Article: Who is the most suitable for doing LOGO copying?
From the Princess Public Account: Study Set
As mentioned earlier, extracting inspiration from nature is a kind of secondary creation. That is to say, all our creations are derived from nature, even the humanistic spirit of humanism advocated by the Renaissance, because we are ourselves an inseparable part of the natural environment. Humans are changing the environment, and the environment is constantly reshaping us.
In the process of human beings constantly understanding nature and transforming nature, our ancestors began to use knots, murals, writing, carvings and other forms to record this process, and each historical period will give birth to a new pattern language and conform to the special requirements of new processes. With the development of society, the progress of technology, and the inheritance of culture from generation to generation, the essence and story of culture in different periods will also be precipitated in the creation of these ancestors with this inheritance.
If we combine these characteristics of shapes, styles, styles, applied colors, etc. with the theme of our project in the design process, we can bring the culture, history, and story belonging to these works into our own works.
If you want your work to be cultured and able to say things, this should be the easiest way, and on the basis of these predecessors' refining works, no one will say that you are copying, only that the designer has insight and level. Let's take a look at what directions the works are that we can refer to and learn from.
The first direction is text. The graphicization of Chinese characters is the transformation of words into graphics, forming a form that is both a Chinese character and a graphic. I have talked about it more systematically in the tutorial on the graphicization of Chinese characters before, and I will not be verbose here. Talk about other texts in the text section.
Our ancestors, on the basis of the narrative picture, used simplified graphics as symbols to represent the words in the language, and the earliest human script, the epigraphic script, was born in this way, it is the original writing system, the oldest and most primitive script, and the text has a total of four unrelated birthplaces.
In its heyday, the international script, which was common from the Mediterranean To the Persian Gulf, was wedge.
It appeared in the Nile region of North Africa, written on straw paper, and became a script that invented the alphabet embryo in later generations - the holy book character.
The Mayan script, created by the American continent for more than 1500 years, withdrew from the stage of history after encountering Spanish aggression.
After the above three source characters have withdrawn from the historical stage one after another, only our Chinese characters are still in use and have been passed down to this day.
These kinds of source texts, if there are projects directly or indirectly related to them, you can copy, how to copy? It's okay to be graphic or to isomorphize features into our work. For example, the structure of wedge-shaped characters like nails; the form of sacred calligraphy; the simple appearance of the combination of Mayan characters and circles; including the graphical form of oracle bones, Chinese characters have been spoken, this time taking Mayan characters as an example.
The mysterious Mayan civilization is the only ancient civilization in the world born in the jungle, not in the Great River Valley, and has created a brilliant civilization in the past 2,000 years, worshipping the god of rain, feather snake, sun, rich knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, and a graphic writing system that has not yet been fully deciphered.
Like the Chinese characters, the Mayan script is derived from the original drawings, retaining distinct graphical features. Humans and animals usually draw silhouettes of heads, while artifacts and objects depict features.
For example, the patterns depicting animal images are very impressive, and like this leopard, it can show its own characteristics through spots.
The glyph of each word, in order to be neat when writing and carving, is divided into blocks, and the symbols in the squares are mainly circles and ellipses.
Although it is also a word in the square, the shape of the Mayan character is more undulating and more rounded, and the lines of the characters are not as regular as the strokes of chinese characters, which constitute the form of the combination of Mayan characters and circles, and each word is like a miniature mirror frame painting. Note that these features, including the form of the text itself, are where we can refer.
When the Maya created and applied the script, it was in an era of isolation from the American continent, and the natural closed society formed by the ocean made the Mayan characters covered with a mysterious veil, which to us was like a book in the sky. It is because of this mysterious color that many stories, movies, and game developments like to use the Mayan civilization as a theme. The elements that appear in Zuma's game, the Temple Run icon, including many puzzle games are all of this genre, which should be counted as the application of words in the present. After understanding this characteristic, the symbols we design according to this characteristic have their own Mayan aura, and its history, culture, and characteristics will be expressed on it.
Now that the text is understood, let's look at the graphics. Compared with text, I think the graphics are more referential, and it is easier for us to deal with them twice. For domestic designers, most of the meaning of Chinese characters we can distinguish, Chinese characters themselves are evolved from graphics, the evolution process and the meaning of the text itself, background, story and other materials, if you want to find it, it is easy to find on the Internet.
For example, Oracle, which is both text and graphic, is really too convenient to use it as a logo, as long as you make simple modifications, you can become a good symbol. The connection between form and meaning is strong, and it is more convenient for the audience to understand.
But the other three source fonts do not have this advantage, if we have not studied the connotation of these words in depth, that is, you do not know what they represent, when applied, you can only extract their surface features and apply them to the work.
For example, with the stroke features of wedge characters, you can make words, you can also do auxiliary graphics. You can't just copy the text in its entirety, as oracle bones do. Oracle is similar to a graphic, and the things represented by the figure itself are more familiar to us, and compared with the ancient characters that we are not familiar with and obscure, the threshold of the figure is much lower.
