pictures are torn to give it the roughness.

This would not fit properly with Limakis, however there are allot of elements about design. But non is fitting for the "less is more and keep it simple" slogan.

So now you should know setting the mood is very important, because from this you could see what it represent and also from the colors in them you could set the colors for the design or the logo them self. But also color or the design of anything else.

What you need for making a moodboard
Materials: Allot of magazines, paper and all sorts of materials.
Base: Cardboard or a piece of paper
Tools: Camera or the camera on your mobile phone, scissors and glue
These are basic tools you need. You might say why not make it in photoshop. Photoshop might be a great photo editing tool but printed moodboard compared to a cut and paste misses allot of mood. Because everything is standalone very clean and layers everything looks flat and blend in allot and misses allot of feel to it and depth.

Materials
Collecting materials could be old mags or total new magazines. Sometime you need to buy a magazine because the design is not on your piece of lane and you might got nothing to do with it. When buying new magazine go for the one that are very thick and got allot of full page advertisements. Those ads are great and big and good to use compare to magazine with tons of text and allot of small pictures. Also they got allot of text with big corps that are great to use for making a slogan.A great magazine I found is Wallpaper. It got tons go big advertisement and also pages with big pictures of different designs and also wallpaper designs pages.

So which pictures you really need. In design process step 1. we made a brainstorm where we searched for words that got to do with the company. Just search pictures that got to do with those words and also look at the colors you have written in the brainstorm, fit the colors of the brainstorm with the colors of the pictures. And try to get the colors to match with each others. We wouldn't want half of the moodboard to be one color and the other half another. Unless the it meant to.

Base
The base where you paste everything on is very important, you could past everything on a sheet of white paper and if it don't fit with the design or style it could make it lack of mood. And when you got allot of open spaces the white often is too bright making you the rest less important. It's the best to use a black background on your moodboard. But if you know what color you want or the color the company wants you could use that color for the background. But mostly black is the best to set the attention to the picture instead of the background.

Tools
Why a camera while you just cut and past it. A camera is a handy tool because you could change the settings or the layout of your moodboard and then use a camera to save the different layout and then choose the best one out. And paste it that way and you wont forget where the picture should be.

But you could also just use the picture you photographed and print that out. If you don't want to destroy your magazine or if you got picture on both page you want to use you could photograph them.

Which glue to use. Best to use is actually photo glue, this glue is great because it does not stain and you can actually remove the part you pasted even when the glue have dried.
And of course a scissor to cut out all of those pictures. But you don't need to cut every picture down to the edge. It is better to use what is in the background then to make everything standalone. And to show roughness is it the best to tear out the picture instead of cutting, but tear it slowly instead of trying to rip it out with just one tear. Making a rough torn edge on the pictures instead of a clean cut one.

The rest is all up to you to set the mood. Making moodboard are no real rules to it, just how the edges on the picture or the picture and colors them self could set a certain mood and the a good layout could help making it look nice too. Cause sometime the company want to see the moodboard because they would pay you for this process, and if it looks like crap they could say that they wont pay for such a ugly thing. I got some of my moodboard in a frame on my walls because they look very cool and inspirational.

Design process
1. Brainstorming
2. Moodboard
3. Design

Nabemono

This is one of the assignments for TMVG2 where we simulate working in a real design company. This module we all got allot of assignments to make and also special deadlines. This assignment I had to make a logo for Nabemono a Japanese restaurant that is based in London and want to open a new root in the Netherlands.
These are the sketches for the logo. However I wanted to make a clean logo, and not a logo that is easy to represent an Asian restaurant. I knew allot of other groups would use Asian styled logo/ fonts which is very simple and not very creative. I tried few logo with the name in Chinese letters which means, however these logo wont work in countries where people can't read it. So I went over to do designs with the chopsticks and bowls. Also some who knew what Japanese restaurants sell made sushi logo's, but Nabemono is a soup based fondue which have no sushi.And these are the design for the binder, business card and a mini DVD cover. I kept the design clean and simple that give the restaurant a fresh and modern look.And here is the logo on the door of the restaurant. Here I needed to photoshop the logo so it looks like its pasted on the door.

InterLeeuw

This is a logo I designed for a friend of mine that got an own ICT business. The company is called InterLeeuw, Leeuw is also his last name and mean in English Lion. The logo above is the final version in web2.0 and flat version. The shape above represents an abstract shape of iL, using 2 closed laptops for the i and an open laptop for the L.


These were the first logo I made, and particular found there are allot of lions logo's. However I could still design a total new lion logo.

Redesign Oakley Packaging

This was a school packaging assignment for Pac2. The assignment is to redesign a luxurious packaging and I have choose the an Oakley sunglass packaging. And the extra theme added is team Dunlop Tech3. The costumers for this product/packaging are fans of this team and the crew. Also users of any Dunlop products like watches, tires, tennis rackets and other sport products.
This is the moodboard that I have made for this design. Showing the Oakley glasses, one of the rider of Tech3 team, The colors and materials I will be using for the packaging. Because it should be luxurious I used the invitation of Roberto Cavalli and made it into a kind of redcarpet in the moodboard.
I made 2 versions, one silver and one with transparent yellow printed over the silver paper.
The packaging got a special way to hold the glasses in place so it wont shake inside the box too much. And a lock to make the packaging a bit like a jewelry box. And inside a small thank you for the costumer.
We also needed to design a label for the products. I wanted to try a new technic, I wanted to make the label like swatches ( like pantone swatches).

Tea packaging concept

This concept was made few years back. The concept is a polymer spoon with 2 heads. One for spooning up sugar and other one got thee in it and to stir. Because you stir with the tea instead of traditional bag where you only dump, you will extract more tea into the water and faster.
And to extract even more and to get the tea pad dry you can push the last drop of tea out. I got the idea a technic some people uses to extract last drop of tea of of the teabags.This is a great concept for commercial use but the problem the productions is too expensive compare to the conventional teabag design. Because the conventional teabag uses less materials to produce. How ever the tea pad in this concept is smaller because I calculated and researched how much you need for a single teacup. And it is perfect for this design because it is one teaspoon. And a teabag got more then just one teaspoon.

For home use could be metal spoon. But means allot of very small teapads instead of big ones like in the Senseo. But allot of people are using Senseo today and making this concept less likely to be produces or be used.

Elite Automotive Solutions / Available

This is my entry for the Elite Automotive Solutions contest. This logo exist of a big e with Elite written in it. After looking at different car logo's, I saw allot used chrome or silver shine on them. The reason behind that is that exclusive cars got chrome parts giving it a luxurious look. Thats why I made the logo to have a silver edge and the text written in silver too, this give a very professional and exclusive feel to it.

Syracuse soil / Available

This is my entry for Syracuse Soil consulting, to show about soil and because soil is hidden under the ground I made the S a bit hidden in the ground. I used green to show the surface like there is gras and the soil I used black. And yellow is a good to split between the two colors.This is my second entry where I wanted to show the gap or holes of digging in the soil. I first had a bit of blockage because I didn't knew if it was smart to do a double S logo because of what happend in world war 2. But just had to remember to make a logo that would not look anything close to those logo's I would be safe.