Tanya Sokolovskaya's blog: posts tagged Process

Designing label cover artwork series using AI: my step-by-step experience

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 10:14:06 +0100

In this blog post, I’ll share my experience using AI image generators to create release cover artwork for JOOF Recordings, a UK record label run by John 00 Fleming. I was approached by a JOOF manager with the task of creating a new artwork design by continuing the theme of the current covers. Unlike using dramatic changes and coming up with something entirely different, the challenge was to provide a fresh look while maintaining the previous style. The initial covers were hand-drawn by an illustrator, which was time-consuming and expensive. So, I proposed using AI as a cost-effective and quicker alternative.

Cover artwork references

I compared three AI image generators: Midjourney, Leonardo, and DALL·E. I chose Midjourney for its alignment with my project needs.

For those of you not familiar with Midjourney, let me quickly explain what it is. In a nutshell, Midjourney is a chatbot hosted on Discord servers, and you can operate it using chat commands called “prompts”. One of such prompts, for example, is “/imagine”, which makes Midjourney create an image based on the input parameters.

The process started with me uploading the original covers as references into Midjourney. My first attempt involved simply generating similar images. However, the results were far from what I expected:

I began with the original prompts but soon realized that a white background would make my task easier. The results, however, turned out quite different from the initial step:

I asked the bot to describe one of the original covers and generated images based on those descriptions:

The results varied widely:

I uploaded another cover for description and generated images with the new prompts:

But again, the outcomes were not as expected:

And I repeated the process with a third cover:

But the results still missed the mark:

Then I returned to the first prompt but excluded the colour pink and added “charcoal drawing” to the prompt, followed by “charcoal style, minimal, no faces, girl, man”:

I also tried “charcoal style, minimal, flat,” which brought back faces:

So I added “no faces” again:

And I included words like “silhouettes” and “abstract” in the prompt:

However, the silhouettes became too human-like, so I added “alien flat silhouette”:

Changing the order of words in the prompt influences the results: “charcoal style, minimal, alien flat silhouette, no faces” → “minimal, charcoal, abstract, alien flat silhouettes, no faces”. And the results are getting closer and closer to the desired ones:

I switched from “flat” to “blurred”:

And continued to tweak the prompt, which now looks like “link_image_1 link_image_2 link_image_3 link_image_4 minimalist, charcoal, abstract, alien blurred silhouette, flat, no faces”. Here are some of the covers in the links. I added the image weight parameter to the prompt to make the covers have more influence on the result and I got this:

I adjusted the influence of the original covers in the prompt and experimented with different parameters like “weird” with values of 2000 and 3000:

And added words like “dust” and “scratches”:

I replaced “alien” with “ghost” and generated more variants with the latest prompt:

Also I introduced the “chaos” parameter with varying values, leading to a range of intriguing images:

Some images caught my attention, so I generated variations and added “no faces, hands, legs” to the prompt:

Then I upscaled the most suitable images for further work:

The images I selected from the generation process for further work

Finally, I took these generated images into Photoshop to unify their style and appearance. The end result was a series of unique and stylistically consistent album covers, all created with the aid of AI technology:

The client at JOOF loved the result so much so then they asked me to make a refresh artwork for their sub-label too called JOOF Aura.

Cover artwork references

With these design I went through pretty much the same process, so let fast-forward you to the final result:

My opinion about AI is that the future lies in this technology. However, it’s important to note that it’s not as simple as generating designs with a single click. It involves a substantial amount of work. Even for this artwork, it took me many hours across multiple days to control the visual output guided by my vision, master the prompts and get the result done right. Which is surely faster if I were drawing this by hand, but still not as easy as it might seem when someone hears the words “AI” being involved.

I believe that designers who master this technology will undoubtedly have an edge in the future. AI doesn’t just replace hours of manual labour; it becomes an invaluable tool in a designer’s arsenal. The era of relying solely on Photoshop is evolving into one where AI complements Photoshop.

