Behind the Design: Logo

There is now a logo! It was overdue. The logo allows for more of an identity to the blog. I am really happy with the outcome. It is simple, straight forward, no fluff and legible. There is a literal sense of a section drawing and a little play with positive/negative space. I decided not to go with a literal perspective view on the word 'Perspective' because putting more graphics on the word looked really cluttered. There is a little bit of minor tweaking that needs to happen, but for now it is pretty good and I am content.

So, what when into the making a logo?

It all starts with bringing things back to basics. Simple quick sketches will get you a long way to just getting ideas out. They don't have to be perfect (as you'll see below), they just have to be something.






















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There is nothing buttoned-up here! It is just quick sketching to get out ideas. You have a checklist of what you want to accomplish and you work off of the needs. All of the sketches probably took no longer than eight minutes at the most. I guess I feel I should clarify that it isn't about the speed that I am emphasizing, but about the content and design process and working off tangents to clarify a direction I wanted to be guided. Ooo! **Important ramble** I feel good design is seldom about designer. The designer should act as a conduit to listen, interpret and facilitate the design process. Once you get into a zone you'll find that the design will begin to design itself. The designers roll is not to fuck screw it up with their ego (a little ego is fine as long as ego isn't the primary driver for the design).

If you noticed the process -- I began to detail the composition. There are positive spaces and negative spaces. There is also that same design 'language' with the words. Notice the word 'Section' is displayed like a section drawing cutting through a ground. I began to hatch the background of the word 'Section', but opted for more of a hatched look.

Once you have the general direction, you can begin to bring the idea into the computer and begin to refine the idea. This is where it can begin to get fun. What is shown above is the same direction -- just minor little details are being tweaked like line thicknesses, sizes, fonts, hierarchy, adding more detail, taking away details so the overall composition doesn't become cluttered. Each iteration is slightly different from the others and gives me more of a range of direction I would like to take. I think I should address the colors shown are used as guidelines for putting a perspective view on 'Perspective'. How it is designed looks very simple, but it allows me flexibility to add playful versions of the logo throughout the year to help highlight special events or days.

One of the "tweaks" I need to perform is a printed test of the logo. As designers, we all know that what is on our screen is never what gets plotted...Ever! As for now, I hope you enjoyed my rant and process.

Behind the Design: Name

If you guys haven't noticed, the name of this blog, Section Perspective, is taken from a drawing I learned about in architecture school. A section perspective is meant to give you a 3-d visual of an object with a cutaway section to show the space within the object. A section perspective is meant to give you a general understanding of whats going on within the object. In the case of this blog, I strive to give my readers an understanding of selected topics. 

Now would probably be a good a time as any you give you a little info about me, right? I am in the final year and a half of architecture school (5-year professional degree). Architecture school really beats you down the first couple of years. If you can't learn time management within the first year, It is going to suck the rest of the 4-years (if you decide to stay) and a very intense, performance-based education. During the semester, I usually wake-up around 3 or 3:30-ish (a.m.) to get to studio around 4-ish and I stay until 6pm. That's my routine twice a week which, and in all honesty, ain't half bad. I've seen my fair share of blood, sweat and of tears throughout the years along with the constant fear of not being able to make a deadline.

Sunrise from my studio desk

  The video above is a great little documentary about architecture school. I don't think the documentary was as good as I was hoping it would be, but it gives the viewers a glimpse of what architecture students go through during their academic career.