Not only did the owner of Diamond Lifestyles want me to design her an identity she also wanted a business card that represented her ideals. The brief was to create a business card that clearly represented the health industry but also had a sleek, modern and professional look. In this post I show some of the business card designs I developed before arriving at the final one.

Initial Logo Design

The benefit of being hired to design the logo and business card is that I can play with the two side by side to see how it may work on a printed piece of material. When I was first designing the logo I wanted to see how it may look on a business card. I tried the logo on a pure black and white background with inverted colours. I wanted to keep the design minimal as it would look more clinical and relating to the precision that health products and services usually provide.

Aloe Vera Focuses your attention

This was a design that the client really liked. She liked the Aloe Vera Leaves on the card but she wasn’t quite sure black was the right colour for her company, it was something I wanted to keep in mind as I was designing the logo.

Full Colour relates to Aloe Vera

When I designed the logo in a minimalist way I was a little worried that there was little relation to Aloe Vera and rather about the diamond relation. To combat this I considered how the business card and future collateral could show the Aloe Leaf & plants and possibly using the colour of the plant in its brand guidelines. It wasn’t the client’s favourite choice, she definitely wanted something minimal and she preferred the white rather than the black so I created a few more options.

 Portrait Minimal Business Card

As the client wanted a minimalist approach I took the design right back to as much of a simple design as possible. By keeping the card to a minimum it gave it the clinical look that was desired but I wanted to give several different options so tried a few more different layouts and styles.

 Final Design

Considering that my client liked the Aloe Vera Leaves on the card design this was inco-operated into the final design. It added visual interest and communicated exactly what the product was that the company sells. The logo in the 3d Chrome/Silver effect worked well with the white background and vibrant green of the Aloe Leaves. The font choice was classic and re-enforced that of a professional and competent health professional. See the final design below…

Logo Design

I was approached by a health business expert who is in the process of starting up a business in association with Forever Living Aloe Vera Products to design a logo and business card. In this post I show how the logo developed and evolved over the two week process.

Starting point

To start I needed a basic understanding of the company’s service and products. I was informed that Diamond Lifestyles will be promoting a lifestyle selling Forever Living products and building a team of other sales members to keep the sales flowing, increasing your turn over and reaching the “Diamond Lifestyle”.

My first idea was to combine the Aloe Vera plant with a diamond as can be seen in this picture below. This was a very basic idea and only a very quick mock up to see what it may look like combining the two elements but I beleived it to be “too literal” and no at all professional or communicating the right message so… I went back to the drawing board!

Classical and elegant typography

My first thought was to be very visual but then I considered how other health companies represent themselves to the market and after studying some of the more successful brands a classic and elegant style is used by most brands. I decided that I would try combing the D and L to create an abstract use of the two letters and ensuring the typography was communicating the right message.

I decided this  was the right way to approach the logo but decided it needed some graphic within the lettering. As the company was branded Dimaond Lifestyles I wanted to include the diamond somewhere on the logo. Above you can see the first logo is inside the lettering on the tip of the L but something just wasn’t right so I got a pen and paper out and did a few sketches.

Realising that the key aspect of the company is to help people reach the pinicle point of a “Diamond Lifestyle” I took the back of the D & turned it into a pedestal ( as can be seen above ). This felt right and communicated the message in a more subtle way than the first idea.

Developing the logo idea further

The logo was starting to get somewhere! The pedestal idea was really liked by the business owner and thus some more development ensued. I realised that the new logo had no relevance or indication that Aloe Vera was involved in the company which I considered to be a slight problem.

Considering the plant itself, an aloe vera leaf has what look like spikes ever so often down the edges. Taking this element of Aloe Vera I added it to the D but after self analysis I concluded it was starting to look less clinical and elegant and starting to look a bit more cartoon like which I definitely didn’t want. The message I was sending out to anyone viewing the logo was going in the wrong direction so I took a step back and added The name of the company below the DL positioned like a set of stairs.

Big is best?

After showing the logo to my client we discussed how we both felt the diamond was being lost a little so I made the diamond a lot bigger and more prominent in the logo design than it used to be. Below are a few different variations of the logo with a large diamond.

Add some colour to your life

Now we had enlarged the diamond colour was the next thing to be considered. My client said “I don’t think black is the right colour for an Aloe Vera company” and maybe she was right.

The black is the colour I usually create any logo in so that colour doesn’t influence design but black can also be used in logo design to represent a clinical and crisp feeling which is a characteristic that I felt was important in designing for a health company.

