Eden Pictures: Logo

Eden Pictures: Logo

 For our AS Media work, we created our own institution: Eden Pictures. Therefore, we decided to create our own logo, using Serif DrawPlus, to use within our pieces.

If you click the link below, you will be taken to my AS blog so you can see the decisions behind our first logo and the steps involved into making it.

http://lizziesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/eden-pictures-logo.html

We decided to take a new approach and create an updated logo. Institutions like Paramount and Universal have recently celebrated their 100^th anniversaries (Universal in 2011 and Paramount in 2012) so we decided to take inspiration from this. Since it was a year anniversary for Eden Pictures, we decided we wanted to alter our logo and add a ‘1 year anniversary’ at the bottom. We thought this would add a nice touch and allow us to explore our creativity further when using the Serif Software.

Just like in AS me, Iain and Daniel sat down and sketched out a new logo design, using the old as a base. We wanted to keep the structure of the logo, including the letters, vines and central flower so it was still recognisable. 

Since the old apple blossom looked flimsy and washed out in colour, we decided that the old edit needed a new ambitious idea. We thought about making the colours on the blossom stronger but we soon felt that it wasn’t enough of a change and that it would still look too flimsy. Therefore, we decided to choose a well-known flower that is both beautiful and strong: a rose.
                Due to our choice of flower, we thought that we needed to change our vines to ones with thorns. Moreover, we contemplated having a bite mark out of our apple, to create a rustic look. We added minor details to the font, creating the letters to be harsher. Finally, we wrote ‘1 year anniversary’ at the bottom in a fancier font to add a personal touch.

This was our drawn design:

Next, we added the image onto the computer so we could use it as a template in Draw Plus. Using the ‘pen tool’, we traced over our design so we could start to add colour and effects.
     For inspiration, we looked at the Warner Brother’s logo; they change their colour/theme to match their film. For instance, for the Harry Potter films, Warner Brothers created a darker logo.
This began to get us thinking about how we too could use colours to complement our genre. As a post-apocalyptic film, we felt that darker colours would be suitable. Starting with the font, we found two that we specifically liked. Instead of gold, we turned to a different shade of metallic: silver. I preferred the silver colour with a rusty effect whereas Iain and Daniel liked the plain silver look. After a short debate, we came to the conclusion that the plain silver worked better as it was more visible. Silver suggested that our work was going to be much stronger this year as it had a sleek finish and a professional appearance.
      Furthermore, we began to work on the rose. By getting an image of a rose off the internet, we began to use the pen tool to trace around every petal and detail.

 This took a while as we worked on every fine detail. This made the logo much more ambitious as our AS version was just a few petals unlike the complex design of the new. After adding different red tones and shades (by using the ink tool to replicate the colours from the image) we began to add shading to the rose. This helped the flower to look realistic in comparison to the apple blossom.

Here is a link to a video of us making the rose:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TJAYwPO54k

After this, we decided to make the vines darker and add a light, faint glow around the edge. We initially planned to add thorns but they did not stand out so we decided to change that idea. Then, we decided to keep our old apple, rather than taking a bite out of it. This was because the apple is a symbol that represents Eden Pictures so we felt changing it would not be as recognisable and iconic.

Finally, we added the italic font for our one year anniversary. It added a sophisticated and elegant effect which we thought contrasted with the logo itself. Also, we added a light glow effect to help it stand out. I feel that our new logo has worked well ad had helped me to improve my attention to detail when using design software.

Here is a picture of our final logo design:

After the image was complete, we decided not to add movement/animation to it like our old logo. We noticed that in trailers, the logo is shown briefly or the animation is very quick to move unlike in film openings (our AS task). We thought that having our logo as a still image would work better. However, we felt it needed something to help it flow and stand out ready for our trailer. Iain had recorded a thunder sound earlier in the year so I suggested that it may be interesting to add the sound to our logo. To compliment this, we also added a flash to the beginning so it represented lightening. The overall finish looked sleek and much more professional to last years and it corresponded to our chosen genre well.