\n
I was specifically drawn to the A and being all lowercase seemed aesthetically pleasing.<\/p>\n Firstly, I curved the J.<\/p>\n Next, I pushed it upwards, effectively removing the descender.<\/p>\n I particularly liked the idea of echoing the dot of the J, which by now had also been converted to a square.<\/p>\n By this stage I was already thinking about possible colour schemes, too. Now I felt I was really getting somewhere!<\/p>\n The final three designs also lead me to make the square \u2018dot\u2019 motif consistent in size, rather than being dictated by the stroke weight.<\/p>\n A larger dot on the A actually gave it an almost serif-like accent, which worked quite nicely to tie the two letters together.<\/p>\n An almost \u2018rusty\u2019 red and \u2018azure\u2019 blue seemed to balance well with the warm yellow.<\/p>\n I feel it offers some warmth and a suggestion of fun, without coming across too corporate.<\/p>\n I suppose I could have gone down the route of Pantone swatches etc, but as this logo was purely created for a website and I have no intention to start creating printed stationery and suchlike I really didn\u2019t see why that mattered!<\/p>\n These are the hexadecimal colours I\u2019ve worked with:<\/p>\n Take the coloured elements away and the logo still works on some level thanks to the strongest black areas.\u00a0The logo is also bold enough to work in single and two-colour forms.<\/p>\n Overall, I\u2019m very happy with the finished design!<\/p>\n 9:<\/strong> I also wanted to work with an extended version.\u00a0The first stage was to revisit the Spaceman font and convert it into editable vector outlines.<\/p>\n![\"jalogo01\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo01.gif\")
<\/a>1:<\/strong> My old logos have always been based around my initials so I didn\u2019t see any reason to change that.\u00a0First things first, I looked at existing fonts and came across a lovely modern sans serif display face called Spaceman<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo02\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo02.gif\")
<\/a>2:<\/strong> From here, I looked at encasing the initials inside some form of round-corned rectangle or badge, using the same stroke weight as the letterforms themselves.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo03\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo03.gif\")
<\/a>3:<\/strong> I also played around with the dot of the J.
\nThis was when I started to feel I needed to start customising the font.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo04\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo04.gif\")
<\/a>4:<\/strong> The J was now too tall so I matched the J and A\u2019s x-heights, creating a more compact and balanced form.\u00a0This started to take me down some interesting avenues.<\/p>\n
\nI quite liked the bold, almost-primary colours I was selecting alongside the starkness of the black.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo05\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo05.gif\")
<\/a>5:<\/strong> Something still wasn\u2019t structurally right.
\nThere were too many curves being introduced.
\nIn an effort to ground the design I straightened the base of the J and A.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo06\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo06.gif\")
<\/a>6:<\/strong> Trying to simplify things wasn\u2019t quite working for me in any of these examples.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo07\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo07.gif\")
<\/a>7:<\/strong> With my final design pretty much nailed, I turned the logo monochrome before experimenting with a number of other colourways.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo08\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo08.gif\")
<\/a>8:<\/strong> I returned to my original four-colour design.<\/p>\n\n
\nA Stage Further<\/h4>\n
\n![\"jalogo09\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo09-300x61.gif\")
<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo10\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo10-300x61.gif\")
<\/a>10:<\/strong> Next step was to apply the tweaks to the J and A as already discussed.\u00a0A few more tweaks were needed to individual letters, particularly the median line as the O wasn\u2019t lining up.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo11\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo11-300x61.gif\")
<\/a>11:<\/strong> Once again I looked at the yellow border and how that could work.\u00a0Plus, in an effort to simplify things, I considered reworking the last letter R to echo this border.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo12\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo12-300x109.gif\")
<\/a>12:<\/strong> Further experiments.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo13\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo13-300x109.gif\")
<\/a>13:<\/strong> Applying the square device to every letter was an interesting option.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo14\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo14-300x200.gif\")
<\/a>14:<\/strong> Several colourways were also experimented with.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo15\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo15-300x61.gif\")
<\/a>15:<\/strong> I wanted people to help realise it was \u2018jon\u2019 and \u2018arthur\u2019, not \u2018jonarthur\u2019, therefore a simpler approach seemed best with regards to colour.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo16\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo16-300x61.gif\")
<\/a>16:<\/strong> After much deliberation, I felt the extra squares overcomplicated what is essentially quite a minimal aesthetic.\u00a0A simpler design was therefore decided upon, leaving the yellow border purely for the JA initials \u2018badge\u2019 instead.<\/p>\n
\nA Winning Combo<\/h4>\n
\n![\"jalogo17\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo17.gif\")
<\/a>17:<\/strong> Together, I feel the two designs work quite nicely. The full name underpins and helps to echo the striking initials.<\/p>\n
\n![\"jalogo18\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo18.gif\")
<\/a>18:<\/strong> For my website, a final optional flourish was to add a very simple sheen to help create an illusion of depth.<\/p>\n
\n
![\"jalogo19\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/JAlogo19.gif\")
<\/a>19:<\/strong> For my old\u00a0(2013-2016) website\u2019s header, I also echoed the shape of the logo with its white background.<\/p>\n![\"logo-2017\"](\"http:\/\/www.jonarthur.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/logo-2017.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>20:<\/strong>\u00a0For my\u00a0updated website I felt a change of colour scheme was definitely in order. I therefore\u00a0did away with the bright colours and reverted\u00a0to my favourite blues, toning down the entire logo.<\/p>\n