Step One: Doodling   Next Step I wanted to design a logo for getting into Art-Education, and called it ArtEd.  It was a play on words, as in Art-Ed, but also to get "arted", like getting stamped or affected to such a degree that a student gets sold or branded on the idea of Art Education. The idea of getting "stamped" was communicated by a large foot-print, aimed at the viewer, and the words "Get STAMPED". I used triangles to balance the design, but was not particularly happy. I tried a hand (instead of foot) but prefered the foot, as it said "stamped" better than a hand

Step 2: Refining Prev Step Next Step I refined the logo, was not happy with the balance, feeling that the negative spaces around the design left it inaffectual.  I wanted the logo to FILL the space, and also began to feel that word "Stamped" was implied by the foot, so I could ditch the word altogether The concept of the FOOT needing to be the foreground stayed, and I had a go at switching design around slightly. In working through the logo as part of my year 10 class' “logo project”, I shared the principal that we should always push our designs, not just accepting the first one. The second version of the logo was visually more balanced.

Step 3: Pushing Prev Step Next Step I cleaned up the logo and the "ART.ed", finally happy with the basic balance of the design. Then it's time to push the design past what I'm satisfied with.  The chances are, I will return to the design I'm happy with, but as the ART.ed figure becomes a character I need to see what else I can do with him. The principle here is to not simply *accept* a plan, or a method, but to push it past that which is comfortable.  I use this principle, regardless of whether I am solving a design, research or management problem.

Step 4: Finishing Prev Step Next Step Once I have selected the design, I can then play with it in a way that cleans it up or refines the concepts The gold & blue version of the logo's character came from the idea that, being a pencil, it might be an idea to use the colours of pencil. In preparation for putting the image into a digital format a complete, clean line drawing is created.  This is scanned into a large TIFF or PSD document, and the design is ready to PLAY with on a computer

Step 5: Creating Digital version Prev Step Computer Enhance The image is scanned into Photoshop at a magnified size. This is so that I can work on it in Photoshop at a reasonable size... it is always easy to reduce finished images once complete, but enlarging a graphic image in not an option. The path tool (in photoshop) is used to create a lined version of the logo, and now I'm ready to play with it.   To see how this is done, look at the Dreamweaver tutorials With the "hard" work now down, I will work in Photoshop in layers and save multiple versions of the graphic as I go.