A Really Cool Story
At the beginning of this month a guy named Tom contacted me. He was looking for a logo for his alumni team that he's putting together for a tournament to be held in Las Vegas in May. Tom was head coach for the University of Richmond (ACHA) Hockey team for 7 years before he moved in 2008.
So, he needed a simple 3 colour logo for his UofR alumni team and out of the blue he requested the services of HJC. I responded by telling him that most of us don't really do logos and he'd get a much more professional job on another site. Tom informed me that he didn't need anything spectacular so, I said I'd give it a shot.
Tom sent me some guidelines including, one of the school's current logos...
...and the requirement that the logo had to be 3 colours (red, blue and white). I also went and researched the University and found their crest.
I took that weekend to create a series of logos. In fact, my really bad original sketches were drawn while at work, in the bathroom!
Original sketches
I sent a sheet of logos to Tom and waited for his reply. I was hoping that at least one of them was going to be acceptable. I told Tom, anything can be changed/fixed/tweaked or that I could do a new set.
First sheet of logos
Tom's response was quite encouraging. He was most impressed with numbers 4 and 5. So we narrowed it down to those two. He thought of a couple changes that he would like to see. For the circle logo, he wanted crossed hockey sticks behind the spider. For the web logo, he wanted to try sticks at the top and the bottom. He also preferred the "angry" spider logo. I was able to tweak the logos in an hour and I sent the out again to Tom.
Second logo sheet
After seeing this 2nd sheet, Tom decided on the circle logo. He had two final requests. First, he wanted a puck under the spiders' legs. Second, he wanted to try a web in the background. Another couple of small tweaks and I sent the 3rd logo sheet out to Tom.
Third logo sheet
This next part is the part I feared the most. Tom sent out the logos to his printer and his printer friend returned with the news I was fearing. The logos I had sent were in PNG format and the printer needed them in VECTOR!!! For those that don't know, PNG draws images with actual pixels. VECTOR draws images with mathematical equations. So, when you stretch a PNG the pixels blur. A VECTOR can stretch any which way and not blur because all the shapes' equations are altered to match the new dimensions.
I tried a few different things but, couldn't figure out how to do the vector image. Then I put my PNG into Illustrator and found the greatest feature of the program...Live Trace!!! It traced my PNG and made it vector...and saved my butt. I sent it off to Tom and just the other day Tom sent me pictures of the final jerseys!
While they may not be the best logos you've seen on the internet, I think they look fairly simple and classic like a good hockey logo does. What are your thoughts on this whole process I went through? What logo did you like best? I'm really interested to read all of your comments!
So, he needed a simple 3 colour logo for his UofR alumni team and out of the blue he requested the services of HJC. I responded by telling him that most of us don't really do logos and he'd get a much more professional job on another site. Tom informed me that he didn't need anything spectacular so, I said I'd give it a shot.
Tom sent me some guidelines including, one of the school's current logos...
...and the requirement that the logo had to be 3 colours (red, blue and white). I also went and researched the University and found their crest.
I took that weekend to create a series of logos. In fact, my really bad original sketches were drawn while at work, in the bathroom!Original sketches
I sent a sheet of logos to Tom and waited for his reply. I was hoping that at least one of them was going to be acceptable. I told Tom, anything can be changed/fixed/tweaked or that I could do a new set.First sheet of logos
Tom's response was quite encouraging. He was most impressed with numbers 4 and 5. So we narrowed it down to those two. He thought of a couple changes that he would like to see. For the circle logo, he wanted crossed hockey sticks behind the spider. For the web logo, he wanted to try sticks at the top and the bottom. He also preferred the "angry" spider logo. I was able to tweak the logos in an hour and I sent the out again to Tom.
Second logo sheet
After seeing this 2nd sheet, Tom decided on the circle logo. He had two final requests. First, he wanted a puck under the spiders' legs. Second, he wanted to try a web in the background. Another couple of small tweaks and I sent the 3rd logo sheet out to Tom.
Third logo sheet
This next part is the part I feared the most. Tom sent out the logos to his printer and his printer friend returned with the news I was fearing. The logos I had sent were in PNG format and the printer needed them in VECTOR!!! For those that don't know, PNG draws images with actual pixels. VECTOR draws images with mathematical equations. So, when you stretch a PNG the pixels blur. A VECTOR can stretch any which way and not blur because all the shapes' equations are altered to match the new dimensions.
I tried a few different things but, couldn't figure out how to do the vector image. Then I put my PNG into Illustrator and found the greatest feature of the program...Live Trace!!! It traced my PNG and made it vector...and saved my butt. I sent it off to Tom and just the other day Tom sent me pictures of the final jerseys!
While they may not be the best logos you've seen on the internet, I think they look fairly simple and classic like a good hockey logo does. What are your thoughts on this whole process I went through? What logo did you like best? I'm really interested to read all of your comments!
A Really Cool Story
Reviewed by Ryan
on
April 02, 2011
Rating:
Reviewed by Ryan
on
April 02, 2011
Rating:
7 comments:
That's so cool, My favorite is the circle logo with the web background.
Congratulations man, that's great stuff. Good exposure as well. I think the right decision was made on the logo too, and the progression of it was pretty sweet. Good stuff man. Love the shout out to phoenix. gotta love the circle logo's
You're lucky, My fave is the one on the grey jersey.
I love the story, and I assure you that your not the only one who has had some of the greatest thoughts while on the throne, that is too classic.
Awesome work! The logo blows away the actually college logo
Keep up the great work
Cousin Tom
Amazing!!
Thanks again Ryan, it was a pleasure working with you. I posted these jerseys on my FB page and everyone that saw them, love them! Keep up the great work!
Did he send u 1 of each jersey? That would have only been right!
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