Logo and Stationary Project

For my graphic design class these last few weeks, we've been working on developing our own logo and stationary set for a potential business we might want to start. The project included the logo, a business card, a letterhead, and an envelope, and we thought through the colors, fonts, and design elements that we wanted to use.

Here's a look behind my project with my process and the purpose of each element.

As a fine artist, I work with a range of media, from graphite to paint to pastels, to create many different subjects. A few of my favorite subjects are portraits, landscapes, and still lifes, and I enjoy being able to capture an image realistically and add an artistic touch to it. So in order to spread my artwork, I have created a logo and stationary set, consisting of a business card, a letterhead, and an envelope.

I started with my logo, using my initials, L and C. I went with a cursive script because it reflects beauty and creativity well, which are both important aspects of art to me. For this cursive look, I connected the letters with the loop. With my logo developed, I decided on the color palette and fonts for the rest of the stationary set. With the colors, I wanted to create a calm and friendly look. I avoided warm colors since they seem outgoing, unlike me. I ended up choosing tones of a blue-green color, with the pink lightening it up and making it a bit friendlier. This worked out well as blues, greens, pinks, and purples are also my favorite colors. When it came to fonts, I wanted something simple, especially to provide a contrast with my cursive logo. I settled on Calibri, using Calibri Light for the subtitles and body of the text, and Calibri Bold for the words I wanted to emphasize. This font is simple, easy to read, and provides many options for contrast, such as regular, bold, and italicized. With these basic designs decided on, I moved on to the business card.

I really liked the look of my logo in just black and white, but I needed something to make it pop. For this, I put a dark blue-green background behind the logo for contrast. While I like the pink, I like it in small amounts, so I decided to run it along the edges of the business card. I mirrored this outlined effect on the back, and put a strip of the dark blue-green for consistency. The diagonal line on the front of the business card fit well, since the logo seems to slant in that direction, and so it contains the logo well. Originally, the blue strip that the website is on was a ribbon design, but I decided that it looked better and more professional as a rounded rectangle. After designing the business cards, I had a better idea of what design elements I would be using for my next piece, the letterhead.

I wanted to provide lots of white space and keep it a clean, simple design. I started with my logo at the top left where it seemed to fit best. Then I used the same dark blue-green strip and the light blue strip with the website on it, and I put these on the bottom to match the business card. I wanted some color to separate my information from the white space, so I used the light blue at the top. Rather than a pink border all the way around, I only put it across the top and bottom, transitioning from the blues to the white space. I also liked the look of the logo overlapping the top strips of color, creating a sort of “step” and a separate white space where titles or extra information can be written.

And finally, I worked on the envelope. I used the same logo and “step” design, placing my information directly to the right of it to keep the rest of the envelope white and clean. And just like the business card, I wrapped the pink around the edges of the envelope.

So here, all together, is my stationary set and logo for my work as a fine artist. Throughout the set, I worked to ensure consistency, with the pink borders, the website-box, and the logo on top of the diagonal shape. I also kept each of my pieces neat, clean, and simple, as it reflects my calm personality and orderliness. Lastly, I made sure they all reflected the logo in the appearance of creativity and beauty.

I look forward to sharing more of my artwork with you!