Brainstorming

Conventions of the Form

Examples of company logos

I found some interesting books called "The Little Know-It-All - Common Sense for Designers" and "What Is Graphic Design?" and found lots of interesting information.

(TBC)

Conclusion Of Research

When you create a logo, it should be crisp, neat and needs to last for a long time. No good putting something like: Bedford Van Removals 1998. More like put: John's Removals (with a subtitle: Since 1998). Every logo must be done in good proportion, and this should be done using a grid, or snapping (i.e photoshop). The logo must be easy to read, easy to acknowledge and easy to recognise. Once created, the logo needs a zone that no text or pictures will interfere with. This is to give it it's full blandness, and to not overcrowd it. The protection zone is marked digitally, as a rule, My protection zone is the orange square.

The logo is supposed to be used for globalisation and mass market. The logo also needs to show it belongs to a certain community. The logo needs to tell the viewer exactly or roughly what the company is about.

Design can easily get carried away by being too complex, and trying to include too many ideas. Sometimes, the finished design can be nothing to do with the firm. The message with a logo needs to be clear and forceful to the point.

The logo needs to split apart a company from a possible similar company. When designing a logo you need to bear in mind that the logo size will differ depending on what it is displayed e.g. letterhead, side of a vehicle, corporate clothing etc. The use of colour needs to be considered as the more colours used will result in higher printing costs. 

Whitchurch Station (Planning)

I decided to go to Whitchurch having seen this image.

I planned the route by train and made sure it was achievable.

I chose leaving at 16:00 as that is the first available train I can catch at the end of college.

When I made the call to say I was going to catch the train to Whitchurch, Harlescott staff decided to drop me off by car.

Photos of Station Idea: Whitchurch

The first shot was more about a sort-of title screen showing the location.

The second shot is a bit of a busy shot for a simple illustration, such as the logo, or children's book. However, if I convert the images of the signal box to diagrams, I could put this into the instructional book. This could also be used for the Newpaper idea, however I would prefer the signal box to be in working order, and not run-down.

An image like the last one would be suitable for signs, CD covers to a certain extent, and logo.

the first image, of the sign could be taken, edited, or recreated, to show something like the title of a film, with a few lines, with the crossed out person, and date of coming film. This also fits into signs, children's books, and CD covers.

The second image would look better a bit darker, and with a 175 with it's lights glaring, blurred, and the whole scene slightly blurred (motion blur). This could also be used for a goods train (class 66 with 20 hoppers).

If I tried really hard, I might be able to super-impose a similar building into the scenery, as this is where I think the station building was. (third image)

I think the scene captured in the fourth image should be blurred in the direction of the railway, and maybe a slow shutter speed taking a picture of the train arriving, and departing.

The bridge photo is interesting, and you could say that the bridge towers over the perspective. I think this one would look more mystery or horror in the dark, playing with the lights.

The fourth image looks surprisingly pleasing to me. I would think to change the the platform 1 to a relevant number, and replace the signs. Also, I would probably retake the picture to show the Whitchurch sign more clearly. This sign is a good example of a logo.

All the second bridge shot needs, is a dark look, a dark figure, and a blur.

The second image is the signal box, without the sign obstructing.

The last one is a nice central shot. To an extent, this could be a logo, but a think this would be better as a newspaper photo, in black and white.

Whitchurch Station (Conclusion)

Stunned by how grey the station looked, I decided to find out where I went wrong.

I visited the same site I got the station building from, and looked at it properly

The station building had been demolished, and two platforms taken out, with two rails taken out.

Looking back at the recent photo, you can guess the layout still

Logo Ideas

Firstly, I tried the idea of a town church in a rural house, monochrome.

The first attempt looked like an up arrow, so I tried again, but couldn't quite get the roof right.

 

Abandoning the idea, I decided to make a more text approach to the logo. I decided to try as best I could with the letters AMGR (Anglian and Midland Gainsridge Railway)

I tried to make the A look like a mountain and river in the second attempt.

The third attempt I tried to tail off the A and M into a two track railway.

Next I tried the A M and R tailing off in a similar fashion.

I decided next to concentrate on the R, tailing the A and M through to make the crossbars for the R, G, and A.

I tried to combine the letters more, and abruptly stopped.

I came up with a pleasing A and M tailing down to create a take of National Rail, but the R was a problem.

Top right is more of the train car livery, than the logo

I tried to turn the National Rail take 90 degrees, but it didn't look very good.

Lastly, I gave up on trying GMAR, as AMGR sounds and looks nicer.

I cannot draw tour buses, so this failed.

I drew the bus to guess how the tour company JT Tours' logo would fit.

You can see the original idea was more set on a slanted grid.

Very quickly, I adjusted to a crescent shape, with JT morphed in somehow, and Tours sitting in the curve of the crescent.

