Logo Assignment

Astute Outfitters 

For my logo I used a cat to represent my company and myself. The cat represents intelligence, quickness, order, and reserve; all good traits of a person in the workforce or cyberarts program and their company. I made sure to capture the essence of a cat with it being in the classic curious position of it sitting and intensely eyeing the viewer to convey those traits I mentioned earlier. I made the image so it wasn't too complicated in design but not too simple so the image would be aesthetically pleasing, making it a satisfying image to look at.
For the elements and principles I used the most typical colours/shades to make the logo as recognizable as a cat as I could. Usually when people imagine a cat they see it as black, which also is a good portrayer of intelligence and quickness. I used white for the whiskers, tuxedo triangle on the chest, and body features to prevent too much confusion of colours. I also used pink for the inside of the ears and the nose because those are the most typical colours you will see on those parts of a cat.
I concentrated the most features of the cat on the face to emphasize it and draw your eyes towards it, making you look the cat straight in the eyes and feeling respect towards it because of its fearlessness and grace. I made the edges of the insides of the ears, nose, eyes, tuxedo triangle, and body outline all rounded not only to make the image more realistic but also less intimidating. This is because subconsciously sharp lines have a more intimidating effect on your eyes.
I also made the image as clean as possible, meaning there are no out of place lines, random markings or poor use of symmetry. This helps convey the trait of a cat being orderly and clean.
To create this picture I took a good image of a cat that had a distinctive shape that could be recognized as the animal it is. I then traced the shape of the figure with the pen tool so I had the base layer I could place the other shapes on. Next I did the eyes, the second most important feature in the logo. I created an ellipse shape, filled it with yellow, copied and pasted it, and placed it symmetrically next to the other. This created a pair of eyes both perfectly the same and in line. I added the pupils to fill in the eyes and make them less open and intimidating. The next layer is the nose, mouth and whiskers. I created an ellipse shape and used the mesh tool to form it into the shape of a cat's nose and used that to work off of to create the rest of the features. I created a line segment and then used multiple copies of the same one and placed them symmetrically around the nose to create the whiskers. After that I used the arc tool to create a simple design of the mouth, completing the facial features. The next layer is the tuxedo triangle. For that I made another ellipse shape and used the mesh tool again to make the shape more organic like on a real cat. The final layer is the lines defining the arms, paws, and tail. This adds balance to the logo so there isn't an empty space at the bottom of it. I made sure not to get too detailed so if the picture is minimized the features won't completely disappear.
Overall I am satisfied with my logo, although I see some small things I could have improved. For example I could have made the outline of the cat less awkward and chunky so it was smoother and more graceful like a cat. Otherwise I am happy with this piece and don't want to change it otherwise.