Victoria Shum

Grade 10 Green
Design
Mrs. Stanley
25
th
September, 2014















LOGO DESIGN BRIEF AND SPECIFICATION
















This unit is Design is about Logos, and the main task is to re-design a logo from
an existing company. The goal is to communicate a companys identity and image
better through this new design.

Logos are a huge part of a companys identity and image everything that the
company stands for has to be shown in a tiny icon. Logo rebranding happens when a
company decides that their logo does not suit their image anymore. This can happen
for a couple of reasons: either a company has developed into far more than what
they planned to be many years ago; or that a company is losing popularity and feels
the need to give themselves a fresh image. A logo is the face of a company, and it
definitely plays a part in determining a companys success.

A good logo gives a person an idea of their companys purpose straight away.
This leaves clients the good impression of an established and professional company.
Although all logo designers have their own personal styles, they should put a
companys identity and image at top priority and work within those guidelines. With
this in mind, lets redesign a logo now!


DESIGN BRIEF
My task is to re-design the logo for Sasa Cosmetics. This is a famous cosmetics
retail brand in Asia that offers beauty and health products from companies such as
Maybelline, Revlon and many others. They also sell products (specifically makeup)
from their own brand, Sasa Tinnie. Here is their current logo. The main change I will
have in this logo is to have a simpler cursive font.
There are two main reasons why I want to change this logo. First, although the
current font is very creative, it can be disorienting to look at after some time. Over
time, it might make customers feel uneasy or have negative connections when
seeing this logo. Second, this logo is too detailed and bulky to appear on their small
makeup products. By having a clean cursive font, it will make the logo look girly but
elegant, without the seriousness of print font. I am still going to keep the pink color,
because it is the companys color and part of their identity.
To finish this task, I will need to do research on the company, their long term
goals, their target audience and what kind of image they have established. This will
help me create a logo that suits the company well and appeals to their target
audience. Here, I will use sources from the Sasa website. I will also research about
logo designing: what it takes to create a professional-looking logo, what to avoid,
and what software would be best for this task. I will research real examples of logo
designs and how successful they were, and use this information to guide me in
creating my logo.
DESIGN SPECIFICATION
1. My logo will be pink in color (same as the original Sasa logo).
2. It will be in a cursive font.
3. The lines of the font will not be very thick (so it can be printed on a small object
and not look blurred).
4. There will be a small twist (like a tiny hidden picture) in the logo.
5. I will create my logo on Gimp.
6. The size of the logo will be 1000 pixels wide and 500 pixels tall.

RESEARCH ABOUT LOGOS
A logo is the face of a company, so it is important that it is well-designed and
professional looking. The first thing to do is to brainstorm and sketch anything that
comes to mind. Many people start working at the computer straight away and spend
more time playing with things like colors and filters, which arent the most important
things in a logo. After sketching, one design can be picked to work on it further.
It is important to focus on the companys message (what its about, what it
want to sell and who it wants to sell to), and keep the logo simple and clean. The
clients needs come first so it isnt a good idea to put in too much personal style in
the design. Too much detail is also a bad idea, because a person would not see these
details from far away, and the logo would look very cluttered if printed on a small
surface.
Next is the color. A logo should not rely on too many colors 2 or 3 is enough. It
should not look too different when printed in black and white, which is why normally
the colors of a logo are chosen last. When choosing the font, the purpose of the
company again matters, but some things to remember are not to choose any
common or amateur fonts (like Times New Roman or Comic Sans MS), and not to
have too many fonts in the logo.
Logo designers usually use the following programs when making logos: Adobe
Illustrator, Inkscape, Corel Draw and so on. These are all Vector graphic programs, as
opposed to Bitmap drawing programs like Gimp, Photoshop, etc. Bitmap programs
draw by filling color for each pixel, meaning it will lose detail if the picture is blown
up. A Vector program draws shapes using mathematical formulas, and when it is
stretched, it will still keep its original shape and color. This means a logo drawn on a
Vector program will look equally detailed when printed on a business card or giant
billboard.
Good logos give a customer an idea of what the company is at first sight. The
rebranding of the company Gap makes a bad example. The clothing brand had its
new logo for a week before switching back to the old one. The new design was plain
and amateur, and looked more like a cheap logo for an office business than an
established clothing company.

Logos mainly come in 3 types: typographic, illustrative and iconic logos. In
particular, iconic logos are icons that have no connection to the companys name or
what it sells, such as Nike. But whenever people see a tick/swoosh, they think of only
Nike, and think it is better than any other sports brand. This is the same with all
other name brands their logos convey a sort of image that if a person uses their
product, it will make them seem cooler.
A good example is Abercrombie, another clothing company aimed at teenagers,
famous for their super expensive products and big logos on their clothes. However,
starting next year, it plans to remove the logo from most of its clothing. This is
because showing off big logos of name-brands no longer appeal to teenagers, and
they realize they can buy similar shirts or dresses from other brands with a quality
just as good, for a much cheaper price. This example shows that in the case of
famous companies, people are paying most of the price for its logo, rather than the
product itself.
This units task is to redesign a logo, and in real life, one of the reasons a logo is
redesigned is because a logo no longer suits a companys image. This is the case for
the Redskins both the teams name and their logo. Today, many newspapers and
radio stations are refusing to use the name Redskins because of its racist background,
and are showing an alternative logo when talking about them. Even though naming a
sports team after the color of their skin was socially more acceptable back then, it no
longer is now, which makes it necessary for the team to rebrand itself. Some logos
can be timeless, but some will have to change as time goes on, and peoples social
values change.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bieler, Des. NY Daily News Disavows Redskins and the teams logo, to boot. The
Washington Post. 3
rd
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"Company Profile." Sasa. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.
<http://corp.sasa.com/en/company-overview/company-profile/>.
Hardy, Gareth. 10 Common Mistakes in Logo Design. Smashing Magazine. 25
th
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2009. Web. 25
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September, 2014.
<http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/25/10-common-mistakes-in-log
o-design/>
How to Create a Logo. Entrepreneur. Web. 25
th
September, 2014.
<http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/71902>
Kapner, Suzanne and Erin McCarthy. Abercrombie to Remove Logos from Most
Clothing. The Wall Street Journal. 29th Aug, 2014. Web. 25
th
September, 2014.
<http://online.wsj.com/articles/abercrombie-to-remove-logos-from-most-clothi
ng-1409227165>
Underwood, Derek. How To Create A Professional Logo. Web Designer Depot. 16
th

Feb, 2009. Web. 25
th
September, 2014.
<http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/02/how-to-create-a-professional-lo
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"Vision and Mission." Sasa. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.
<http://corp.sasa.com/en/company-overview/vision-and-mission/>.
Zmuda, Natalie. Filling in the Gap of a Rebranding Disaster. Ad Age. 18
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Web. 25
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September, 2014
<http://adage.com/article/news/branding-gap-s-logo-change-disaster/146525/>