Creating the Ultimate Logo
Logo Design Lesson Plan
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Essential Understanding:
​Designers research in order to create art to fit a need for their client(s)
  • How does research help a designer know more about their clients?
  • How to designers implement both typography and symbols to create a logo?​
  • How is a font created?
  • What makes a logo effective?
Picture
Whole Foods logo (typeface)
Picture
Nike "Swoosh" logo (icon) designed by Carolyn Davidson
VOCABULARY:      
  • Design
  • Icon
  • Logo​

  • Typography 
  • ​Logotype
  • ​Typeface

Ideation: Gathering Research and Developing Thumbnails

You are a high-end logo designer, and your favorite band/musician’s publisher is hiring you to create a new logo for their new album (or album reboot). The logo needs to be simple and easily transferable to different mediums (t-shirts, albums, posters, etc.). Using adobe illustrator, create a logo that represents the type of music they play and their message as artists.
 
Research your musician(s). Get to know who they are, why they make music, what they want to do with their music. Listen to your favorite songs by them. Look at their album covers. Watch their music videos. Learn about their success, their struggles, and where they are now. Use the thumbnails to come up with some ideas for a logo design. Make at least 20 THUMBNAIL sketches of different logo designs. Try different things. Try with only text. Try only symbols. Try both symbols and text. Try different fonts. Try rearranging a few of the same design. Make as many sketches as you can.
Picture
Apple Logo (icon) designed by Rob Janoff

Helpful Resources:
illustrator shortcuts
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Objectives:
  • Shown artwork by contemporary designers, students will be able to identify the different kinds of logos, logotype and iconic, successfully. (Remembering / Standard: Comprehend / GLE: Historical and cultural context are found in visual art, / Art Learning: Contemporary)
  • Using available resources students will be able to investigate their favorite musician(s) and produce visual information to support the musicians’ point of view (Blooms: Analyzing / Standard: Transfer / GLE: Communication through advanced visual methods is a necessary skill in everyday life Art Learning: ideation / Numeracy)
  • Using their thumbnail sketches, students will be able to create a logo, which purposefully create 20 or more thumbnail sketches of logos. (Blooms: Applying / Standard: Create / GLE: Make Judgments from visual messages / personal grounding)
  • Given Adobe Illustrator, students will be able to employ the appropriate tools and shortcuts to create their logo.  (Bloom’s: Creating / Standard: Create- GLE: demonstrate competency in traditional and new art media, and apply appropriate and available technology for the expression of ideas  / Art Learning: Materials and techniques / Technology)
  • Using completed artwork, students will be able to interpret by discussing in specific ways how artistic decisions inform the meaning in the artwork of their peers. (Bloom’s: Evaluate / Standard: Reflect / GLE: Interpretation is a means for understanding and evaluating works of art / Art learning: Assessment-Evaluation / Literacy)

Assessment:
project_criteria_rubric.docx
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File Type: docx
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Students will meet with teacher after research/thumbnail preparation to talk about their plan, and which logos are in their top 5. They will be given feedback on which design is their strongest, given feedback of what they need to continue on with Adobe Illustrator
 
At Project Critique, students will get the opportunity to talk about the tools they used and how they achieved their original design. They will receive feedback on their design from their peers
 
Students have the opportunity to continue working and adapt their logo design and resubmit (up to a week after critique date) to receive a better grade.