Listening to my clients wishes I took the favoured logo design and then tried varying colours to see what it may look like.

Realising that flat design is in vogue at the moment I tried to steer clear of gradients…now that the logo had colour I didn’t feel it was adding anything of particular value and I still felt as though the black was best closely followed by the white, my client agreeing but also showed interest in the green ( for the literal sense of aloe vera).

Too cartoon like again

Again I felt adding colour to the logo in this flat fashion gave the impression of a cartoon like and even worse, cheap impression to the company which I wanted to avoid thus I spoke to my client and suggested we strip back the colour again and consider “the colour of a diamond”.

A diamond doesn’t have any colour, it can trap light and thus become iridescent of every colour of the rainbow but it is in my opinion a diamond shares similar qualities to that of ice…all these thoughts of multiple colours led me naturally onto considering a 3d gradient approach.

Diamonds are forever

As can be seen in this logo the diamond has been reduced right down but an edgey diamond like gradient has been applied to the logo. Showing this to the client she was extremely happy with how it looked, she preferred a 3d look rather than the flat logo, it was really starting to go in the right direction.

Final Logo

The final logo was slightly metallic/silver. It kept the initial idea of a clinical and sleek look to represent the health industry whilst keeping colour to a minimal to avoid any message linking to colour. Although there is no representation of Aloe Vera my client and I concluded that the key aspect of the company is the “Diamond” status for new members of the sales team.

We discussed that the Aloe Vera could be on the business card thus communicating the link to Forever Living. To learn more about Diamond Lifestyles please click here.

In my next post I will show and discuss the business card I developed in combination with the logo.

Getting the right typography for your graphic design work is really important, the standard fonts that come with a computer isn’t great for creatives and so sites where you can download free fonts and typography ( if you don’t or can’t design your own ) is really important. In this post I give you 10 links to free fonts websites. I recommend you bookmark the page so you always have this resource available to you.

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1. Dafont.com

dafont.com is a great little website that regularly updates with free fonts that can be used in many creative projects. Before you go ahead with downloading a font make sure you have read the license in case you are not allowed to use the font in commercial work or you could land yourself in trouble from the creator.

2. Typekit.com

Typekit is a website from Adobe that provides fonts for use on websites. It is free, technically, for only one website using 2 of the fonts otherwise it costs some cash but it s a good place to get some really well designed typefaces for your web designs.

3. 1001freefonts.com

This site probably started with 1001 free fonts when it was launched because I believe it has more than 1001 fonts nowadays! Check it out, you are spoilt for choice, be warned though, some links ( particularly on the menu bar ) open new links to fonts to purchase! Cheeky sneeky sales technique 😉

4. Font Squirel

Font Squirrel is another great little website that regularly updates with free fonts that can be downloaded for free but again check that the typeface you are downloading has a license for free use before considering using them in commercial works.

5. Urban Fonts

Not only can you find lots of free fonts here but you can ALSO get free dingbats, you know, those typeface that look like little vector images? A very useful font site I think you will find!

6. Font Fabric

Warning! Not all fonts on this website are free fonts. The owner of the site has been a good chap ( or chapess! ) and shown a little red free icon in the corner of the image to not confuse things. That is always useful for the free seeker in us.

7. Fonts2u 

This website has a very similar layout and design to dafont.com so shouldn’t be a problem when you are looking for free fonts that work with your design work. Not only this but there are so many fonts! A great resource of fantastic typography this is.

8. PC Fonts

Are you still reading these descriptions about free fonts? Just visit the sites folks and make sure to use the bookmark feature so whenever you need free fonts you know where to come. 🙂

9.  Fonts for Web

Are you the owner of a wordpress CMS website? You are going to love this site then! Not only are these fonts free but they are also compatible with a plugin made for WordPress sites to make applying the fonts to your pages simple. I haven’t actually tried it out yet but it sounds like a great concept to add that extra bit of personality to your site.

10. a to z Fonts

On this site there is no messing! It clearly stats that you will find 100% free fonts, very useful if you want to make sure you aren’t breaking copyright laws.

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The typography you decide to use in any part of your graphic design work has incredible psychological effects on the viewer. Whatever the message is you are portrating the typography can re-enforce the feeling of the product or service you are trying to advertise so make sure you either a) find a typeface that works well with the message you want to communicate or b) sit down and design your very own font, probably the best way of getting a free font and adds a truly personal touch to your work.

What is your favourite font and what is your least favourite? Please leave a comment in the box below.

