As a class we created 'class rules' - each had to have a logo to represent the rule. My group and I decided on attendance as our theme and had to create 33 logos from each of us.

I began by trying to unravel the project, understanding the meaning of attendance and what it can be interpreted to. I started to create initial ideas - mostly obvious and cliche. I initially struggled coming up with ideas which weren't banked on, I started to build up a hatred for attendance and found it very irritating. This hindered my ability massively to think of new ideas as all I could think of was how much I hated the subject. I began to think of ways I could develop the sketches I did have, increasing the scale and adjusting the composition slightly - this sparked more ideas and I was able to think more clearly on how to interpret attendance. 

I personally liked my idea of having the bulb - to suggest that if you attend you will spark/thrive. I found it quite difficult however to combine 'attendance' within the design, so I decided to make it the filament within the bulb - which I thought worked quite well. An issue however is that from afar it wouldn't be easy to read attendance, I tried to adjust this with changing attendance to 'here' but there was just something missing. Following on from this, I thought of the idea of having clock arms but at the end of one arm there'd be a bulb - however I couldn't see how this represented attendance. 

After our first tabletop tutorial, my group had feedback that we needed to stray away from the word attendance - it was 'too aggressive' and there was no way an audience could relate to our designs, as they probably depressed them as much as they depressed us! I think where I got in such a rot about the theme it showed in my designs, I also didn't think I could stray away from the actual theme of attendance which pretty much trapped me in one box lets say. We decided to have something less intimidating, such as 'here' or a small phrase that summed it up. We could also use 'attend' but that was still very much hit and miss. There were also designs that were too literal and they wanted something more engaging and innovative. 

In our group we had to create a newspaper model of a logo. Our strategy was to create rolls of newspaper which were secured by tape - I think compared to most ours was noticeably neater, take that as you wish (aha). I think we took a more literal approach to the challenge, other teams created a metaphor for their theme but we did a literal logo. It was quite a challenging day trying to negotiate and understand each others ideas - then by the end of it, it was slightly bittersweet because all this hard work we put into this newspaper thing was just thrown away! I was very fun however to feel like I was back in primary school and not doing something so serious. 

Instead of having/creating more and more sketches, I started to take some designs into photoshop and illustrator to try develop and finalise them. Within this process I also created more ideas and found more ways to combine some ideas. 

Our final feedback as a group was that they liked the idea of having the hand involved, It gave a more personal touch and created a character people could relate to. It also made attendance less scary... I think most people relate attendance to something quite negative, so by having the hand it gave it a friendly and less formal appearance. We had feedback that it reminded people of putting your hand up for the register in school which they liked. 

I think because the hand idea wasn't my personal idea I didn't have much of a connection with it - I wasn't that engaged with the idea. I struggled at first to come up with something that wasn't too similar to the others as I didn't want our logos to all be too similar. Within the group we all tried to create our own aesthetic with our hands, some were very illustrative and detailed and some were more simpler. I think my issue was that I went too abstract. I personally really liked playing around with the texture and layers I could create with my hands. I didn't want to create a very defined hand as I felt that was too serious so I tried to achieve a more abstract approach. The main feedback was that the hands were too abstract and started looking like plants, or some looked like they had penis fingers... which I definitely didn't want.

With Gen we did a day project called 'Open Collab' in association with the artist Patrick Thomas. We were briefed with a very thought provoking video  (highly enjoyed that briefing!) where we were told the three rules - 

1. Use the grid

2. Only use black and white

3. Only use 25% of the grid. 

We created designs in relation to our themes and could include or create new logos. Then we gathered them all up, processed them through the printer to print out a totally new design!

This was probably the first project where I felt truly comfortable and in my element. I think through out the first few weeks I found it awfully difficult to adjust from college to university as everything was so alien and difficult to enjoy, however this project was the first one where I felt grounded within myself and my abilities. 

After the open collab project, I wanted to play around with ideas that I had that I wouldn't necessarily use as the logo - sort of like posters. I like the second design below with the various hands pointing and the multiple 'heres'. I think it represents more than one person and place which I like. I was also really intrigued by the idea of having a squiggly path with eventually leads to a point. What I like most about these is how hand down they are, I really like the texture and boldness of them, although not successful themselves as logos I still think there's something quite sweet about them. 

As a group we got told to create logos specifically with the hand... I wasn't so mad on this idea however I went along with it. I think where I didn't have that initial passion my final logo wasn't so successful. I quite frankly got to a point where I had just had enough and wanted the project to be over. 

Despite this, I still think my final logo has its charm... despite my feedback I like the contrast between the very much structured and bold text beside the more abstract hand. I find that I like to play around with texture a lot - and finding ways that I can juxtapose textures. Compared to my groups hands mine is definitely the most different... I wanted to steer away slightly from the other styles and create something with my own aesthetic however I think that definitely hindered how usable and commercial my logo was.

My general feedback was that the hand was too illustrative and that without the support of the other designs its unrecognisable to a hand, also that the little swirl is unnecessary and the text and design clash. 

I think I got to a point where I just did what I wanted... and disregarded that this actually had to be understood by others and translate a specific meaning. Which is the primary of graphic design. 

This project probably taught me most compared to others that I'm a designer now - and my designs can't just translate to me only because that makes for a bad design. On my BTEC course we hadn't looked into logos - or to be fair graphic design itself was only lightly touched on when we created album covers. So making logos was very alien to me. 

I think if I had the chance I would of made the circle logo (above the open collab section) my final logo. I like the composition of it better and it still has my style to it. However I would definitely change how abstract the hand is - as it does look like a cactus plant aha.