This year I decided that I would come up with a logo. Something that I can put on everything. Something that is simple, yet distinctive. I took an online class about logo design and learned a lot. I learned that simple is best and sometimes a simple text logo goes a long way. Part of the homework was to sit down and play with different fonts.
So I opened up Inkscape (it's a free vector program. If you want to play around with vector design without buying Illistrator, it's a great option) and got to work. I wrote out my business name and then decided to shorten it for simplicity, so I dropped the "Design" from the logo.
I went through font after font to find a number of ones I liked. This was a long process. I chose a bunch of different kinds of fonts; serif, sans serif, and script. I thought I wanted something in script. But I didn't like anything. So then I moved onto serif fonts. It was starting to look better.
I then decided that I wanted to add a little something special to one of the letters. I decided to make a little vector bead and add it to the "a".
Now I added the little bead to each one of the fonts I liked. It was cute and I liked it, but I wasn't sold.
So I decided to try a sans serif font. Might as well. And low and behold, I found one that had a near perfect circle shaped lower case a. The font was simple, yet bold. I liked it. So I added my small bead to the "a" and stood back. Hmmmm, I think it works, but it still needs something.
Then I remembered from my logo class, you can play around with the shapes of the letters to create a unique look. I pulled the bottom of the "s" out so that it underlined all of the letters in the name. Oh I like this, I like this a lot.
I repeated all of this with different fonts to compare and contrast.
I didn't like the first one at all, but I did like the others. But the bottom ones, the sans serif font, was really standing out. I really liked it. So the next test was to ask a few other people to see what they thought.
This is the winner!!!! I really like it. It's simple, but is still unique enough to work. And it passes the test of being printed in black and white, so that's a plus. And because it's all done as a vector image, it's scalable. No matter how small or large I make it, it won't distort. Awesome.
It was now time to use my newest equipment, my button maker. Oh yeah, look at that pretty thing. It makes 1 in buttons (about the size of a quarter), very nice buttons.
We (J is the resident button making expert) made a dozen up to test out the design. It needed a little bit of tweaking. We decided some of them needed to be in color, so here is the latest design.
And now I have a ton of buttons to give out at shows and to friends. It's a pretty cheap and fun way to promote my store.
I also used my new logo on my latest Vistaprint order, but you'll have to wait to see what I ordered. I have a few more things I need to order, like a custom stamp, and it will all have my new logo. Woot, woot!
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