Nevertheless, it’s crucial to understand that professional skills are still required to effectively use these tools. A manager, for instance, can’t just generate the needed images without a background in design and a trained eye. The role of the designer is not diminished but enhanced, requiring a blend of artistic sense and technical know-how to harness the full potential of AI in creative design.

Created the logo for the ISONscope space project

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 22:50:00 +0100

ISONscope is a joint project of the United Nations for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The project’s name comes from the acronym ISON (International Scientific Optical Network) and the word telescope. ISON is an existing initiative of the Institute’s staff to observe near-Earth space.

ISONscope will provide small telescopes and associated equipment on a competitive basis to scientific or educational institutions in developing countries. This will enable them to observe satellites and space debris in high Earth orbits, as well as asteroids and comets.

We have a very tight deadline — we have three weeks to do everything, so we must hit the mark the first time. The logo should be the face of ISONscope, part of the UNOOSA Access to Space for All initiative Access to Space for All initiative.

As usual, I started the work with questions. The project team explained everything to me in great detail. The logo must have a telescope, a name and objects that can be observed through the telescope. They need a so-called logo emblem. They also sent me pictures of the telescopes themselves:

I take up a pencil and sketch. The task is quite narrow, so I don’t experiment too much but try to incorporate the necessary elements from the discussion with the client. This is what came out:

I made a video of sketching for the logo: take a look on YouTube.

I also sketched the telescope itself, but in a vector:

I immediately knew the logo’s shape: I decided to make it in a circle and combine the letter I and the telescope into one element. At this stage, I took a ready-made IBM font:

Now I had to sketch additional objects that would be present in the logo – an asteroid, space debris and a satellite. I wanted to draw a complete picture of the Sun and the Earth to make it clearer:

The dotted lines are the orbits of the asteroid and satellite, and in green, I have highlighted the area that will go into the logo

Putting together a logo. Additional signatures need to be placed around the circle: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics. Here’s what I’ve got:

I like the result, so I continue working and painting the letters:

Here’s what came out when combining the telescope with the new letter I:

Updating the logo and changing the layout of the circular text:

I try the result on a mock-up and send it to the client:

Looking at the logo in colour and without the caption

Testing the reverse logo on the media:

I got an answer — they like the logo, but they wanted to make the satellite more obvious, darken the colour and perhaps add a signal from the satellite.

Trying different shapes of satellites, moving elements slightly and adding a signal (it looks like a wifi icon), also updating the colour:

The signal is definitely not needed — too much detail. I chose a satellite with solar panels in the shape of paddles and sent it to the client again:

The logo is approved!

While we were working, UNOOSA presented the logo for the Access to Space for All initiative:

It turns out our logos are pretty similar, which was nice :-)

UNOOSA soon sent us their brand book, and we updated the circular signature font and colour to match their style more.

We replaced the font with Avenir. The colour is a bit harder, we liked our deep blue, and it wasn’t there. We looked at a few colour options:

We decided on purple as the closest thing to our blue.

The logo is ready!

The competition starts on 27 January, and the results will not be announced until October. I’ll keep an eye out :-)

I was extremely excited to work on the project. Space is my love!

Wearing the solar system on my back

How I created a stylist’s logo

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 19:18:00 +0100

Natasha came to me with the task of designing a personal logo. She tailors her clients’ style of clothing and plans entire dressing rooms. There is more to her work than just changing clothes. Each client changes from the inside out and works through specific challenges and fears through the image. One day I would like to see such a specialist too :-)

I started the job with a conversation, of course. Natasha talked about herself, her work, her values, her plans and wishes, and the process began.

When working on a personal logo, it’s difficult to get an idea right the first time; it depends a lot on the client’s inner feelings. That’s why, more often than not, the first choice is like a finger in the sky. In this case, I took as my image the first association with a wardrobe — a coat rack.

Google showed me dozens of hangers-on and logos with them:

I noticed that the hangers were all at the same angle. Then I found a photo like this:

That’s the angle I decided to work with.

I also made up the initials (Natasha Miagkova)

I’ve made a video of sketching the logo: Watch this on YouTube.