For example, petroglyphs, murals, totems; stone carvings, calligraphy and painting, carving; decorative patterns on inscriptions, embroidery, utensils; shadow puppets, paper cuts, New Year paintings, etc., these patterns and graphics can be extracted from part of them or taken out as a logo application.
For example, in this picture, we can extract the crane and the surrounding butterflies as a whole, use it as a graphic, or extract a part, as long as the crane, or extract the head of the crane is also a feasible solution. Including extracting a small part, it is no problem to ask for this little butterfly, as for how to choose the elements depends on your understanding of the project. Like these things are left by predecessors, is the common wealth of our human beings, if there are other brands and the elements you use repeat, then we can change the form, according to our theme to give it a different interpretation, do not make the same with others. Look at an example of this.
The poster of Chen Tea House, the logo of Chen Tea House, this is the work of Mr. Chen Youjian, and this brand is also made by himself.
The main graphic of the logo is taken from the bergamot picking flowers, and the harmonic sound of the bergamot is fushou, which has the meaning of happiness and longevity. The Buddha itself also has a hint of Zen, which is also in line with the tea ceremony. This is just the flower on the hand replaced with tea, and the things that the project wants to express are basically expressed. This is borrowing from graphics.
In addition to the Chen Tea House, Mr. Chen Youjian also used the logo of the design company, which is derived from the traditional auspicious pattern of Chinese folk, the Four Joy Dolls.
In addition to words and graphics, there are stories, more famous, more distinctive crafts, cultural relics, as long as they are related to the project, their shape and characteristics we can also learn from.
Among these cultural relics, the jade dragon in the Hongshan culture on the right, which can be traced back to 5,000 years ago, is generally considered to be the "first dragon of ancient China". The graphic logo of Huaxia Bank is derived from this National Treasure Jade Dragon.
In addition to the meaning attached to the jade dragon itself, this logo isomorphizes the form of ancient Chinese coins, and the industry attributes are also obvious. The jade dragon corresponds to Huaxia, and the ancient money corresponds to the bank, which belongs to the straightforward and effective design idea.
Objects such as sculptures and architecture can also be referred to, as long as the design form is different from others. Like Manhattan's Rockefeller Center, it is a historic landmark that claims to be one of the greatest urban plans of the 20th century.
The logo of Rockefeller Center directly simplifies the iconic buildings in this area and designs them, copying their own things, without any pressure.
Library of Congress, which is the largest library in the world. The previous logo graphic was taken from the vaulted building of the library. It is also an article on its own architecture, but this dome, its recognition as a symbol is not strong, it is difficult to think of the Library of Congress, nor can it explain what the Library of Congress is, what the structure is, what the function is, and can only show that the Library of Congress includes a dome building.
And this dome is not the most famous even in these buildings, the logo feels that it can be used anywhere, and the uniqueness is not very good.
Later LOGO schemes combined graphics that symbolized the library with graphics representing the United States, a combination of an open book and the American flag. The new symbol clearly reflects the core of the Library of Congress, and other institutions other than the Library of Congress are not compatible with this symbol, but this classic symbol has also been replaced recently.
Note that if we want to use a building or sculpture as the main body of the logo, the choice of architecture and sculpture must be famous and iconic, if there is no feature, the recognition is very poor, then do not use this way. Buildings like the ones on the right are very ordinary, standing on a high place and looking at them, it is not interesting.
Visual symbols are our generalization and refinement of specific things or meanings, there have been countless symbols of various meanings in history, most of them disappeared in history for various reasons, and the symbols that survived have occupied our cognition and grown into super symbols. These super symbols are essentially the same as logos, the only difference is that the super symbols are more well-known, more influential and more durable.
Like Tai Chi, seals, spells, five elements of Bagua, etc., they are very clear in terms of form and the meaning they can represent, and there are really too many logos designed with these symbols as the main body.
Like the coat of arms here, its own form is not one or two, the second golden two-headed eagle, if I remember correctly, it should be a Russian coat of arms, and the one below it is obviously Japanese.
Symbols like the above are basically older, like these are relatively new, often contacted on computers, mobile phones, home appliances symbols, we have no problem. Like playing, pause, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in mathematics, love, forbidden symbols, direction symbols, Arabic numerals, letters, including symbols of various other disciplines, etc., can be referenced, many of which are universal symbols, and the geographical restrictions are very small.
Emojis are also considered symbols, and compared with cold words, emojis can express more emotions and states.
This is the logo of an accounting firm in Vancouver, Canada, which I particularly like. It is made of the percent sign and the smiley face, which, if understood simply, represents the service provided by their company, and the smiley face is warm, gentle and interesting.
The Logo of the FedEx Group has also been mentioned in the previous content, and the negative space formed between E and X is an arrow; Accenture's greater sign; Texaco's five-pointed star; and the UPS shield coat of arms, these symbols are not created out of thin air by designers, they are all secondary creations. As for how these creative points came up with, I wrote in "What is the state of opening and hanging when conceiving the plan?" In this tutorial, I will teach you to think about the ideas and processes, which can be found in the tutorial and brand design in the lower left corner of the subscription number.
