Becoming “Graphically Pink”

I have been working on my wordpress blog for about a month now!.. I felt a bit of an idiot because I didn’t actually realise there was a very helpful template already made up to help me create this! – still! I have persevered! After spending at least a week trying to figure out how to create sub headings I have come out the other side! I want my blog to reflect me to the best of its ability but still look professional! (I’ve just realised I’ve insulted myself there!) I want it to become not only a blog to document my work and research but for it to be like a diary of my thoughts, ideas, procrastinations, events, tutorials I watch, books I read, people I meet! I really want to let people inside my world!

In the first days of starting the course I did some rough sketches for assignment one and literally sat for hours trying to think of a decent name to call my blog. “Amy’s OCA Blog” just wasn’t cutting it for me. I asked friends in group chats; their reply was “anything pink.. LA… banana leaves…” (my house is decorated like the Beverly Hills Hotel with banana leaves FYI) but I just couldn’t think of a name to relate Graphic Design and my love of pink and everything girly, kitsch, quirky and glam inbetween! My dad was round my house ripping my bathroom apart and he shouted out “I don’t know!…Graphically Pink?” however that might be fairly good?.. ties in Graphics with the pink and it portrays a sense of honesty; what I am striving for. One of my key values. So I instantly drew the name out in my learning log sketchbook and played around with the type, colours etc… just to see if it might work. For quickness I took a photo of the sketch and uploaded it to the title of my blog, I knew I would have to replace this with time to a more professional version.

This is where I have now been playing further with the logo design.. I have started with this rough sketch and attempted to further develop it. I want a logo that portrays femininity; delicate, soft, loving and warm in feeling. Pink is the perfect colour for this. I knew I wanted to use a feminine font. I am a big fan of hand lettering and for most of my artwork I use my own hand drawn lettering. I figured that I could draw a rough version out and then clean it up in Photoshop and image trace around it in Illustrator. Using a light box, my papermate flair pen and lots of tracing paper I drew out various versions of my logo until I reached one I was fairly happy with – I’m a perfectionist… I could keep going and going and still not find the “perfect” outcome! – but this I could see would look alright on the title banner of my blog page. It is not a decision to be taken lightly because a logo and first impressions are lasting. Once you put an image out there to the world you cannot reclaim it back or change it. The logo however I feel represents me, my brand and key morals and values to a degree. The hand drawn lettering is my own, the pink represents my brand and me and the heart and slight vulnerability of it shows my softer, honest, caring side.