Carbonink Graphic Designer

Digital Squares printer- Logo

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:03:52 +0000

Digital Squares is a digital printing company.

My inspiration: The letter “D”, the word “squares” from the company name and DPI (dot per inch)- a print/ image related term.

Below is a photograph of the logo made out of blocks and fixed on one of the walls in the interior of Digital Squares.

Anticlimactic unveiling of Apple’s Ipad

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:22:07 +0000

Apple reveals its much awaited tablet, which ends up looking like a larger version of the ipod touch, called the “ipad”. Since Job’s demo of the “ipad” its been receiving terrible crits.

I rather not beat it up here too, as you can see the demo on youtube and numerous reviews all around the web.

Possible case of David versus Goliath:
Below is a new tablet in the making which could possibly rival the ipad. The product comes out of India called the “Adam”.

Have a look at it’s impressive features:

Branding – Think outside the socks

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:11:33 +0000

Here is an amusing way to take your brand image even further. I would have never thought that socks for chairs would ever be a good idea, but after coming across these “personality socks” I think it works quite nicely, or as nice as chair socks could be.

How is this relevant to graphic design? Well it’s important to see how branding can be incorporated into many different aspects. This is not one of the more popular (safer) ways to promote your brand , but when you do something as unique and amusing as this, it really gets you noticed and remembered. Keep in mind that whether we run a business or not we still manage our individual identity.

Here is how chris&ruby described their product:

“The Personality Socks show impressively how strong these associations can be, as they easily turn your chair into a snob, lady, small town boy or a good girl…”

Socks for chairs may or may not appeal to you, but what I am trying to get across here is, that in order to be noticed in a high media environment we got to think outside the sock box, look for new and unique ideas that will help you stand out.

Possible tag line: These socks will protect your hardwood floor and help with your brand image too. ;)

Simple and Expressive logos

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:09:46 +0000

Logo designs are best kept simple. This does not mean that you spend less time designing a logo, in fact it demands more effort and experience to end up with a simple yet successful logo.

Probably the two most important elements that make a successful logo are the ability to be:

Simple

Simplicity is the key to designing successful logos. No bells and whistles, save those for your promotional material (in moderation).
Have a look at the logos belonging to some of the most successful brands in the world:

Notice how these logos all share a simple theme. A simple logo design will work well in colour as well as in greyscale, small or large.

Expressive

Simplicity alone will not work, the logo has to be expressive, it needs to have character. The logo has to express what the brand stands for and has to be memorable.

I love the Ahhh! factor when implemented in logos, this may not be obvious at first but on further observation of a logo you may notice an additional element that you missed. Once you find that missing gem, you feel that you know something that others don’t and that creates a bond between the viewer and the logo. Look at the fedex logo for example:

At first glance there is nothing special about this logo, but once you notice the arrow in the negative space that is formed between the “E” and the “x”, Ahhh.

Here is another:

The logo of amazon.com speaks about what they do, the arrow portrays that the company sells products from a to z.

7 tips to keep in mind when printing promotional material

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:13:50 +0000

Image by: gnietsche

Paper Stock:

There are a variety of paper stocks to choose from, with a number of variables with paper weight, paper finish (matte/ gloss…), size and more. This is generally determined by the type of job and your budget. Double sided printing requires slightly heavier paper to prevent colour from showing through, matte paper is generally more expensive than its glossy counterpart.

Bleed:

I would estimate that at least 70% of printed material has colour that runs to the edge of the paper. If your print job falls in this category, you will need to bleed the colour past that edge. For example if you have a business card design that has colour right upto the edge, you will need to increase the size on all sides by 0.125 of an inch- Normal business card size= 3.5″x2.0″, with bleed= 3.75″x2.25″

Layout:

I cannot stress this enough- Use the right tool for the right job, do not use “Microsoft word” to design and lay out your business card design, do not use a spreadsheet program like excel to design a brochure. If you do not have the appropriate software or knowledge to design your business cards / Brochures / Posters etc, I suggest you hire someone to do it for you. Printers generally use standard software’s to set up and print client’s work. Printers set multiple images per sheet, which varies with the size of the sheet to multiples that fit on a sheet. Some digital printers may use a 11″x17″ sheet while others 12″x18″. Bottom line:- Even if you lay out your design multiple times on a sheet, the printer will have to redo it to accommodate for the sheet size he has in stock, this could cost you more or even worse, it could cause you to loose content during the transfer from one software to another.

