New Freicoin logo?

[Prometheus 23]

Over at the Freicoin comminuty forum there is a thread about a wish for a new logo for Freicoin. Inspired by Fedde who directed me to that thread and the thread itself, I put together the one below, and it's just a sketch, and needs more:

 

 

Another one is a variant of the two former ones, the coin-looking FF coin (the typography) and the Blue see-through Kria logo:

 

 

It works.

[Bicknellski 276]

Dove or Arctic Tern?

 

 

 

 

[Prometheus 23]

Hi, Bicknellski. Yes, I can see my previous bird looked like a pigeon, did some more research into terns and made some doodles and this one here came about:

 

I know, old school and kind of boring, and the left or right or well its wings doesn't feel right. Anyway, I kinda liked the way the head turned (or terned) out, so...

 

 

This one here is by far the best balanced of the ones I tried. I know it isn't square/circular, and I tried out several other compositions, like the ones below. Of course it could be made to fit in a circle, but who said coins were round anyway?; one could fit it with stars and make it look like all the other coins out there, but I think the circle is a distraction altogether. Or what do you guys think?

 

 

 

Also -- even if scaled down to fit a world of ants it's still perfectly readable, and you can easily identify the tern. Here's one in 20px height for you (I was unable to resist the desire to paste up a whole row of them)... 

 

 

It doesn't say coin or Freicoin straight out either, but the acronym must be communicated at some level anyway, so I thought I'd give it a try. Looks rather mean. Then again, I guess the Kria kicks what Americans call 'ass'. AND there's a bit of an easter egg here too (egg, proper), if you detach your vision you might detect a shark or two or perhaps it's a killer whale, and there's even a fire spitting dragon-like abstraction, and they all look cool and rather in tune with it all. Quite a few abstractions for a total of four pen-stokes if I may say it myself.... Quick turn back: The logo somehow hints of balls and stubbornness, being on top of things perhaps even, I mean, isn't this coin supposed to conquer the world? The Kria has to be tough and got to have the right attitude somehow.

[Bicknellski 276]

WOW!

 

LOL!

 

You nailed it. 

 

That sort of rakish eye line with the stars. WINS!

[Prometheus 23]

Here's another one with Freicoin written in full width

 

 

Here's a few others, half width:

 

 or 

 

It can be adapted to just about any relevant format, or medium, for that matter if anyone decides to print it on anything or cut it out in vinyl or have a shirt embroided. 

 

Or you might find it like a sticker on a cash register or at the storefront of an online site accepting FRC payments:

 

  or with some more cowbells: 

 

There are tons of possibilities, and a simple design manual would naturally open up for later adaptions, by limiting typography to a certain font and a few illustrations showing proportional limits and composition, spot colour values and so on. The most important thing is consistency and being loyal to your brand's design manual. 

 

I always had a rule when I used to work with this kind of things, and that's basically that a logo must work in black and white, and I used to keep an old depleted fax machine in my office for effects and fail-proofing of logos and visual drapery. 

 

Or how about

 

 

or perhaps...

 

 

or what about...

[Bicknellski 276]

LOL Love the Balloon! Better in White!

[dego 2]

Hei Prometheus!

glad to see your initiative, after mine was not successful. The bird head seems interesting to me, because it also works in small logos. Some said the bird shouldn't look down, but up..

[Bicknellski 276]

I like it keep your head down. Focused.

 

Up down could be ok either way. I like down cause of the sharp edge the menacing look is neat fearless.

 

I also like the beak points to HERE in the ACCEPTED HERE logo.

 

 

---

 

I love the old logo as well with the bird just not the color. Washes out the bird and too hard to see in a icon small format.

[Prometheus 23]

 Some said the bird shouldn't look down, but up..

 

I strongly disagree. Being on top is a good thing and what we want to communicate. Being the stronger, the one in control, having the upper hand, constantly scanning the fields and seas below for prey. Looking up implies being cute, weak and begging. And a tern is hunting for fish all day long and that means looking down a lot.