I drew one hanger:

Put the three together in a row as if they were hanging on a bar but didn’t like the way they stuck together:

Separated the hangers:

I’m trying different variations — with a bar, thinner, thicker, reflected on the left, on slats:

None of this hooks me

Drawing a hanger with parallel lines:

Putting together three hangers on a bar:

I also saw this connection:

At the same time, I’m considering a couple of options with initials, but I don’t like them:

I go back to the hangers and assemble the logo with different fonts:

I choose the middle option and put together a presentation:

I get comments from Natasha — the image doesn’t fit and seems harsh. Natasha also asks for a font where all the letters “A” would be without a horizontal stroke. I show her:

There were too many “roofs”, so I rejected it, and Natalia agreed

Natasha is the type of client I love the most! She is involved in the process and works with me while subtly respecting the boundaries while remaining precisely a client :-)

We discuss where we are going next. Natasha is also active, which helps the process a lot. She has found images and logo options that she likes in some way, and we have identified three types of logos that we will try to make:

A variant with handwritten initials or last name.
A logo with a monogram sign.
A variant with a sign consisting of two images — a lotus and a corset. The lotus image she likes and the corset is an attributes of a woman’s wardrobe.

I decided to start with options two and three, but first, I google what monograms already exist. There are, of course, a great many of them:

Sketched out a new batch of sketches:

Drawing a monogram and a lotus corset in a vector:

In the monogram, it’s as if the letter n is standing, and its “foot” is reflected in the mirror, and that’s how m is formed (what a twist!)

And there are three images hidden in the lotus:

These options don’t work for us because the lotus has a different association than we need, and there’s probably already a monogram like that somewhere :-) I decide to show the options to the client but not to use them:

Parallel drawing of a variant with initials in the lines, but rejected:

I finally got around to the handwritten options. Found a font for an example:

I’m trying to combine it with the name:

I want M to complement the first letter A in the name, drawing my M:

I’ll leave this one for now and proceed with the handwritten initials:

This is the logo

In the process, a different version in the shape of a circle was formed:

I just deformed the letters for now, but you can’t do that in the finishing work :-)

I compile the options into a presentation and show them to the client:

Natalia asks to see the first version with a sans-serif font. I show her:

I liked the version with the additional circle-shaped sign better. I am continuing to work on it.

At this stage, I draw the letters:

I add the accent, the diacritical mark and the descriptor to the surname. The diacritical mark is taken from the Ukrainian language — Ї, Natasha lives and works in Kyiv. Looking at different positions:

Trying to insert the font part in the initials:

I’m also looking at framed options:

I decided to flatten the handwritten part a bit:

Drawing letters for the descriptor:

Putting together a version of the logo in a round shape:

But that’s not the end :-)

I decided to add “life” to the initials by imitating writing with a nib, as the lines flow from thin to thicker and then back to thin again:

I like it much better that way:

Transforming the handwritten part a bit:

Looking at the logo in different forms:

Putting together a presentation. I tell the client that I have decided to revive the thin line in the handwritten part and imitate writing with a nib. This way, the sign looks more confident, and we can continue to work with it. I present all the options for clarity:

Natalia decided on a version where the handwritten part is linked to the typographic part:

However, after living with this variation for a couple of days, we saw that the vertical line with the tail, which divides the typographic part in half, was too massive and took on a lot of emphases. I went ahead and made three new variants of this ponytail:

Stop at the first option and see it in colour:

Changing the letters in the descriptor from lowercase to uppercase so the logo is more harmonious:

Trying on an additional round version of the logo with the modified handwritten part, but it doesn’t fit:

Leaving it as it was

Done. Natasha accepts the job! The final result is the basic logo, the other round version and the version without the descriptor:

Final versions of the logo

How I made the logo for the promo brand Rave People

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 19:13:10 +0100

Rave People is a Moscow promo brand. Makes underground raves in chamber format. Main directions: Progressive House, Underground Trance and Techno.

