Step One: Pick The Design

As a self-portrait without text or images of myself, the creation this assignment is calling for is a logo of…me. And my essence. Initially, I was torn between attempting an interest-based image that would depict “tangible” facts about me, or something more abstract that somehow reflects my inner-most values.



The first idea I had for an interest-based design was to create a dancing guitar that is writing an article, embodying my three strongest passions: writing, music, and dance.



An idea for an abstract value-based design would be more difficult to come up with, and is therefore more intriguing to think about and challenging towards my creativity. It could even result in a more meaningful symbol than a dancing guitar with a pen.



However, I then realized that there are great values tied to my chosen depicted interests – discipline, creativity, honesty, expression are all words that can be interchangeably associated the dancing, writing guitar.

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The meaning of the logo depends on who’s looking at it anyway. Once I had the image of the dancing guitar writing an article in my head (and in doodles all over my notebooks...see original sketch, right), I couldn’t think of anything better to wordlessly and photograph-lessly embody my essence. I want to use drawing tools to create the design on Photoshop to give it a youthful, hand-drawn kind of feel. Since my drawing skills are a bit questionable, we’ll see if time and effort is enough to create a design that I’m happy with.



Step Two: Working Out The Details

I would like the shoes to be in motion, with possible “action” lines as used to make superheroes fly in comics, that leave footprints similar to those that are designed to show one how to step:

I want the guitar to be tilted, towards the top right corner, with simple stick-arms that are writing with a pen in one hand and holding paper in another. I want to incorporate the HuffPost logo (in a non-copyright-infringing manner?) because of my recent internship there this past January – my first serious step towards a career in science journalism. In addition I want to include some sort of clipart-esque design that makes the “journalism” part of my interest in writing clear.

Different verticals of HuffPost have different colored versions of this “H” logo. This is the “H” for HuffPostTech, where I interned. Since text is not allowed, and this is not my logo to use, perhaps I will create a variation of it with the same color and a different symbol taking place of the H.

The guitar will have glasses, and the sound hole in the body will be the nose on which the glasses sit, and the bridge on the body of the guitar will be a mouth. I considered giving the guitar a ponytail or a braid, but then I thought that would look rather strange and figured I could add femininity to the guitar via the bridge (mouth) design and the style of glasses.
 
From my Google Image search of “Femenine Glasses,” the quality of glasses that makes them feminine seems to be the curved points at the top right/left corners of the frame. It resembles the way heavy “winged” eyeliner looks, which is what I think makes it feminine (right). I will use this to make my guitar’s glasses suggest that it’s a female guitar ☺

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Since some musicians have stickers on their guitars, I found that to be an interesting way for me to incorporate my Israeli and Jewish identity would be to put a star of David on the lower-left side, below the bridge, of the guitar. 

 
I’ve seen many guitars with stickers on them, but a challenge for this would be to depict that the Star of David is a sticker on the guitar, and not an inherent part of it. Then again, that detail might not be as significant.



Step Three: Method Of Creation

Obvious choice for me is the software I have the easiest access to – Photoshop. Not quite sure how this is going to go, as I mentioned my drawing skills aren’t the best, but for the first version of my design I just want it to be “readable” – as in, the viewer can tell what is being depicted, despite endless room for aesthetic improvement.



I plan on outlining the image with the grid in the background to get the shape of the guitar, where the paper being written on is going, and the guitar’s dancing shoes. Before filling in the outline with details and (attempting to) add dimensionality to the image, I want to create a satisfactory outline that includes, to some extent, every component I mentioned in Step Two.

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Time to get outlining!



Step Four: How’s It Going?​

Using my laptop’s mouse to draw is (unsurprisingly) difficult – after many re-dos, start-overs, and face palms, I finally came up with a satisfactory outline for the guitar and its dancing footsteps.



In my process of incorporating the HuffPostTech logo, I came across a pretty cool result. I played around with blur, healing tool, and finally smudge yielded a result that I liked – smudging the “H” while dragging my mouse in the clockwise direction makes the “H” no longer look like its original state, but rather faintly hint at the letter “N.” Once I saw this effect I was thrilled, but I’m curious as to whether it still counts as text, since it’s very smudged and isn’t quite an “N.” It would be really cool to angle the HuffPost logo to make it look like it’s on a notepad that’s at a 30 or so degree angle “into” the page, to give the sense that the guitar is looking at it.

In the left hand of the guitar there will be a pen, and I will now consider the symbolism that I can give the pen. I want it to be pen, not pencil, because pen is not erasable – like one’s actions. I believe in learning from mistakes as opposed to pretending they never happened; can the choice of pen over pencil possibly suggest that about me?
 
I want the guitar to hold a notepad or have a sheet of paper that it is clutching with one hand. A challenge will be incorporating creases on the paper that suggest the guitar is holding it, rather than “sticking” the notepad on the guitar’s “hand”



Step Five: How Can I Make This (A LOT) Better?

Okay. Drawing in Photoshop is not satisfying what I want out of this design. Originally, I liked the idea of the simplistic “hand-drawn” effect, but after browsing several online tutorial how-tos for cool photoshop/Illustrator effects, I am realizing that I need to take more time to go through tutorials to help me keep away from my poorly sketched design and move towards a clean, more professional looking design. I am happy with my outline as it is, because it gives me a sense of the space of my design and it is very clear to me what I want in my design and why, but overall I am not happy with how the design looks right now. Essentially, the on-paper version is great for in-progress, but I have much higher quality expectations for the real thing. Here is my first full outlined Photoshop attempt. The only thing missing in my outline are the glasses and the Star of David sticker, which I will incorporate in my new version of the design. 





Any criticism I receive in class tomorrow will also be super helpful in improving my design.