 

You don't build a fort in a valley, but on a hill, in order to take advantage of gravity and get a birds view of things below, and be the ones on top, in control of the situation. Birds don't look up unless they are on the ground nesting or injured, and it is perhaps THE one sign of weakness in birds. 

 

Birds looking up, and all I can think of is some poor bird who has too raise and feed a cuckoo chicken. This must be one of the very few times when a bird looking upwards is the one in power and control

 

[Prometheus 23]

I love the old logo as well with the bird just not the color. Washes out the bird and too hard to see in a icon small format.

 

Yes, I agree, it's a nice logo, but there are many issues with it. Firstly it's like you say, it's hard to see the bird, and the drawing is very detailed, and the whole logo is transparent so it changes appearance quite drastically when pasted on different colour backgrounds. 

 

 

Also, and this is the most important thing, it's not vectorised and cannot be used in printed publications, the available versions are simply too small, and no CMYK version is available to my knowledge. The colour changing thing is actually a cool thing in my mind, but like I said over at the Freicoin community forum, it makes the outcome quite unpredictable.

 

Over at the other forum I also said that -- Freicoin should go for a clean, vectorised brand, made to be reproduced in all sizes and formats and on any medium. I could redraw the blue one to fix all these problems, but the blue logo has quite a few issues as it is, and a complete redesign ground up would not only fix the problems, it would reshape Freicoin's visual identity and be a refreshing soma-refill.

 

Anyway, for now, use the one below, it's the official Kria badge and the typography is from the 3d coin-logo:

 

 

Originals for the badge can be found at ==> https://github.com/freicoin/freicoin/tree/master/share/pixmaps

[Bicknellski 276]

Some of the students at CMS are keen on learning how to design an FRC logo.

 

What free software could we use?

[Prometheus 23]

Some of the students at CMS are keen on learning how to design an FRC logo.

 

What free software could we use?

 

I use Adobe Illustrator CC (for drawing and constructing) and some Adobe Photoshop CC (for pictures, like the balloon pic etc) which is basically the industry standard. Now these apps are quite expensive and Illustrator can be quite hard to learn, but if you are using an old computer, there is supposed to be a free (legacy) version of Adobe Illustrator out there, even the complete CS2 package I believe, but you have to use XP I think, alt. MacOS 8 or 9 to make it work (there is no Linux version). I recommend you download via Adobe.com, it should be available, but you'd might have to register to get to the download. There are a few tutorials and walkthroughs out there that could help setting the kids' creativity in motion

 

Search in Google ==> adobe cs2 free download full version -- and look for an (official) adobe.com link (came up first in my search), you will need an AdobeID (registration is free), which can be useful for other things too, like finding official Adobe tutorials, support and so on. If some of your students manage to crack "the Illustrator code" it may open quite a few doors for a future career within design and advertising etc. It's not impossible. I taught myself these apps back in the 90's and the programs are basically exactly the same, the core is still the same. Even though the CS2 package is nearly 15 years old, it still kicks ass, I could easily have made the logo in Illustrator CS2, or for that matter Illustrator88, the first version released in 1988.

 

Now there are a few Photoshop clones out there, I remember I used a program called Paint.NET for Windows which is actually quite powerful and free, and there is always Gimp, but for drawing? Not much around out there I'm afraid, except for the CS2 package I mentioned, if you can get your hands on it

 

==> http://www.adobe.com/

==> http://www.getpaint.net/

==> http://www.gimp.org/

 

Besides, there is always the old-school methods and techniques, they still work -- You'll come a long way with a straightedge and a pair of compasses and a few pens. It worked quite well for a few millennia until we got computers Illustrator replaced the straightedge and compass, while Photoshop replaced the photo/repro lab, and finally InDesign replaced paste-up, traditional type setting and layout.

 

If you manage to get the CS2 package off of Adobe's webpage, you could set up a few old computers with XP and have Illustrator and Photoshop installed and get a complete industry standard design lab, for free. I am not sure CS2 includes InDesign, but there is a chance it does. InDesign is the main tool for paste-up and layout, putting everything together for printing.