Appropriate Colour:

Keep in mind what colours you see on your monitor are not necessarily what will print. This is why its always safer to ask your printer for a printed proof, if a job is designed using an RGB colour mode (which is for monitor viewing) you could see a huge difference in colour once printed, this is because most printers use a CMYK colour system. Bottom line: always use CMYK as the colour mode and if possible use a colour from the pantone matching system (pms).

Content is king:

Content on your brochure should always be clean and visible, avoid background images or at least watermark those images. There is no point if you have a great design but your content is not readable.

But don’t get carried away:

Continuing from the previous point, although content is king, do no go over board with it. Keep content brief and to the point, allowing your content to breath is much better than overcrowding it.

Printer knows best:

Want to reduce your cost? Ask your printer what are the alternatives. He may suggest using a different paper stock or printing full colour on one side and black & white on the reverse…

http://www.digitalsquaresprinter.com

Restaurant Menu

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:52:55 +0000

Emerald inn

Logo design process

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:55:14 +0000

What’s involved in the designing and implementing of a brand identity?

Research:

Every project begins with learning about what you do and how you do it. I need to understand your market, your competitors and your USP (unique selling point). I usually send the client a questionnaire that will help with this phase.

Brand Persona (design brief)

To make sure that both the client and I are on the same page, aiming for the same star, I create a Who, What and Why scenario. This outlines the goals and objectives that need to be accomplished in order to call this project a success.

Inspiration:

After the initial research, I will allow the information to swim around and marinate for awhile. During this phase I will let my mind roam free though fields of images and designs, not necessarily in any one particular field, at times looking into other design fields such as product design, illustration and others, daring inspiration to hit me.

Conceptualizing & Development:

Now we can let our creative minds flex their muscles, brainstorming to come up with ideas and solutions that best fit the brand. This phase includes a session of mind mapping. After which we can put pencil to paper, start preliminary sketches of ideas developed in the previous step. Many of these sketches will end up face down in the trash, while others will be re-sketched and refined.

Once we have some good ideation sketches on paper that I am satisfied with, we can finally shape things up (make it pretty) by transferring these sketches to our computer.

Presenting:

Most of my clients prefer to see a couple concepts, which is presented to them. I do this by uploading the concepts to my site with a private URL, which they can review and comment.

Revising and Feedback:

The next stage is to revise the concept chosen by the client. After completing the changes, I present them to the client in a couple of different formats- Black & white, greyscale, single colour and full colour, each one may need to be used for a certain job.

Once a logo is finalized and full payment has been received, I send the client both vector files and raster image files via email.

Follow-up:

Yes at times I do follow up with clients I worked with in the past and vice-versa. Clients may get in touch for some design consulting or just say hello.

Photoshop Tips

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:15:57 +0000

Here are 5 tips that will save you time:

Straighten images: If you have an image that is crooked and needs to be straightened, all you need to do is- go to the “ruler tool” which can be found by clicking and holding on the eye dropper tool. With the ruler tool selected click on 2 points to match the crooked angle. Then go to “Rotate canvas” found under “Image” from the top menu, click on “Arbitrary” and you will see that the angle has already been entered, now click on OK and voila.

Rotate view tool: This tool will rotate the entire canvas, while this is not a tool for creating art itself, it is an essential part of the process. Rotating the canvas allows you to view your art in a different light, which will help notice things that you normally wouldn’t. Its easy to get caught up in the small intricacies while loosing sight of the overall look and feel. This tool will act as a second opinion.

