Color as it relates to your LOGO

When designing a logo for your business, it's important to take into account the way people interpret color. It's the right time to ask, what kind of emotion do I want my brand to convey?

This infographic from Logo Company, a logo design firm, helps clearly illustrate what emotions are invoked by certain colors using the logos from top brands as an example. Psychologists have studied how people are affected by colors for years and found a strong correlation between colors and emotional responses, further driving home the point that choosing the right color is crucial in determining how your brand is viewed.

For example, restaurants like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC, Wendy's and Popeyes use red in their logos to stimulate hunger. Black, white, silver and gold are often used in the logos of luxury brands like Chanel, Prada, Michael Kors and others to enhance the feeling of sophistication.

When it comes to designing a logo for your business, let this be a guide for the direction of your color palette. What four emotions do you wish to convey when someone thinks of your brand or sees your logo? Write these down and see where they fall in this color wheel of emotions. Remember, this is only one of many aspects of the logo design process to take into account.

copied from:

Brian Honigman

Digital Marketing Executive,
Marc Ecko Enterprises

Personal Logo Design

A personal logo is a graphical representation of yourself. It could be your avatar or something that you would like attached to your business card or personal website. You can also use your logo in the letterhead of your personal letter or resume.

Choose colors and lines that will represent you. Colors and lines should speak about your personality. Example: warm colors may means that you are an active person. Solid lines may represent strength while curve lines may mean a sexy person.

Design your logo as simple as possible so that it can easily be created and easily be recognized by anyone.

Here is your mission:

You will be designing your own personal logo. Using either your name or initials you will experiment and create a logo to use on your resume and other portfolio documents.

You will work in groups of two or three to brainstorm ideas. You will need to make at least 15 different ideas for each individual logo. 

Next, in your groups select your top three choices, and bring those to your creative director(me)

We will discuss and decide if you are ready to move on

Next you will work those top three choices into at least three refined versions of each making variations of each design. 

You will again bring your designs to the creative director and hopefully get final approval to move to the computer production phase of your design. If so, we will decide if you need illustrator, photoshop or both to create you design.

Second phase 3 versions of selected logos

Get one point for each “yes” below

Does your logo work horizontally?

Does your logo have both horizontal and vertical options?

Does your logo work in black and white?

Does your logo work on both black and white backgrounds without a box around it?

Can you sketch all non-typography elements in five seconds or less?

Did you buy the font you used in the logo?

Do you have less than two fonts? 

Subtract one point for each “yes” below

Do you use more than two colors in your logo?

Do you have more than one shape in addition to the wordmark (text) in your logo?

Are any shapes in your logo explicit instead of abstract? (i.e. a globe or something else recognizable)

Did you use any clip art in your logo?

Is there a photo or complex pattern in your logo?

Do you have a gradient in your logo?

Did you use default font kerning?

Scoring

 <0 = Don’t even think about it

1-4 = Acceptable for a $50-million-a-year company

5+ = Great job!

Resume Template

Resume Template

Use the following template to plan your resume. See the sample resumes for assistance.

Name  

Address

Phone #

E-Mail

OBJECTIVE:

SPECIAL SKILLS:

• 

• 

• 

EDUCATION:

School

Courses

WORK EXPERIENCE:

Where When

What you do/did. Use action verbs

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:

• When

• When

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS 


HERE is a sample of what yours will look like:

SHERRI SHORT 

234 Westside Ave. 

Aptos, CA 95003 

(831) 626-1111 

Sshort@yahoo.com 

OBJECTIVE
An assistant manager position in a retail clothing store. 
SKILLS & ABILITIES 
    • Excellent in sales and customer service 
    • Experience in opening and closing a store 
    • Creative with displays 
    • Enthusiastic team leader 
EDUCATION 
Watsonville High School Class of 2007 
    • GPA 3.2 
    • Retail Merchandising – Regional Occupational Program; participant in school 
       fashion show; Certificate of Completion 
    • Economics of Marketing – Regional Occupational Program; Certificate of 
       Completion 
WORK EXPERIENCE 
Sales Associate, The Gap, Capitola, CA 1/06 – present 
    • Assist customers in selecting merchandise 
    • Open and close store 
    • Create displays to promote higher sales of merchandise 

Waitress, Chili’s, Capitola, CA 5/05 – 12/06 
    • Served customers 
    • Cashiered to assist in shift changes 
    • Worked as part of a team to deliver excellent service 

HONORS & AWARDS 
Employee of the Month, The Gap May 2006 
Recipient of Rotary Club Service Award December 2007 

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 
Volunteer at Dominican Community Hospital Spring 2006
Competed in school debate team Winter 2006 
High School volleyball player 2006 - 2007 

3 References

Students,
It is incredibly important to develop a great list of references. These references will help you obtain jobs, college admissions or acceptance into special programs.

Who makes a good reference?
· Teacher
· Coach
· Counselor
· Present or past employer
· Family friend
· Anyone that can speak highly of your abilities, skills and worth

References to avoid:
· Anyone under 18
· Personal friends
· family members
· Anyone who cannot speak highly of your abilities or skills

Important Tips:
The format of your references should match your resume exactly, same header, same fonts.
Do not include references on your resume
Include at least three references
All references should be responsible adults who know you well and can speak to your character and skills
Always ask whether or not someone is willing to be a reference before including them in your list
Verify the contact information before handing over to an employer

Format:
Use the following format for your references

Persons Name: Bob Smith
Address: 123 Fake Street
Santa Cruz Ca, 95060
Phone #: (831) 555-4321
Title and Business Owner
work place: Moland Spring Bottled Water

Movie Posters!!!

