JAM Design

Today we were placed in groups and our task was to come up with a graphic design business name in a couple of minutes. I had the chance to work with the lovely Annabelle and the cool Mitch we came up the name “Jam Design” this was influenced by the initials of our first name. Luke role-played an interesting character known as William Preston (better known as Bill) from Preston Earthmoving in Bomen .It was time to go and meet Bill and find out some more information about his business so we could design a logo for him. He gave us information on what he was looking for in a logo. We were told that it has been a family business for a while and that Bill has know taken over the rains 3 years ago and would like a logo to promote his business. He mentioned that his wife had come up with a logo in publisher but the computer had been destroyed in a flood and the logo was no longer retrievable and he also had played around with an idea that included a tractor. He didn’t want anything to fancy. Bill liked the idea of having something Strong and simple, his budget was small but we knew we could work with it. As I was listening to Bill, Ideas sprung into my head. We concluded our meeting with Bill and mentioned that we would meet up again in the afternoon with our ideas.

After listening to the scenario’s of role play with the other groups we were sent back to the room to brainstorm our ideas together from our minds and sketches. Annabelle, Mitch and I did a little research on the net to polish up our sketches, the energy was strong. Annabelle liked the idea of the business name in a strong font and in a sort of plaque to keep it tight where as Mitch liked the idea of including a symbol that represented the business using a tractor tyre creating the logo with the business name tightly centered. As for me, Tractors were also my inspiration I like the idea of having a Tractor silhouette scooping up the business name or a 3d front facing tractor with the business name in the scoop. I thought these logos could be very versatile for stickers or to be placed on uniforms and easily recognizable on the Web page. We talked about our ideas, what fonts to use and styles of logos. We were limited with the fonts we didn’t think there were a lot of choices in strong types. This was something that held us back a little but was still able to get on with the job. As we got all ideas together we organized ourselves to process these ideas in CS4 illustrator, praising each other as we went along and giving constructive criticism when needed. We came up with 5 logos entire, together all with a little difference to present to Bill Preston.

We met up with Bill after Lunch to present to him the ideas we had come up with. Sitting down around a table we showed Bill with the ideas and explained how we come up with them. Bill liked the plaque Annabelle presented he mentioned that it reminded him of a number plate and that the font was strong he would like to see variations of it. Then it was on to Mitch, Bill thoughts were surprising, he said it looked like a saw and he didn’t like the font type that was used. He wanted it to look stronger and liked the idea of the tractor tyre being used if it could be modified. Then came my turn, first impression with the logo was that the business name in the bulldozer tyre was” It Looks Like A logo I’ve Seen around the Place”. So we scraped that one straightaway Bill enjoyed the Tractor scooping the business name only if it could be altered. He would prefer if the tractor didn’t look so busy and the type to be under the tractor.
We went straight back to the office and worked on the changes that needed to be made. Mitch came up with a softer edged for the tractor tyre and a much stronger looking type for the business name. He chose some variations of color in the center of the tyre to give Bill a few more options. Annabelle was on a roll with her design adding the business name to a number plate and changing the type to a more straight line or having the business name all in the plaque and some with only Preston in the plaque and earth moving underneath. I defussed my tractor in illustrator placed the type underneath which gave the logo a cleaner and stronger but simple look. I tried placing a border around the logo and adding a color one with a blue background and one with orange this created a tighter look. When it came time to present the final work to Bill we were feeling confident that he would like some of the ideas. He was pleased with the Tractor tyer and loved the plaque the defuzzing of the Tractor logo was achieved and over all I think we had a good outcome.

I really enjoyed this experience I think working in a team was a lot of fun having other people’s opinions and input help you see your ideas through other people’s eyes which I think is very important it makes you more open minded about the process. The most frustrating think is not knowing all the tricks that illustrator has to offer so you can really work with your ideas and get them out there and learning more about typography will be a great benefit. I think it would be good to get strong constructive criticism feed back I’m looking forward to that so I can develop more and let’s face it the world it’s always such a positive place.

First Attempt



Second Attempt