 

Anyway, good luck! I hope this answered your question

[Bicknellski 276]

Ok we will try and set up a "lab" we have the computers available so that we can build this up. 

 

We will let you know how it goes.

[Prometheus 23]

Kool. I think that somewhere in the adobe.com site you can find some tutorials and courses. I'll try to keep my eyes up and give you a nod if I find something you can use.

[Bicknellski 276]

Also it might be interesting if you have time to respond to questions about design from the students as they progress. Thanks Prometheus again I will be sourcing high and low for tutorials and ebooks as well. 

[Prometheus 23]

I'll do my best, but I'm a terrible teacher. But some sort of Q&A could be arranged I suppose. I can't teach them much about design really, I work mostly by intuition, but I suppose I could share some tips and tricks with them to get them going.

 

First thing they will have to learn in Illustrator is to use modifier-keys on the keyboard together with the mouse (in Illustrator you construct with both hands) and get to know the toolbars and learn the most important operations. Then another thing they could do would be to take some pictures of some objects, get them up on the screen and learn tracing. I can thank Disney for much of my Illustrator and designing skills. Disney drawings are great to get a feel with shapes of different kinds. In Illustrator you don't draw as such, you typically draw something traditionally with pen and paper or you take a shot of an object with a camera, then you import these things into Illustrator and you typically simplify and manipulate the shapes put them together in different ways, couple it with some sort of typography to form a logo or an illustration. It's a great and very powerful tool that lets out your creativity if you manage to crack the code. 

[Fabrizio 162]

Good stuff Prometheus

Really like the "multidimensionality" of the bird, though I hafta agree with the few people that think the bird looks a little mean at a first glance

Haha, the shark comment and pic at freicoin forums was hilarious If ye have the time, I'd love to see a version of a little more fatter/rounder head for the bird... and a dolphin body version! 

 

And also! Your way of explaining the topics you discuss is loud and clear, so I'd think you'd do fine teaching some Illustrator use I'd be interested and more than willing to spend some kria for online course if you end up keeping one! 

[Prometheus 23]

Good stuff Prometheus

Really like the "multidimensionality" of the bird, though I hafta agree with the few people that think the bird looks a little mean at a first glance

Haha, the shark comment and pic at freicoin forums was hilarious If ye have the time, I'd love to see a version of a little more fatter/rounder head for the bird... and a dolphin body version! 

 

Thought about the dolphin one actually, I'll keep it in mind, perhaps I'll try a few adjustments to the shape and find the better one. Suppose I could pump up it's head a notch to see what that might look like too. All good stuff   Back to the drawing board. When time is right.

 

And also! Your way of explaining the topics you discuss is loud and clear, so I'd think you'd do fine teaching some Illustrator use   I'd be interested and more than willing to spend some kria for online course if you end up keeping one! 

 

I'm a terrible teacher I'm afraid, but I sort of know Illustrator like the back of my hand, so perhaps one day I could put together a few walk-throughs or something, the basic stuff, the stuff companies charge their clients for, the knowhow. It's a bit like bicycling, once you know the moves, it works by itself if you have any talent for shapes and geometry, typography and drawing, nothing is made by itself. I wouldn't want it to be used for counterfeiting, better looking and more convincing spam or clone jobs, now, would I? That could be hard to explain. But yea, perhaps I could drum up some shiny tutorials or something for the right amount of these coins one day I suppose. I have already thought about that too. I'm not sure I can make it this side of Harmagheddon though

[Fabrizio 162]

A little off-topic, so I'll keep this short.. I was more of thinking/hoping for some "live" teaching sessions Like mentioned, there's many good courses/tutorials online, both free and commercial, but live sessions where the participants could ask questions after or during the class are prettymuch under the rock when you would need them Of course, one could hire a professional for one-to-one sessions, but its often pretty expensive or time consuming to find a proper teacher. And group classes are usually more fun anyways TeamViewer + Mumble sessions or similar... but yeah.. off-topic, so lets discuss this in another thread ^^

Can't wait for the dolphin version! 

