Study Task- Symbols/OUGD405

For this assignment we were given a task to create sports symbols that only used one colour. I began this assignment brief by writing some notes down, to understand what I should research. 

I then began to look up some information from the notes that I wrote down beginning with logos and symbols which have already been created for sports:

What I've noticed with the majority of these logos is that the colours, blue, green, red and yellow are often used, these colours are used as there friendly and welcoming colours they also link to the olympic colours, from learning this I will take this on board when It comes to designing my own logos. 

From this I then began to research the meaning of different colours in more depth and why they were used in sports: 

Red

¨      Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.

¨      Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. 

¨      It has very high visibility that’s why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. 

¨      In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage. It is the color found in many national flags.

¨      Red brings text and images to the foreground. 

¨      Use it as an accent color to stimulate people to make quick decisions; it is a perfect color for 'Buy Now' or 'Click Here' buttons on Internet banners and websites. 

¨      Red is widely used to indicate danger (high voltage signs, traffic lights). 

¨      This color is also commonly associated with energy, so you can use it when promoting energy drinks, games, cars, items related to sports and high physical activity.

Light red represents joy, passion, sensitivity, and love.
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.
Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.

Orange

¨      Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and tropics. 

¨      Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.

¨      To the human eyes, orange is seen as a very hot color, so it gives the sensation of heat. 

¨      Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. 

¨      As a citrus color, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. 

¨      Orange is the color of fall and harvest. I

¨      n heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.

¨      Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design. 

¨      Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.

Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.

Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes high quality.

Yellow

¨      Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. 

¨      Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. 

¨      Yellow is often associated with food. 

¨      Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter that’s why taxicabs are painted this color. 

¨      When overused, yellow may have a disturbing influence; it is known that babies cry more in yellow rooms. 

¨      Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; this combination is often used to issue a warning. 

¨      In heraldry, yellow indicates honor and loyalty. Later the meaning of yellow was connected with cowardice.

¨      Use yellow to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. 

¨      Yellow is very effective for attracting attention, so use it to highlight the most important elements of your design. 

¨      Men usually perceive yellow as a very lighthearted, 'kiddish' color, so it is not recommended to use yellow when selling prestigious, expensive products to men - nobody will buy a yellow business suit or a yellow Mercedes. 

¨      Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety. 

¨      Light yellow tends to disappear into white, so it usually needs a dark color to highlight it. 

¨      Shades of yellow are visually unappealing because they loose cheerfulness and become dingy.

Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy.
Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.

Green

¨      Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. 

¨      Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. 

¨      Dark green is also commonly associated with money. 

¨      Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for human eyes; it can improve vision. 

¨      Green suggests stability and endurance. 

¨      Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a 'greenhorn' is a novice. 

¨      In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. 

¨      Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the color of free passage in road traffic.

¨      Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. 

¨      Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products.

¨      Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, financial world, banking, and Wall Street.

Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.

Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.

Blue

¨      Blue is the color of the sky and sea.

¨      It is often associated with depth and stability. 

¨      It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. 

¨      Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. 

¨      Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. 

¨      In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity. 

¨      You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). 

¨      Blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. 

¨      Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. 

¨      Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.

¨      Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. 

¨      When used together with warm colors like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect color scheme for a superhero.

From this I then researched monotone colours and the different shades which are created. In my experimentation I will experiment with the use of different monotone colours. 

From this research I then began to sketch out some ideas for logos, knowing from my research that  an ideal logo would be simplistic to be legible when printed on different materials on a small case, I tried to think of simple ideas. 

Following from these sketches I began to create them digitally, I created these logos using illustrator, keeping it simple as possible using simple colours on each but still making it look attractive. This particular logo would be seen in children's football or possibly in schools, as the use of the blue's and green are quite immature colours and would often be seen in a children's book. I believe that this logo is successful as my target audience for this logo was for young children's sports clubs. However if I were to do this again I would possibly experiment with lighter colours. 

Following from the experimentation, I then tried to make the logo look more mature I did this by removing the backgrounds and making the colours look more solid. I then choose to colour the footballs in subtle but vibrant colours which looks attractive, I linked the colours to the olympics even though football isn't a part of the olympics, although football is a sport and other sports which are not in the olympics still use these colours.  These logos are directed at adolescents and teenagers who are interested in football, and I believe it communicates well sure to the mature colours. However If I were to do this again I would make the colours darker, to increase it's maturity. 

This next design below is of tennis, I wanted to keep this logo for tennis really simple and a universal symbol, however I found it difficult to not use  tennis rackets,so I tried to simplify the design down, by thinking of the idea with just tennis balls instead. The use of the colour  green is used in a lot of tennis logos and symbols partially because the activity is often played outside in nature.  Although  I think that these series of experiments did fail, the choice of green and idea of tennis balls would of worked well if I spent more time trying to perfect the symbols, which I will learn and take into consideration if I came across this project again. 

This next piece of experimentation was aimed as a universal logo that could be used in shops, outdoors etc. I kept the logo simple so that when it is shrunk down that you would still be able to see it. I created this logo in a number of different colours to see if it changed the target audience and I believe the use of the black colour makes the symbol look more mature due to the darkness of the colour. This logo works as a final outcome as it's friendly, welcoming and can be used in a different medias. However if I were to do this again I would try make it more unusual in terms of its shape.

These logos above are of another logo I created, the idea of this logo/symbol was that it could be used  in a store or advertising a biking competition. The idea of the the shapes being slightly displaced was to not only make a bike shape but to spell the word bike out but subtly. I then choose to  choose more mature colours such as red and black as these are common colours seen in the stores, however I would add a green colour, as it is often seen in outdoor stores. This idea communicates well as I think that it could be used in a store etc  and has a word secretly hid in it. However if I were to do this again I would experiment with different colours and different shapes which I could include to make it look more like a symbol. 

These images above are some development of this previous bike symbol, this is meant to show that this symbol could be used as a sticker to stick on big windows which  from these design would work effectively. I think that this idea works effectively as it's modern and classy and could be seen advertising an event or supporting a charity even and even in a store. However if I were to do this again I would consider wider variety of imagery and changing the colour of the symbol. 

Overal I'm pleased with my logos as they have more positives then negatives, however I've learnt that taking more time with these logos will end up with better results and more experimentation is needed to get the possible outcome.