Last year I was asked to create a logo for In4systems, a company that creates property management software. This software is used by companies who need to manage large portfolios of properties, such as landlords and housing associations. I started by asking a few questions about their requirements and enquired about their competitors. Their brief was fairly open so I started by taking a look around at what their competitors were doing. The next stage was to start sketching. Whenever I am designing a logo I always spend a considerable amount of time sketching, it allows me to quickly try out different ideas to see what shapes and designs are like likely to work. Below are a few of my sketches which I scanned in ready for the next stage.
These sketches are very rough but they were never intended to be seen by the client they are purely a tool for me to work out my ideas. Within the sketches I thought it would be a good idea to include a descriptor/strap line in these which would give a more immediate sense of what the company does and worked this into the designs.
The next step was to start working up some of the logo design sketches on the computer. Using Adobe illustrator I used the scanned sketches as a guide and started designing the logos in black and white, choosing what I felt were appropriate fonts. Working in black and white enabled me to concentrate on shapes and type rather than be distracted by colours.
Some of these I felt were working and some weren’t so I took my preferred options and started deciding on colours.
I showed these to he client and they chose their preferred option and requested some changes to colours and the addition of shapes that represented windows. The chosen design was then worked up into stationery designs for letter heads and business cards which you can see below.
译文:
图标的设计:从起草到终稿
去年我曾为一家名为In4systems的英国计算机公司设计图标，该公司编写的这款用于资产管理的软件，主要是针对诸如地产商和房屋租赁商们，这些需要处理大量资产且业务量很大的公司而量身定做的．起先，我询问了该公司的具体要求以及其竞争对手的情况，于是便开始着手起草．每每我设计图标总是会花大量的时间在起草上，因为这能让我很快的尝试各种不同的想法并看下哪些形状和设计更合意．而浏览那些草图的同时无疑也是为下一步做准备．
这些草图非常粗略，所以我从没想过把它们拿给客户去看，它们只是让我把想法落实在笔头的一种方法．有了这些草图我才会想到加个注释的横条进图标里，让观者对该公司的主营范围有个直观的印象，也是个不错的主意，当然之后我也是如是做的．
下步就是把这些纸上的图标设计草图搬到电脑里去．在Adobe绘图工具软件的帮助下，我以先前的那些草图为蓝本，在电脑上开始绘制这些黑白相间的图标并选用那些我觉得适合的字体．用黑白来绘图能让我更专注于图标的形和款，而不被缤纷的色彩所分心．
有些草图有用有些草图没用，所以我选出那些我比较喜欢的，然后开始着色。
我把这些小样给客户们看，由他们选出他们更喜欢的，根据他们的意见，对颜色进行了些许改动，并增加了一直代表窗户的小点。而那被选出来的小样，就变成了下面你所能看到的出现在信件的添头和商务信函中的文具图标了。