[Bicknellski 276]

I am not a terrible teacher. I can certainly help you and have kids focus on basics that can get them started on logo design. 

 

Basic lesson follows:

 

Identify the item you are going to teach.

Demonstrate the item you are teaching.

Have the students identify and practice what you taught.

[Prometheus 23]

A little off-topic, so I'll keep this short.. I was more of thinking/hoping for some "live" teaching sessions Like mentioned, there's many good courses/tutorials online, both free and commercial, but live sessions where the participants could ask questions after or during the class are prettymuch under the rock when you would need them Of course, one could hire a professional for one-to-one sessions, but its often pretty expensive or time consuming to find a proper teacher. And group classes are usually more fun anyways TeamViewer + Mumble sessions or similar... but yeah.. off-topic, so lets discuss this in another thread ^^

Can't wait for the dolphin version! 

 

Hehe, for the videos, we could use the same kind of platform those cam chicks use. Go private sort of thing. I could be an internet hooker and make big money! Wiii But seriously, no, I don't think so. I would have to dedicate myself too much to it, it would absorb too much of my time. Time I can spend reading books and ranting on forums. That and I couldn't possibly afford the hair-extensions and the golden platform shoes I would need for the shots. But it's a good idea that could be done. But I'm just so not a teacher. It would end in a third world war or and ice age or something. But sometimes in the future? Perhaps, if I really need the money or something. And there's a functional model there. Buy a cam-script, pay software gurus coins to set up a web camera solution and talk the horse. Close up.

[Prometheus 23]

I am not a terrible teacher. I can certainly help you and have kids focus on basics that can get them started on logo design. 

 

Basic lesson follows:

 

Identify the item you are going to teach.

Demonstrate the item you are teaching.

Have the students identify and practice what you taught.

 

I couldn't possibly teach them anything you couldn't find out by googling graphic design on the net. I am probably the typical worst case scenario in any teaching situation. That was also the main reason I quit the university, when I realised that the only few jobs I could get after finishing my degree would be in teaching. I can't stand teaching. Used to be a drum teacher. Turned my hair grey. Then blue. And then normal again. 

 

Like I said, a Q & A of some sort could be arranged I suppose. 

[Bicknellski 276]

Correct.

 

But providing the focus on what is required first is the key for them to get started. And you can then have them self educate.

 

That is how it works in a Montessori classroom. The teacher is merely a guide and observer. You support their learning by being their to support their path through the curriculum.

[Prometheus 23]

Correct.

 

But providing the focus on what is required first is the key for them to get started. And you can then have them self educate.

 

That is how it works in a Montessori classroom. The teacher is merely a guide and observer. You support their learning by being their to support their path through the curriculum.

 

Again, and talking of curriculum, I am not the man you seek. I'd end up destroying their little minds. I'm serious. I'll try and put together a quick reference sheet or something and keep them in mind in the future and who knows, I may put together other things too. And if I find a format that works, who knows, I could make a design book for kids of it or something and try to have it published. Which could be a good idea. But it's also highly likely it ends up somewhere in the pile I have of other half finished projects, manuscripts and the odd synopsis for something revolutionary, I have stacked up. I really wish I could be able to help, but I'm not your man here. Just take my word for it. I'd end up teaching them how to make a DIY atomic bomb or something. It's actually quite simple if you got a few pounds of uranium and some TNT lying around

[Bicknellski 276]

Whatever floats your boat I was merely trying to give you the benefit of the 15 plus years where my struggles as an educator led me to situation in my career that has finally allowed me to ability to have students educate themselves with guidance. In real terms it has given me a methodology and the importance of always providing the best environment possible for learning. Note: Effective and efficient teaching / mentoring whatever you want to call it requires or demands prepared environments and methods. Even when you remove the teacher from the equation you still need to help the novice learner with a system of knowledge arranged so that they can achieve something other than confusion.

 

Good luck. Thanks for the suggestions.