Hannah Doolin: Project 3 Logo Design

I had difficultly when choosing the theme I wanted to use for this project. Because I am unsure about what career path I want to take, I didn’t want to connect my personal logo with a specific skill or profession. Instead I chose to use a sailing theme because of my four years of experience as a sailing instructor. Aside from the fact that sailing represents a large part of who I am, I also feel that nautical colors and images are visually appealing in general.

To make my logo, I first made several sketches of ideas, and then scanned the sketches and traced the shape of the sailboat that I liked the most. I developed several forms of a logo, and decided to use a simple,dark blue sailboat with a line underneath to represent the surface of water. I placed a light blue parallelogram behind this image to give contrast and to incorporate another water-like color. I placed my name next to the boat because the direction in which the boat appears to be moving draws the eye immediately to the name.

At the bottom of the letter head I placed two parallel blue lines, imitating the stripes found on sails, and placed a small anchor above my contact information as a finishing touch. The anchor bring the viewer’s eye down after they look at the logo, which is the most dominant feature.On the business card I decided to put my logo and contact information on the front, and to make the back a solid dark blue color, with a light blue anchor in the center. This adds another dimension to the card, and sets in apart from most business cards, which are only one-sided.

The typeface that I used for my logo and contact information is Wendy LP Std (Medium and Bold). I chose this typeface because of the loops and curls, which reminded me of coiled rope, something that is always used in sailing. The typeface is very feminine which I liked because it contrasted with the sharpness of the sailboat shape, giving the overall logo a softer look.

I used a dark blue (C=100 M=90 Y=10 K=0) and a light blue (C=41 M=0 Y=10 K=0) color in my logo and throughout my letterhead, business card, and envelope. I chose these colors because they made me think of the water and the sky, and they contrasted nicely with one another. The dark blue stands out nicely against the light blue background.