Your business isn’t just a grey box, paperwork and turnover, your business is a piece of art and a brand. The brand is the personality that identifies your product, service or company against your market rivals. Get it right and it will attract the consumers you are seeking, get it wrong and it could detract your potential customers away from doing business.

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2012 Olympics Brand Identity

If your brand is designed in such a way that provokes human emotion it can even get excellent media attention

Remember the 2012 Olympics Logo and games mascots? They were controversial and many people verbally communicated just how much they didn’t like it. By being controversial and so different to previous Olympics logos it was give huge media coverage which made the brand awareness and attention to the games itself very high on an unprecedented level.

Ugly is pretty

In my opinion it was an excellent brand design because it got people talking regardless of whether it was liked or disliked by the majority of people. What people experienced was something that was different, unexpected, pushing boundaries and futuristic.

It even grabbed the attention of conceptual extremists with suggestions of aliens making an appearance or there being a major terrorist attack. Bizarrely, this  increased the success of the brand design by spreading the word of the 2012 Olympics in all communities interested in these things and further put the Olympics into people’s minds.

Choosing a colour

The importance of choosing the right colour cannot be undermined. Colour have so many meanings to us on a subconscious and cultural level that different combinations can convey and symbolize a different emotion and concept.

Once you identify the colour combination that you like best and convey the message you need your designer MUST adhere to the EXACT colours so your brand is easily recognisable.

Conceptual symbol

Next to consider is the most familiar object of branding – the logo.

I believe that a good logo design must be able to communicate the product or service being sold in a conceptual but not literal way. Another words if you sell ice creams don’t simply use a clipart of an icecream and forget to edit it, instead consider your target market and what may attract someone to do business with you rather than go to one of your competition. What makes your ice cream business different from the rest? Can it be inco-operated into part of the logo design?

Style your advertising

After the design of the colour combination & logo a good brand designer will know the importance of creating a style guide so it easy to follow for future designs. The style guide is created so that any future branding works (such as advertising) relates and is identifiable as your company.

When designing a new advert this style guide should be consulted; it doesn’t mean it should restrict your creativity but instead keep your company looking professional and re-enforce the brand in peoples minds consistently wherever they see something to do with your business whether it is a compliment slip to a large billboard advertising it should speak you.

The importance of a well designed business identity

A well designed business identity isn’t just important, it is crucial to your business! When you start your company hire a designer you must make sure they are professional and understand how delicate an operation a well designed brand is and takes time to perfect.

The branding designer should be able to design everything that your business identity will appear on from letterheads to websites it should all have a consistent feel but also convey a message, even have a life of its own it has that much personality!! Don’t take your business identity lightly consult a branding designer today, you will find it is one of the best investments you make in the early stages of your business.

You may have noticed a gold symbol on my website and social media accounts, this is my logo and the start of my own brand. Designing a brand for yourself as a designer can be more difficult than designing a brand for somebody else as you have to be more self-critical and more analytical without the feedback of anyone but me, myself and I. In this post I discuss my brand name reason and the conceptual theory behind my logo design.

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Choosing the name

When I first considered what to identify myself as I remember reading Duncan Bannatynes autobiography and why he decided to brand his businesses with his own name. He decided to brand his gyms with his name because if anything went wrong it would be on his names reputation, it shows confidence in what he is able to provide and should criticism arise to correct the problem that caused the negative feeling. I  was inspired, I considered it to be a noble and great idea so borrowed the idea.

Inital Name

Considering the concept by Mr Bannatyne , my initials JAW and my profession as a specialist in communication design, I took them both and used my initials in a literal sense of “jaws” that we use to speak and communicate. This was the basis of my idea, to inco-operate a mouth into the design of the logo. My name would be “Jawz of design”…

Taking Shape

I decided to begin playing with shapes, shapes that could convey a simple modern idea but with traditional influence. I worked with several shapes but decided upon a square, a shape that is very symbolic in many countries with similar symbology of perfection.

A square can also represent accuracy, integrity and righteousness. After I delved deeper into symbolic meanings it believed that the four sides of the square represents aspects of human inspiration. Angelic, diabolic, human & divine. It has been believed these four elements underscore the potential duality in everything and encourages balance.

All of these elements combined invite us to do precisely what the square implies :

Implement a plan

Build on that plan

Manifest ideas into our reality

The square is a balanced plan that allows creativity to flow without risk or error thus the square was chosen

Drawing on the concept

Having established I wanted a mouth and to use the square I came up with some very basic sketches ( see below ).