They need a logo from the sign and text part. Proceeding to sketches:

First sketches

The bottom right is a simplified AV of the word “RAVE”. It reminds me of a warning ribbon, so I decided to stick with it for now. Sketched some more ideas at the same time:

This is what the warning tape looks like

Figuring out the rest of the letters:

Typing “People” in the finished font to see the logo as a whole:

Discussed the sketch with a representative of the promotional group and decided that we needed something different for the sign, separate from the text part of the logo. This is how the “RP” sign came to be:

But there are a lot of similar combinations of the letters “R” and “P”, we need to make the sign unique. Then I remembered about the smiley — the symbol of acid-house, and saw it inside the sign:

I try different variants

I settled on this one:

More smiley ideas:

Looking at how the sign and text part go together:

Working on “People”:

Putting the two words together:

Got feedback from the promo team that a similar idea has been used before:

Z Festival logo

Finalising the Rave:

The top part of the “R” seems too thin to me, so I’m revising it:

I also decided to reduce intra-letter space:

Comparing:

Result:

Trying on the logo for a social media avatar:

Work accepted!

Logo in life – on the website raveppl.ru

Photo © Psyler Room

Photo © Pavel Tzimisce

Photo © Schneider Family

The new logo for Katya Keshchyan’s Wedding House

Sat, 11 May 2019 20:36:00 +0100

Task
To do a small rebranding: update the logo and colour scheme.

Old logo

Wreath with Katya Keshchyan’s logotype.

Until today, the agency’s logo was a drawn character in a flower arch (Katya herself was drawn by a commissioned artist, I don’t know her name). But the House of Weddings is growing, and with the growth, we needed a real logo. The text part came from the Duck House. We decided to keep it for now but supplement it with a graphic sign. We also decided to redesign the arch, to make the colours less saturated and to get rid of the wreath.

Started with an abbreviation

First, I try to make a wreath out of the letters “ДС”. I got this sketch:

I sent it to Katya and got the go-ahead to develop the idea. I sketched flowers and leaves from the wreath and attached them to the “ДС”:

Katya didn’t like the tail on “Д”. I try adding another flower and the ring the character is holding:

In response, I got a picture from the film Avatar :-) Katya says that the tail looks very much like the tail of the Na’vi creatures.

Na’vi

I decide to move away from the wreath and try the ring shape.

The abbreviation “ДС” fits perfectly in the circle

I remove the flowers and add a diamond from the character illustration:

Katya likes the ring a lot. See the sign for an example on the website:

In this form, the “ДС” wreath blends with the text part better than the “ДС” ring.

I go back to the first version and add detail to the “Д” tail so it doesn’t conjure up a Na’vi tail. Here we go:

In parallel, I try to connect the “ДС” ring with the text part in some other way and find a great option:

Katya likes it. We decide to settle on this logo variant. Finalising the diamond itself:

In the process, I tried adding the diamond feet, but they seemed superfluous

Working on the arch and the character

At the same time, I was working on the arch. The main task was to get rid of the bubbles. So first, I cleaned them up, and in their place, I added vegetation:

After — Before

Thought of a variant with dark red on the character and in the colours of the arch:

It was abandoned at once

I’m trying to reduce the arch a bit and make it thinner. For this purpose, I removed bubbles and vegetation and reduced the flowers themselves:

By this point, Katya decides to move away from the arch altogether for now and leave it as is.

Adjusting colour saturation in images. Before — After:

Putting together a guideline

Made a new Daniel Lesden logo

Sat, 13 Jan 2018 21:55:00 +0100

Task
To refresh the logo while maintaining its recognisability.

This is what the old logo looked like. The work was done by Serbian designer Nebojsa Nadj in 2012

The main element of the logo is the DL abbreviation combined into a single sign. This sign is responsible for recognisability, so it should be preserved.

The logo is often used on posters, flyers, album covers and other materials full of colour and elements. That’s why I decided to use only capital letters. Then the logo will be well read. I choose a font that suits the “D” as much as possible:

There is a second letter “D” in the name. I immediately try to insert a sign in its place while cutting the serif tail:

Right now, the “D” is too wide compared to the other letters. Correcting this:

I also softened the ponytail and made it a little shorter:

Looking at the result:

Experimenting with letter spaces:

Adding ligature and spaces to other letters:

I’m putting together a vertical version:

The words do not match in width — bad. I add horizontal strokes to the letter “I” and lengthen the horizontal stroke “L”:

I don’t like it that way. I am expanding the letter “A”.

