We then sat down with our 'Client', Mr Steve Deaconsfield, a solicitor who had recently opened his own law firm, Deaconsfield Solicitors, and was looking for an image. He had been a solicitor for 25 years; previously worked for another solicitor, Craig Lyle; his firm had been open for roughly six months, in an office on Baylis Street, had a steady clientele, and a staff of 26- five of these solicitors. We had to design a logo for our Client, which would be used everywhere- stationary, uniforms, etc. His needs were specific- he wanted a 'cool' coloured logo- specifically blues and greys; he wanted it to be simple, classy but not clinical. The logo had to show the company was professional and trustworthy. He also wanted to possibly incorporate some kind of motif which represented Wagga, Australia or Law. We discussed details like money (he had a big budget so this was not an issue) and when we would meet up next to present ideas and get his opinions on them. The clients expectations were reasonable.
Immediately i got ideas floating through my head and had to get them down on paper. Some of these ideas involved the Murrumbidgee river (which flows through Wagga), Gum trees, justice scales, Australian flag, and crows. My original sketches were bold, simple and primitive.
PPL Design sat down and spoke about the specific requests the client had made, and we shared the ideas we had initially, both visually and verbally. We sat as a group and started sketching our own ideas, and also began putting our ideas into Illustrator. Every so often we would present an idea to the group and ask each other for feedback, and share ideas.
Of my original ideas, i scrapped the ones involving the justice scales, crows and the Australian flag. These seemed a bit too complex for what the Client required. I had another idea of a D inside of a diamond, and I focused my attention to making a logo which used a curved motif to represent the river with the initials DS; and a logo using a tree and curved motif in a box, with the words Deaconsfield Solicitors somewhere on the bottom of it. I drew more detailed sketches in my sketch book, and then began designing them in Illustrator. My first coloured sketches in my art book are better than the sketches in my notebook, but still needed a lot of work.
After a bit of time spent in Illustrator, I came up with three possible logos for the Client - a D inside of a diamond with parts of the D cut out; one with DS and a curved river motif underneath; and the one that i was most happy with, a box with a river and tree motif in it, with the words Deaconsfield Solicitors under it.
PPL Design met again with the Client with all of our possible logo designs. We explained our logo ideas individually as he went through our print outs. Of my three ideas put forward, the client liked the DS initials with the river motif, and the box with the tree and river motif.
After the meeting with the Client, we sat back down and had a chat about our logos and then went our own ways to work on our own. I made a few changes to the logos i had designed- with the initials logo i made two changes, in turn making two different logos with the similar idea. With one i made the text smaller so it fit into the curve of the motif; and the other i moved the motif up so it was in line with the bottom curve in the S and it flowed through the D.
With the square logo i simplified the tree so it was just a circle and a rectangle. I also made a variation of it so the words are inside the square, which i found looked a lot better- more tighter. Of all of the final designs i was most happy with this one, and would pitch this to the Client the most.
These are the two I think are the best-
As this logo design went on, i couldn't see a lot of progression in regard to the tightness of the logos, especially with the one in the box because that is tight enough as it is. I seen the most progression with the initials logo. I am happy with the progression of meeting the Client's needs - i used the specified colors, included some of the motif themes he specified and kept the logos simple and professional. As a group we progressed well from the initial sketch stage to the final logo stage.
I was in control with the typography, there was not a lot of problems with that because the Client wanted a professional logo so there was no need for fancy fonts. I didn't feel like the technology held me back at all - i was confident the skills i had learned thus far in Illustrator would be enough to let me do the task. I believe i would have done just as good a job on my own away from the group, although the extra input was helpful.
In the real world, i don't think one day would be enough time to do this job. There are things to consider such as meetings with the client (not many real life clients would be willing to have meetings every few hours) and researching the type of business- this may not be as easy as looking up the industry on the Internet, it may involve going to job sites or meeting with other people who are more knowledgeable about the industry. For a real job like this I have no idea how much I would charge - maybe around the $500 mark. It is only a logo, not a business card using the logo, or a poster, etc, but it still takes a lot of time, thought and effort to get the logo from an idea to a tangible object (even if it is a file on a computer or a piece of paper). This is pretty much how i expected the work of a graphic designer to be - the process of meeting with the client, brainstorming, getting ideas onto paper then creating them digitally.
Overall the day's work was an enjoyable success. I enjoyed the process of meeting with the client, right through to finishing the final copy of the logo. It was successful in the way how an idea was conceived and watching the idea evolve through various execution methods. I enjoyed working in a group, and also by myself.
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