I then chose my favourite few and developed them further. No 14, 15 & 16 where my favourites as they were less literal and quite tribal looking. I also liked the idea of the long hair/antenna like line, representing the flow of creativity coming from the square.

Considering whether the logo should be flat or a cube and whether to include teeth or not was also something I considered. After careful consideration I decided to leave the teeth out as it would have looked less professional.

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Colour Choice

Colours have psychological meaning and depending on the part of the world you are from can have greatly different values so I did some research. I wanted my logo colour to appeal to the vast majority of the world not just my country and I discovered that the colour gold had the most positive impression with the most of the world.

The colour gold is the colour of success, achievement and triumph no matter where in the world you come from. It can be associated with abundance and prosperity, luxury and quality, prestige and sophistication, value and elegance. It is also said to inspires knowledge, spirituality and a deep understanding of the self and the soul which I like to sometimes write about in my blog. To read more about the colour gold please click here.

A year later I altered my name

I felt using a z instead of an s in the JAWZ section of my brand was what creative people do who are trying too hard to be different and I didn’t want to be Jaws otherwise I would make people think of a deadly killer shark!  I decided to make it simple and called it JAWilson Design instead, my name so it still kept the idea that I borrowed from Mr Bannatyne for his brand and ending it with the word design to easily identify what the website was about ( which also works well for seo ).

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It took quite some time to develop my own identity, although a logo is small and “only” one image a client must remember that it needs to be adjusted and developed and given some time to reach its perfected state.

A good branding identity will look so effortless that those who are not from creative backgrounds will look at it, recognise it and even be influenced by it ( apple ) and believe it is “easy and simple” but the truth is the best logos MUST be developed and at least a few iterations of the original design produced before reaching its final destination.

If you require a conceptual identity please get in touch and we can discuss your requirements further.

I recently read an article on the web about 5 principles to making a good logo design one of which one was that it is important that a logo is timeless. To quote

“Nothing about your logo should be trendy or connected to the style of the time. The best logo designs are iconic …” Indelible Branding

In my opinion nothing could be further from the truth and here is why.

Continue “A timeless logo is not important”

I realise that not everyone enjoys reading and some prefer a more visual approach to learning. Video blogging is something I have been interested in doing but never got around to trying out. Now I have decided the time is right to venture into YouTube to try and share some of my knowledge in a different format. Why not check it out in this video below : –

Now you have seen my first free tutorial if you have any suggestions what you would like to learn in Photoshop or other programs then please suggest ideas in the comment box below and I will try to adhere to your needs. Look forward to hearing from you guys and follow my rss feed or youtube channel for further free youtube photoshop tutorials 🙂

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Remember the good old days of red and blue glasses before all this high-tech 3d imagery came in. One lens red, the other blue? Well in this totally free tutorial I am going to teach you how to create your very own 3d imagery! The things you will need are a) patience and any version of Photoshop as the same rules apply for cs to cs6.

Continue “Create your own retro 3d Images in Photoshop”

Photoshop comes with some fabulous brushes but did you can you make your own? In this blog post I help you in learning how to create a Photoshop brush so you can create your own.

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Create a Spiral Photoshop Brush

Create anew document and then a new layer. Draw a black object. We produced this one by creating Bezier curves using the Pen tool and then filled in the path. Ctrl/Cmd-click the layer to select the object and choose Edit > Copy. Select File > New and change the background contents to Transparent.

Define your Photoshop Brush

After the new document has been created, select edit > paste and the shape you copied will appear on the transparent background layer. Choose Select>All and then edit > Define Brush Preset. A brush name window will appear for you to name your brush. Enter the text in the name box and click OK.

Time to experiment

Create a new document. Choose the brush tool and select a colour by clicking on the foreground colour swatch in the tool bar. Select Window > brush preset. Scroll to the bottom of the brush presets palette to find your new brush. Click it to select it. Now make alterations to the size, opacity and flow of the brush using the top toolbar options. See what kind of patterns you can create!

Save the Photoshop Brush day

Finally make sure you save the photoshop brush. To do this simply select the brush > then press the dropdown next to the small image of the brush > then the arrow pointing right in a circle and a drop down will appear. Next click save brush…a file save as will appear, give your brush a good name, jobs a gudden!

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In my next post I will discuss how to create retro 3d photographs so they really do stand out!! Free 3d wallpapers will also be available for free!

When making new Photoshop imagery it is useful to know where to find some free images to use for your creations. In this blog post I will share ten of the best texture websites out there.

Continue “11 Free Texture Websites”