I align the spaces in the letters and take the “E” with a tail, as without it, a hole is formed between the “LE”:

A wide “A” solved the alignment problem

The horizontal version looks great too

I colour the logo in the company orange colour and sent it to the client:

Work accepted :-)

Process: logo of make-up artist Anna Rotar

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 13:05:36 +0100

Anna Rotar is a makeup artist and hair stylist in Odessa. I designed a logo and business card for Anna.

Together with Anna, we decided that the handwritten version is closer to her character. That’s what we started from.

I sketched the variants:

I converted some of them into vectors and chose the least “curly” one:

I look at the media:

I don’t like that all the letters are handwritten, but I like the shapes of the letters A and R. I decided to keep them and type the rest:

The logo has become more serious, just right for the sound of the surname. Try pronouncing Rotar. It growls and sounds hard, but at the same time, the soft sign softens the growl. I keep working. I want to connect the horizontal stroke A and semi-oval R and turn the serifs nn into tails, like the letter a. I’m trying it, let’s see:

Yes. That’s how we got integrity. I connect the logo with Anna’s activity: the letter A fulfils the role of a pencil with a trace from it:

I show the client a preliminary version:

Photo from the web for an example

I got approval — Anna likes the logo. I work further. I lighten the bold lines A and R, slightly shorten the vertical stroke R and remove the tail of the letter A.

The stage of letter drawing has come. I mark the main problems that need to be corrected:

Aligning parallels, bringing all similar semicircular tails to the same size:

Correcting the arc from R to the leg:

Looking in black:

I don’t like the junction of the half-oval of R and its leg:

Correcting:

Now it’s the turn of the pencil mark. Softening it:

Looking in the logo:

I’m also correcting it so that it doesn’t protrude too much above the letter A:

Looking at:

I make a variant of the logo from the initials:

Done! I’m going to start with business cards. For them, I refined the pencil trace:

The silhouette of a face appears inside.

I reflect the silhouette vertically:

I put the business card layout together and send it to the client:

Anna accepts the job.

How I design and layout the book

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 22:44:05 +0100

А тут электронная версия книги

Introducing my first book publication! I am very happy that I had the chance to discover this new direction in design. Working on the design of the book was not easy, but interesting. Here I will show you the process of work and all the behind-the-scenes details.

The task: to layout, design and help publish a fiction book by Israeli author and psychologist Lea Wedensky. The book is called “Of Life, Death and Love”.

From the conversation with the author, I learnt that the book will be bilingual — in Russian and in Hebrew, and according to the idea the text should be divided into two columns. Therefore, for greater convenience, I chose a square format for the book.

The stories were illustrated by artist Masha Roitman. The illustrations are stunning and lively, made in graphic style with pencil on paper:

Almost immediately I had an image of a book with an association on the theme of life and death — a white-coloured cover with dark margins.

Sketch of the cover. The Hebrew text is a rough Google translation of the Russian-language title

At this point, I put the cover aside and proceeded to the book block. Here things turned out to be a bit more complicated. Hebrew is a right-handed writing, so the book opens from left to right. It means that Russian texts will be read backwards, which is not quite convenient.

The first version of the book page was like this:

It didn’t seem bad. But the more I got into the book design, the more I realised the unfitness of the first version. In addition, in the process there was a conflict with the illustrations — they are both horizontal and vertical. If you limit them to the typing strip, you get large margins that are disharmonious with the text block. I decided to place the illustrations “under the crop”, but this worked for the vertical illustrations, the horizontal ones continued to “cut the eye”.

Vertical illustration

Horizontal illustration

At this stage, the author refused to combine Hebrew and Russian in one book — it was the best solution.

I went ahead and removed the Hebrew-language text. Now the text blocks seem too massive and the lines too long. It is uncomfortable to read such text, your eyes get tired quickly. The font size cannot be increased, it is already large enough.

