The task was to sit down with a client (Luke the teacher) and discuss possible logos for a given organisation. Our client was Peter Brown, whom was starting up his own childcare centre 'Rainbow Island'. He gave us some information about what he wanted in his logo, such as colour, text and imagery. Peter Brown’s childcare centre was only going to include 20 children, of a ratio of 5 child per staff member, ageing from 12 months to about 5-6 years. Peter Brown wanted a logo that was suitable for a childcare centre that was called ‘Rainbow Island,’ which had vibrant colours and clear bold text which was easy to read. It also had to be appropriate to go on shirts and hats.
Peter Brown hasn’t mentioned a budget just yet!
When I received this job, initially I started sketching ideas down on a piece of paper. These were ideas that first came to me when I heard ‘childcare centre.’ I decided to use silhouetted images because they are clear and simple. Here I’ve chosen three children standing together.
I then had another idea of using Australia, not only because the company is Australian, but because I wanted to incorporate the island into the logo.
Our group researched some ideas then talked about colour variation, text and imagery. We decided to put our heads down and see what we could come up with. When we sketched a few ideas, we coloured them and compared them with each others, noting whether or not we liked certain ideas. We all used the basic colours of the rainbow such as; red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. We had a few attempts at incorporating the rainbow into a few designs. I used silhouette images of children in front of the colours; I believe this was more effective.
I used child like imagery such as crayons, pencils and jigsaw puzzles. The rainbow was then incorporated where possible. We chose a few that we really liked and prepared to show them to our client.
Peter Brown only liked two out of the nine logos that I had come up with. The logo containing five different coloured hands in a circle, and the words ‘Rainbow Island’ being written on the page with a giant pencil and two small children holding onto the end. One of the logos I did had an image of Australian in the background, our client thought this looked copyright from seeing it somewhere before, so we scrapped it. The other logos were simple, yet not what he was looking for.
The group went away with the designs that the client was happy with but wanted altered. I altered my design of the five hands in Adobe Illustrator CS4 and came up with a few different ideas of how our client would like them, using a black or white background to see what worked best. I used various types of font for the text, comparing the results. I chose five main colours that would be used in a simple rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green and blue which stand out on black or white backgrounds. 
It wasn’t so much as the technology that held me back; it was just getting use to knowing that it’s completely different to Adobe Photoshop CS4, and as well as knowing how to use ALL the tools. But other than that I found it very simple to use this software to digitally enhance my design.
My logo has become much tighter due to using the software, for writing free hand is simple yet hard to get as perfect as you need it, whereas the software did it all for you. I found the software made it easier as the text is always straight across or up and down. Also, the lines are a lot finer and crisp. After enhancing my design in Illustrator, my logo looked a lot more professional than it did free hand. My logos are suitable to have boxes around them, though they are tight enough without them.
I was happy with my end result as I not only pleased the client, I pleased myself. I was surprised with how good my logo turned out in the end. From doing rough sketches in pen, pencil and then adding colour, to enhancing them in Illustrator to make the perfect end result wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, now that I understand what to do.
I never really put much thought to what Graphic Design was all about.
I believe I could have done more on my own without group input and come up with a similar end result, though working with others is sometimes a lot better and useful as you have someone else’s perspective other than your own. I do work well on my own, but occasionally need an opinion or two.
I don’t believe that one day is the realistic timeframe for a job like this. Yes we are only students, but I think we all come up with some awesome ideas, some greater than others. But even though there are professional Graphic Designers out there, they would most likely need more then one day to come up with a logo or something to please their client.
Today was a very interesting day, being able to see everyone’s ideas on paper and then digitally was amazing, considering we’re only into our sixth week. We’re not professionals but it’s not hard to see that a lot of people in the class could go a long way in Graphic Design.
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