Group layers: Layers is one of photoshop’s greatest features. I personally use plently of layers while working, this helps me go back to a layer and not have to re-create it, but this makes it hard to find and manage layers. Do these two simple tasks every step of the way and it will save you a lot of time and effort. First- name all layers to match what’s on them, Eg. red ribbon (this can be done by double clicking on the layer’s name). Second- group a set of layers that belong to each other. Eg. Ribbons & Bells (This can be done by holding the ctrl key while clicking all the layers you want to group, next press ctrl+g, rename the group and your done)

Pre-plan your output: Begin with your end in mind, Decide how you are going to use the art once completed, will you print it on a business card or on a poster or will you use it on the web. If your going to print it out, you should think about what size and set the resolution to atleast 300 pixels/inch and color mode to “cmyk”. If you plan to use it on the web set the resolution to 72 pixels/inch (to allow your image to load faster)and colour mode to “rgb”.

Save space, by working smart: Photoshop files can at times take up a lot of space on your drive, you can save space by hiding all the layers prior to saving the file. This is especially useful for large files with lots of layers and at times can save you close to 50% the size. (To hide a layer- click on the eye at the left side of the layer.)

These tips should work for most recent photoshop versions.

Minimalistic to-do list

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:21:47 +0000

I have never been a fan of lists, but recently discovered this modern and minimalistic design approach that got my attention. I have always been a big fan of simplicity or the idea of form follows function. The list is called “TeuxDeux“, its an online application that you can use for free from anywhere as long as you can get online.

Many users may feel it lacks features, but its the clean, simple experience that makes it a powerful tool. It has no extra features to distract you, no sharing of lists between users. you put items on the list, scratch them off and move on.

What I strive for with my logo designs

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:22:11 +0000

In no particular order.

A design without unnecessary flare

A logo is NOT an illustration, so lets leave the glowing effects, the drop shadows, the bevel effects, multi colours etc… for illustrations. A logo needs to be simple, to the point but clever.

A design that will outlive me

Although design trends seem to change every year, it is important that a logo stands the test of time. A shiny web 2.0 logo may have been catchy last year, but this year it is considered amateurish. Although I keep an eye on new and old design trends, it is important that my designs work and keep working.

A design that conveys meaning through form

The final mark may be a iconic symbol or a play with text, either way it has to work with the brand.

The Ahhh! factor

Ever been in a situation, where you look at something and realize that there is something more to it and go Ahhh!

Colour follows form

If the mark is not going to work in grayscale, it will not work in colour either. Every initial design that I create is strictly portrayed in black & white. After I am satisfied with it, I will bring it to life with colour (if necessary)

Readability at various sizes

A logo may be used on a shirt or on a business card or at times on a billboard, no matter what size its being shown on it should be readable.

A design that represents the business or the brand

A logo design may be beautiful and mind blowing, but it is pointless unless it suits the particular brand.

Need the “who”, to create the “what”

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:10:42 +0000

Business owners/ managers need to be involved in the design process.

A design client should always be involved in the design process, in fact a client’s input is what will get the project snow balling. If ever the client is on the sidelines, its either because the designer has the wrong idea about the term “inclusion” or are unaware about this very basic yet vital role.

Brand Value

Without a clients input, we would be creating designs for ourselves or worse still for a fake client. No one knows more about the clients business, their goals, their clientele, target market… than the client themselves. To design a suitable identity for a client, we need to understand who the brand needs to appeal to and what its supposed to convey. Its important to understand the “who” before we create the “what”.

Majority of businesses either new or old, small or large already have a business plan which outlines their audience and their values. This information creates a starting point and a solid foundation to creating a design that will compliment the brand. Brands often fail due to this (key) missing link to building a solid foundation. If a client and the designer are both moving in opposite directions, no amount of design concepts will suit the values of that business.

Cycling Jersey Design

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:38:45 +0000

Jersey design for the Brampton cycling club.

Sport Logo

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:55:52 +0000

Logo design for a sports related field or event.

Roofing Logo

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:47:52 +0000

Carbonink logo

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:41:30 +0000