I’m thinking of a solution:
— Since we no longer require a two-column layout, there’s no longer a need to stick to the square format. Why not change it?

Taking into account that all the illustrations are drawn on A4 paper, I chose the proportional format — A5 — for full harmony.

When working on the square version I relied only on my aesthetic taste, but with the A5 format I had difficulties. In my search for a harmonious proportion of strip sets, I discovered Jan Tschichold and his “The Form of the Book” — a delightful “textbook” about book layout and design.

Following the Van de Graaf’s canon, the strip set began to look like this:

The illustrations also fit into the strip of the set. At the same time, I made up the cover to fit the new format

Van de Graaf canon of page construction

Harmony for text blocks and illustrations has been found. There was no need for a large font, so for ease of reading, I reduced it from 12 to 11 pt, now a line holds an average of 5–7 words.

I chose two fonts for the text: Newton for the main text (combines high readability and features of old-style fonts, under the eternal themes touched upon in the narrative) and Jakob for the headings (handwritten font, perfectly harmonises with the graphic illustrations).

Working on the text, I also followed Tschichold’s recommendations.

I centred the headline, typed it in capitals with a small spacing of letters, and separated it from the main text with an indent. Therefore, the first paragraph is not indented to the left:

The wide margins allowed for greater leading spacing, which added air and harmony to the typographic plane. In addition, I was able to keep the typing strip intact and place all the footnotes in the margins:

13.jpg.

To visually equalise the border of the text block, I partially moved the punctuation marks beyond it:

Wrong

Correct

When punctuation marks are inside the block, geometrically the border is flat, but visually it is floating and curved. If the signs are partially taken out, then visually the border is levelled and looks nicer. For clarity:

5.gif.

Separately I would like to talk about “hanging” prepositions. It is correct to move them together with the related word to a new line, but I often encounter neglect of this rule. Most likely this is due to unwillingness to transfer them manually or not knowing how to automate this process. That’s why below I’ve described how to do it in InDesign.

Removing “hanging” prepositions in InDesign

Open the document and create a Character Style with the only setting “No Break”, and give it the same name:

Next, create a Paragraph Style for the main text and go to the GREP Style tab. There we click the “New GREP Style” button and in the drop-down list “Apply Style” choose our previously created “No Break”:

In the “To Text” field, type all prepositions:
(?<= )((в|‬на|‬под|‬с|‬со|‬во|‬без|‬то|‬ли|‬бы|‬или|‬да|‬но|‬что|‬а|‬и|‬у|‬уж|‬так|‬как|‬для|‬перед|‬через|над|‬‬при|‬по|‬до|‬от|‬о|‬об|‬‬про|‬к|‬ко|‬не|‬за|‬из|‬ни|‬нас|‬я|‬он|‬она|‬оно|‬они|‬мы|‬ее|‬её|‬его|‬вас|‬ты|‬вы‬|‬все|‬всё)( |\. |, ))+

Next, create a new GREP Style by analogy with the first one, but for capitalised prepositions:
((?<= )|(?<=^))((В|‬На|‬Под|С|‬Со|‬Во|‬Без|‬То|‬Ли|‬Бы|‬Или|Да|‬Но|‬Что|‬А|‬И|‬У|‬Уж|‬Так|‬Как|Для|‬Перед|‬Через|Над|‬‬При|‬По|‬До|‬От|‬О|‬Об|‬‬Про|‬К|‬Ко|‬Не|За|Из|‬Ни|‬Нас|‬Я|‬Он|Она|‬Оно|‬Они|‬Мы|‬Ее|‬Её|‬Его|‬Вас|‬Ты|‬Вы‭|‬Все|‬Всё) )+

To make it clear:

The condition (?<= ) means: only if there is a space before the preposition;
(?<=^) means: only if the preposition is at the beginning of the paragraph;
(‬в|‬на|‬под|‬с|‬со|‬во‭|...|‬вы‬|‬все|‬всё) — a list of all prepositions, pronouns and conjunctions that should not be left at the end of a line;
( |\. |, ) — signs after prepositions: space, dot+space, comma+space. The \ symbol indicates that the dot after it is treated as a dot, not as a GREP metacharacter);
+ indicates that the condition also applies to consecutive prepositions, pronouns and conjunctions, e. g. “but we thought it was interesting”.

