Logo ideas: A transparency project
BY CHUCK GREEN Thought it would be fun to share one of the projects from my book Design-It-Yourself: Graphic Workshop, A Step-By-Step Guide. In addition to chapters on Establishing Your Mission, Do Some Research, Choosing Paper, and so on, the book includes 25 identity projects. The second half of the book focuses on newsletters. Here is one of the identity projects:
This style requires some real finesse with your paint program, but the results can be stunning. A program such as Adobe Photoshop allows you to layer one image on top of another. It is possible then to change the opacity of a layer enough to see through it to the layers below. That single feature allows seemingly endless possibilities.
(A) The orange plant and sliced orange are extracted from the same illustration. (B) The sliced orange is the top layer of the logo. The layer below the orange includes the shadow of the orange. (C) The next layer holds a semitransparent version of the plant illustration. (D) The bottom layer is the background. (E) For the business card, a simple white rectangle is on the layer above the illustration. The opacity of the rectangle is adjusted to reveal the illustration below. (F) The parts and pieces of illustrations are combined to create a second version of the logo for the envelope.
(G) The space between the letters in the word "ORCHARDS" is increased to allow for the descending loop of the "p"--one of the small details that make the difference between a design that works and one that doesn't.
What you need
Editing the illustration requires a paint or digital imaging program such as Adobe Photoshop or Jasc Software's Paint Shop Pro. Simple text and shapes can be produced with a desktop publishing program such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress, or Microsoft Publisher.
Illustration source: Oranges from Antique Botanical Illustrations VII, From Visual Language, 888-702-8777, www.visuallanguage.com, © Visual Language, all rights reserved. Type families: Bickham Script, Minion, Myriad, Adobe Systems, Inc., 800-682-3623, www.adobe.com/type.
Letterhead
(1) "Samplerhaven" Bickham Script, 60pt; "ORCHARDS" Myriad 800bl, 700se, 18pt; (2) Defining phrase Myriad Regular, 9/10pt, align left; (3) Letter body Minion, 12/18pt, align left; (4) Address Myriad Regular, 7.5/10pt, align left
Business Card, Front
(5) "Samplerhaven" Bickham Script, 38pt; "ORCHARDS" Myriad 800bl, 700se, 8pt; (6) Name Myriad Regular, 8pt, align center; Title Myriad Regular, 7pt, align center; (7) Address Myriad Regular, 7/9pt, align center; Defining phrase Myriad Regular, 6pt, align center
Business Card, Back
(8) "ORANGES" Myriad 800bl, 700se, 6pt, align left; Text Myriad 800bl, 700se, Bold, 7/9pt, align left
Envelope
(9) "Samplerhaven" Bickham Script, 34pt; "ORCHARDS" Myriad 800bl, 700se, 7pt; Address Myriad Regular, 7/8pt, align center; (10) Defining phrase Myriad Regular, 6/7pt, align center
Color
Printed in four-color process using values of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) as defined on the color palette below. Actual color will vary.