The next assignment is for you to develop, design and create a movie poster of your own. You will be asked to create the final piece in Photoshop using the skills we have learned such as: selection tools, lasso, magnetic lasso, magic wand, text tool, text effects, gradients, adjustments, layers, etc...

1) First you will develop and idea for your own movie:
Pick a genre:
Action (Disaster): Stories whose central struggle plays out mainly through a clash of physical forces.
Adventure: Stories whose central struggle plays out mainly through encounters with new "worlds."
Comedy: Stories whose central struggle causes hilarious results.
Coming-of-Age Drama: Stories whose central struggle is about the hero finding his or her place in the world.
Crime: Stories whose central struggle is about catching a criminal.
Detective Story/Courtroom Drama: Stories whose central struggle is to find out what really happened and thus to expose the truth.
Epic/Myth: Stories whose central struggle plays out in the midst of a clash of great forces or in the sweep of great historical change.
Fantasy: Stories which are animated, or whose central struggle plays out in two worlds - the "real" world and an imaginary world.
Gangster: Stories whose central struggle is between a criminal and society. A cautionary tale, rooted in a main character who commits crimes (This genre is often blended with Film Noir).
Horror: Stories whose central struggle focuses on escaping from and eventually defeating a Monster (either human or non-human).
Love (Romance): Stories whose central struggle is between two people who each want to win or keep the love of the other.
Science Fiction: Stories whose central struggle is generated from the technology and tools of a scientifically imaginable world.
Social Drama: Stories whose central struggle is between a Champion and a problem or injustice in society. Usually the Champion has a personal stake in the outcome of the struggle.
Thriller: Stories whose central struggle pits an innocent hero against a lethal enemy who is out to kill him or her.
The Black Comedy: A comedy that uses death and morbid doings as the root of its humor. Surfaces regularly. Most recent incarnations, Very Bad Things and Pulp Fiction.

2) Create Three Thumbnail sketches of your poster:

3) Show them to the studio executives(aka:Mr Brown) to see if you can get "the green light" to start production

4) Grab some magazines and black paper. Cut out and create a "hard copy mock up" of your potential poster.

5) Once done show that to the executives once again to get final approval to move on and create the final product on Adobe Photoshop.

Project details:
Part A) Magazine photo montage  8.5"x11" on black construction paper- Images must be carefully cut out and glued, background must be included. Minimum of 6-8 images.

Part B) Photoshop poster photomontage 8.5"x11"@72ppi
Images must be carefully assembled using the selection tools we have used previously as well as the Text tool. Minimum of 6-8 images.

Banner for your blog!!

Your newest assignment is to create a Banner Graphic to customize your blog with using one of the text effects below. Find out the image size of the banner at the top of your blog and choose one of the tutorials below to work through.

For instance, the dimensions for the banner at the top of this blog is 900 Pixels Wide by 300 Pixels Tall. Create a new photoshop document with those dimensions and create one of the text effects for your own blog banner.

Gold:



Jelly:


Shade:

Adjustments in Photoshop

Photoshop- "there is a whole bunch to do"

At the end of last semester we started using Photoshop to make small Gif images. These images were made one pixel at a time. Normally in an image we do not want to see the pixels. For our next venture into Photoshop we will be following a few tutorials to get you better acquainted with some of the tools and capabilities of this program.

Tutorial One: using selection tools
Tutorial Two: using layers

Letter of Introduction- Your first impression!!

How to Write a GREAT Letter of Introduction

Hello Students,

Your next assignment is to create a "Letter of Introduction" that describes you! Your special traits, qualities, hobbies, and personal, educational and career goals. List your top 5 skills and abilities. It should consist of at least one page. Make sure to use correct spelling and grammar.

Letter of Introduction Assignment:

• Must have same name/contact info formatting and font as your resume/references
• This is an introduction letter, about you, written to people that may be viewing your portfolio
• Should be about 1 page long

You letter should include:

• Who you are
• Where you are currently attending school
• What courses you are currently enrolled in aside from standard courses (such as this ROP class your in right now)
• Your top 5 work related skills
• Special acknowledgments from employers/instructors
• Future education plans
• Hobbies or other activities you enjoy
• Discuss what is contained in your portfolio
• Discuss the type of work/projects/activities you enjoy the most in school

Sample Introduction Letter:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Star

242 Crest St.

Capitola, CA 95010

(831) 553-2323

jostar@yahoo.com

Date

To Whom It May Concern:

I am currently attending Soquel High School where I will be graduating this year in June. I have enrolled in ROP classes, which are business-oriented. ROP classes have given me a closer look at the business world and I have learned excellent work skills. 

My top five work skills are:

• Excellent communication skills with strong listening skills
• Responsible and reliable with attention to detail
• Strong team player who thrives in teamwork situations
• Good computer skills
• Excellent time management skills

I have received special acknowledgement from my employers for strong skills and work ethics.

I recently was accepted to CalPoly and plan to go there in the Fall and pursue a degree in Agribusiness. After receiving my degree, I plan to work in my family’s strawberry farming business. Eventually, I hope to be the president of the business. I have many hobbies including surfing, skiing and playing baseball but most of all, I enjoy riding my horse up in the hills. It gives me a sense of freedom and independence.

My portfolio shows some of the skills and abilities I have acquired in while attending Soquel High School and throughout my work experience. I have always enjoyed landscaping and have enrolled in the Horticulture class for my last semester of high school. From my past experience you will notice that I enjoy working especially when I leave the job better than it was when I first got there. I have been doing tree work for three years and have worked for commercial and residential customers. Thoroughness and safety are some of my favorite qualities.

Included in this portfolio, is my resume summarizing my schooling, work experience, and skills. In addition I have a list of references, letters of recommendation, and samples of my work. I hope you enjoy reviewing my portfolio.

Sincerely,

John Star

8 bit Mario GIF animation