Read more about GREP metacharacters and principles of operation in the GREP manual.

Result of work:

Book cover

Illustration style front endpaper

The title page is typed in the shape of a cup and inscribed within the frames of the set band

Horizontal illustrations, unlike vertical illustrations, are located directly in the text

There are footnotes in the book. To avoid disturbing the text, I have placed them in the wide margins rather than below the text

The book is divided into five parts, with the beginning of each part decorated with an illustration-style frame and handwritten text

A book in life

Project members

Designer
Tanya Sokolovskaya

Author
Lea Wedensky

Illustrator
Masha Roitman

Literary editor
Gulnara Sabrekova

Updating daniellesden.com

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 22:17:35 +0100

Task
Adapt the site to any screens.
www.daniellesden.com

Last November the third version of musician and DJ Daniel Lasden’s website was released. It was a big update, in which my team and I overhauled the structure and updated the style of all the pages on the site.

First version
Second version
Third version
Adaptive version

Still, the site had a drawback: its size was fixed, so mobile phone and tablet users could not enjoy it to the fullest. This feature had to be sacrificed for a while to launch the site on time.

Today I’m pleased to present an update of the site specifically for mobile users. Now the site smoothly adapts to any screen: phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.

Separately, I would like to tell you about the innovations in the “Tips” section. Listeners and site visitors send the author questions on DJing, music writing and other music industry issues, and he shares his experience — that’s how the advice section works.

Initially, the design of the section was in the form of a news feed — new tips appeared at the top, and old ones went down. Everything seemed logical. But the fact is that the author writes useful articles that do not lose relevance even a year later — it is pleasant to return to them again and again. And new users may not have seen some previously published articles, because they went far down.

The original design of the section as a timeline

At first, we thought to make a search on the page, but this solution didn’t fit — often new users don’t know what to look for yet, so they need help.

We split all tips by topics: music writing, DJing, management, marketing, and business.

But on what principle to display tips — alphabetically, by date? And the most important thing — will it help new users? And will not harm the regular readers? The direction with grouping seems right to us, but we continue to think over the implementation.

Thinking:

— What if in the groupings by topic, not all tips are displayed, but only the important ones at the author’s discretion? And show them in a beautiful magazine layout with large pictures?

— And how does that help?

— Very simple: this is how we help new users to orientate themselves in the rubric. Instead of flipping through dozens, and soon hundreds, of tips, it’s as if we’re saying “Here, start reading with this one”. The articles themselves are tagged and linked inside so that if the user likes it, he will go on reading.

— Where will the rest of the articles live besides these important ones?

— All other tips will be at the bottom of the feed, no change with this one.

— So regular readers will have to scroll down to this feed every time to see if new tips have come out??

— No: at the very top we will show some new tips first, this will be convenient for both new and regular readers. Next will be useful articles by topic, and even further on will be feeds of all the other tips.

Sounds great. Let’s get to it:

Assemble a mock-up of the proposed idea

Watching, evaluating and continuing to reason:

— Good overall, but the right-most element in these blocks is confusing — it feels like the large headline refers to it, not the large illustration.

— How about we solve this with a loading animation? The three lower tips in the blocks will appear a little later, helping to set the visual emphasis.

— How’s that??

— It’s like this:

The pod load animation helps to set the focus of attention

This decision is what went into the final version of the site.

Project members

Lead designer
Tanya Sokolovskaya

Designer and layout
Daniel Sokolovskiy

Developer
Maxim Silnov

The process of creating a logo for the music project JOOF

Thu, 14 Jan 2016 20:40:01 +0100

JOOF Live is a new music project by British artist John ‘00’ Fleming.