Refer to other people's works, don't misunderstand, the so-called reference to other people's works here is the same as the symbol mentioned earlier, it is based on a certain representative feature of it, and the law of extracting other people's works in the safest tutorial is not the same. And not all logos are worth referencing, so what kind of logo is worth it? Give you a few directions.
First, only those brands with head effect, we want to use the audience's trust in them, the partial trust through similarity to convert, at this time their certain characteristics are worth learning. For example, clothing brands, go to a slightly higher grade mall to see the clothing store, you can see a bunch of English logos to do the store signs, foreign brands have, but there are also many domestic brands. This is to graft the sense of premium and trust of foreign brands onto their own brands.
Brands under the same organization sometimes need to strengthen the connection between the main brand and its brands, to achieve the role of taking advantage of the situation or complementing each other, and also need to refer to the design form of the main brand to form a unity. Many of the company's departments directly use the logo of the main brand, and replace the color as a distinction when using it. The aforementioned FedEx company used to use different logos to represent different departments and businesses. For example, FedEx is purple and green, FedEx is purple and red, FedEx Group is purple and gray, FedTrade Network is purple and yellow, and so on.
The logo of the Bank of China, whether you have money in your pocket or not, should be very familiar, this logo is Mr. Jin Daiqiang's design, ancient coins and Chinese characters are isomorphic together, very cattle creativity.
The symbol of ancient coins can clearly interpret the industry attributes of banks, but also clearly convey the concept of China, after all, the ancient coins of ancient China are used, and they can also show that kind of thick sense of history, and the circle can also represent the earth, which can prove that the Bank of China is a global enterprise, the world 500.
This symbol, this logo in China's financial industry is really hard to surpass. Later, other banks, including many financial institutions, paid tribute to him, which formed a commonality in the industry, and the first reaction of the audience to see similar symbols was that it was a bank, or a company related to money. After this commonality is formed, we can use the commonality brought by these head brands to do projects related to finance, so that people can understand what this brand is doing at the first time, and will also play the role mentioned in the first article above, with the help of the familiarity and trust of the industry head brand to the audience.
This is a way to create invisible assets for the brand, and using it well will save customers a lot of money. However, when using this method, the scale should be grasped well, the less the reference has no effect, the more you learn, the more you have to congratulate, and a new cottage brand will be born in your hands.
Below we use the content of today's lecture to design a case, the theme is three-element education, education here is easy to understand, generally refers to the education industry, three-yuan in ancient times refers to the first place in the township examination, the first member of the examination, and the first place in the temple examination. This three yuan is particularly compatible with the education industry, and the students who don't want to teach in dry education are the first, right? Knowing this, we can go and collect material about the ternary.
For example, the good news three yuan I found here, hi is obvious, referring to magpies, and this yuan is a harmonic word, yuan tong yuan, gui yuan circle. Just as the so-called long drought meets Ganlin, he meets his confidant in his hometown, the cave house flower candle night, and the gold list is titled. The four great happy events in life, the good news of three yuan is the meaning of the title of the gold list.
Since the theme is three-yuan education, the magpie here is a bit redundant, and three guiyuan can be left behind. The last remaining graphic, which is what we need, copied it down.
Make the middle leaf first, draw a circle, divide it into four parts equally, and then copy one out, so that the two circles intersect in the middle blue area, and the shape of the leaf is cut out.
The other two leaves can be obtained by copying and rotating at an angle of 360 divided by 3,120 degrees. Fill the circle at the junction of the leaves, the shape is ready, if you think the shape is too simple, we can add other elements to it.
We have an idea, that is, we find a creative point, and after drawing the basic graphics, we can adjust to countless changes. If you want to do simple, do simple, want to do complex, add texture, material, adjust color, solid color can, gradient is no problem, make it three-dimensional, flat, cartoon, all kinds of styles can do. Everything can be chosen based on your understanding of the project.
Including adding text combinations on the basis of graphics, there are many forms of this combination, and the form of designing a heraldry is also a kind, which is ternary education.
Doing design is simple and simple, look at the case I did above, two basic graphics plus a little text group spelled out. So what's so hard about it? This difficulty lies in wanting to do things well, and we have to solve many problems, such as software operation problems, technical performance problems, formal aesthetic problems, and design ideas. The first three can be solved by looking more and practicing more, so the last idea, that is, the idea, how did it come about.
Like this three yuan, the theme is very clear to you, it is good to say, now there is a network, it is very convenient to find information, but more projects do not have this clear prompt, if we usually do not have enough accumulation, the knowledge points needed have not been heard, how can there be ideas, want to use the method learned today to copy do not know what to copy. Therefore, long-term persistence and accumulation is the most difficult place to do a good job in design. It's not just the design, it's the same in every line.
It is often seen that some people say that the principle is useless, the theory is useless, the knowledge outside the design is even more useless, like the history of the Mayan text mentioned earlier is nonsense, opening the PS directly is dry goods, this kind of statement is not right or wrong, the difference is that the stage is different.