This was more based on the fact that I have to sign to confirm receipt of my travel money every morning.

Starting off so small I can't read it, and getting more confident.

I am really not very keen on the way I try to sign a J, so decided to try a strange approach (top middle)

This turned into a tall type of J, reading Jonathan, with a similar elegant T, overlapping the "n" of Jonathan. This was not intentional, and I hurriedly scribbled a "Limited" under it, in the style of Bryn Melyn Ltd: The bus I catch every morning.

Rather liking the lack of space between the "n" and T, I reproduced it in a more confident take.

Lastly, 3 in 1:

Bus Company, Tour Company, and Railway Company.

Logo ideas part 2

The next attempt at creating a logo started as the AMGR national rail type, until I decided the national rail symbol took up too much of the logo. I then re-designed the AMGR, going through a phase of copying the idea of the local bus company; Wrekin Connect. i did this by making the A more stylish, with three arrows pointing in different directions. Deciding again that AMGR was too long, I changed it to A.C, with two arrows for the A, and a final arrow spelling the C.

Upon decided there where now too many ARROWS, I attempted a leading lines big A, with "M G R" printed below. When I tried this on an illustrated train, such as the one below (Intercity 225), I realised the "A" was too big, taking up a whole side of the train.

I also played around with the idea of "AMGR" either end of the coaches, and decided the logo was a no go: 1: The "A" looked ridiculous as big as it was, and 2: Neither the logo nor print looked good for the coaches.

I decided to look again at the logos I was analysing, and found a solution:

"AMGR" sounds nice, but "LNER", "GNER", and "EWS" to name a few, do not put "London North Eastern Railway", "Great North Eastern Railway", and definitely NOT "English, Welsh and Scottish Railway" in bold writing or a sophisticated logo.

So I decided to cut the AMGR down to a more manageable logo. I realised that if you take "Railway" out, this company could be universal transportation; but "AMG" or "AMGC" didn't work very well. So I decided to make "AMGR" into "Anglian and Midland Trains" or A&M.

My first logo was based on the facts of the two bus companies: Belle coaches (Lowestoft) and Anglian Buses (Norwich). When I looked more closely at the logos, I could tell that the livery and logo was put together to create a representation of the seaside.

The "Belle" coach below has a "comfortable" font, with mentions of the seaside in the form of two lines to the right of the logo to look like the seagulls, and two "sea" waves to the left of the logo. Also, the colour blue is used as the overall livery, again mentioning the sea.

The "Anglian Buses" bus logo png doesn't really say much apart from the name and unique typeface looking again, "comfortable":

But put the logo on a bus, and this tells of the seaside again. A yellow bus to be easily recognised, with the typeface standing out from the background livery, and lastly, a smooth rolling appearance of blue near the undercarriage, which instantly says to the mind "sea":

Based on the evidence of the seaside, I decided to design the "A" to look like the seaside, as the East Anglian part:

I used a simple paint program to create a yellow "A" with the crossbar, imported it into photoshop, erased the crossbar, and designed the "waves" in the same standard paint program. Lastly, I put the whole thing together. This shows the seaside from the idea of the yellow beach, and the sea showed by the waves.

Next, I designed the "M" to show off the Shropshire hills:

Not very happy with the outcome and bland shape of the "M", I decided to duplicate about 1/3 of this design:

I used white lines to distinguish the "hills" more, but at the same time, clearly show the "M".

This is the full logo:

Logo ideas part 3

After looking at the logo a few more times, I decided it looked amateurish. I created a new logo using three triangles: the first one was a more sandy colour, and the second two were different shades of green. I resized these triangles, to show perspective in the logo, and depth. Next, I decided a more formal approach would be a stylish cutting into the triangles: Following the gradient of the sides, and narrowing the edges of the text into nothing, I cut "A" and "M" into the triangles:

Next, I added the same "&", but smaller, and white, to look like it was cut out of the triangles:

Lastly, I added two curved lines, that curve from left, to a parallel horizontal two lines to show train lines. This would also be good for continuing the double lines down the coaches of a train, to finally end on the end locomotive or DVT:

I tried the logo in black and white, in case of black and white printers or other black and white needs, and in my opinion, the logo still came out quite well:

Experimentations

I looked on the internet for some train pictures, and settled for the 91101 Intercity 225 "Flying Scotsman":

I initially started tracing the train in Adobe Illustrator, but I included too many colours: dark grey, medium dark grey, light grey, yellow, light yellow, black, and dark purple:

I decided to cut the train down to 3 colours: yellow, light grey, and black:

I then cut out the individual colours and used each template separately in the spray booth:

 Using ink, I sprayed the cut outs monochrome, and then I scanned them in to the computer: 

This is the final experimentation that I came up with: 

I then decided to play around with the colours and techniques, and came up with this: