Initially, I was unsure of how I wanted my logo to look. I wanted it to reflect me as a person but also incorporate my design practice into it. As I am not particularly good at drawing, my work often tends to take a more digital approach, or focus mainly on type. With this in mind, I thought about creating a logo based on hand-written type.
The first obvious thing which came to mind was to write my own name. As my full name is Elizabeth, I have spent my whole life reminding people that I prefer Lizzy. This gave me the idea to experiment with a logo which stood for Lizzy Gosney as opposed to my promo pack last year which focused on my initials as E.G.
I began by writing my own name as I usually would. I wrote a few sizes and variations in order to pick a favourite.
The original variation I chose to go with was the most clear and readable. I wanted to scan this into Photoshop to see what it would look like digitally.
In Photoshop I was able to alter the contrast and levels in order to make the name bolder and clearer.
The same process was carried out with a few variations of the logo and placed into Illustrator where I made them into vector images. This took a while but it gave me the chance to compare the names and how they would work digitally in the form of a logo. Some of these worked better than others.
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After experimenting with the handwritten approach to the logo, I wanted to have a go at creating a digital one too. I looked on dafont.com for a suitable typeface and found one called 'Cocogoose' which I was really keen on. I used this font to experiment with writing the letters L G G D for Lizzy Gosney Graphic Design.
I then tried putting these into context on a mockup business card in Illustrator.
As an alternative business card solution, I experimented with placing my logo and information on the card turned 90degrees. A few of these experiments are shown below:
Originally I came up with this business card solution which I was really pleased with. I particularly liked the white text on black variations shown below.
To get a better feel for the logo and how it would work across a wider range of media, I mocked up the design in Photoshop. I was really pleased with the result although I thought it looked a bit uninteresting and bland.
I then returned to the business card in Illustrator, trying out a range of layouts using both the handwritten name and the digitally written name.
This is an experiment using a similar pattern to the one I generated for the front cover of my 'Design for Print' book from earlier on in the year. I wanted to see how this would look when our through a laser cutter.
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After the previous experiments, I was still really pleased with the hand-written name. However, I thought it was important that my surname was included somehow in the logo. This lead me back to the LGGD digital logo approach. I liked how it sat in a perfect square and the letters were legible at a range of sizes. I experimented with a few colour variations:
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Eventually I decided to keep the handwritten 'Lizzy' as an additional feature - not as the logo itself. This was placed on the back of the business cards to give them a personal feel. The use of my own handwriting was important as it was honest about me, allowed me to present myself in a way which noone else could copy as everyone's hand writing is unique.
The business cards were created using Illustrator. I chose to use a duplex approach and print the front and back of the logoson two separate A3 landscape sheets of paper.
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After showing my logo variations to a few people, I decided to change my final logo to the one shown below:
I chose this logo because it was slightly more interesting than the original one. The letters still worked in a functional and readable manner. I also liked how the logo subtly resembled a winking face. This is relevant to me as an individual as I want people to know that although I take my work seriously, I am also friendly, fun and approachable.
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