John Fleming is an electronic music pioneer, DJ, producer, radio host and label owner of JOOF Recordings. In a career spanning over twenty years, John has reached unimaginable heights and is widely recognised as an engine of progress and one of the most respected artists in the underground music scene.

In the “JOOF Live” project John emphasises live performances that will unlock his potential as a musician and bring a new sound.

The logo of the “JOOF Live” project should be different from the logo of the JOOF Recordings label so that fans don’t confuse the names of the label and the musician. That’s why I look at the label logo before starting work:

The focus is on the two centre letters OO — they are static and rectangular. The wide font makes the logo look massive like it’s under a press. I will avoid all of this in the JOOF Live logo move from the opposite, and add ligature for more uniqueness. The client also wished to reflect sci-fi, and futurism and make the logo “spacey”.

I am drawing sketches, paying attention mainly to the word “JOOF”, I will leave “Live” for later:

I chose the most successful one in my opinion and drew it:

I added and changed details:

But in the end, I stayed in the original form:

joof_5.png.

Now it’s hard to read the word JOOF, so I change the “J” until it’s recognisable:

joof_6.png.

I put “JOOF” aside and start “Live”. To emphasise the forward motion, I use italics:

joof_7.png.

I trim the “J” and “F” on the slant of “Live”:

Showing the client:

This bear lives on John’s Instagram account

The client likes the logo and the idea itself, but asks to improve the readability of the word JOOF, specifically the letter “J”.

Working:

joof_12.png.

I choose the bottom right variant, correct the letter “V” in the word Live and show it to the client:

Something still bothers me in this variant, so the client asks to show another variant of the logo — in two lines, placing the word Live under JOOF.

I’m building this variant:

I don’t like the intersection of “J” and “L”, and the number “00” turned out to be too narrow. I’m working on the intersection:

I chose the last option and moved the letter “F” outside the form, which allows expanding “00”:

Sending the work to the client:

After some discussion, we concluded that the two-line variant is cumbersome and limited in use. We decided to go back to the previous variant and work on readability.

I change the letter “F”:

Comparing:

In this form, the logo loses all its compactness and minimalism in detail. I put this variant aside and started a new one.

The task remains the same — to create a JOOF Live logo, where the word JOOF will be different from the label logo.

Trying out a new ligature variant between “JO” and “OF”:

joof_20.png.

In this form, the ligatures reminded us of a meander ornament:

I change the “OF” connection and add the word Live:

Showing it to the client:

This variant did not fit, the client slightly changed his wishes: to make the logo stately, elegant, strong and with classic letters.

I continue working. I take one of the ideas that appeared at the beginning:

joof_23.jpg.

The idea is based on the main features of the JOOF label logo: elongated upward letters, a bent upward tail in the horizontal stroke of the “J” and a vertically unfolded middle stroke of the “F”. If you look at the old and new label logos, they don’t have all that in them:

Figuring out options:

I discarded the angular logo (the middle one in the picture above) and worked on the other two.

Building a variant based on circles:

joof_26.png.

It looks bad, JOOF and Live conflict, the letters are thin, and the expanded middle stroke in the letter “E” seems overdone. I’m building a second version taking into account previous mistakes:

I like the logo in this form, I show it to the client:

The client liked the word JOOF so much that he decided to drop “Live” as part of the project name and logo respectively, but to keep it as a small note for posters and posters that this is a live performance of the musician.

At the client’s request, I developed additional variants of the logo, where JOOF is in a frame and with the captions “Live” and “A John 00 Fleming production”.

I select the frame:

Stopping at the middle left. Looking for the location of Live’s signature:

joof_30.png.

I chose the first option and increased the letter spacing in Live:

I design the signature “A John 00 Fleming production” in the style of the logo:

Trying it on the logo in the same position as “Live” for general styling:

The client approves all options and accepts the work!

Rules and guidelines for the logo are collected in a guideline:

How I made the logo for the music label JOOF Mantra

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 19:53:54 +0100

Mantra is the new division of JOOF Recordings, a record label founded in Brighton in 1998. Under the new brand, the label will publish progressive electronic music in the Progressive and Psytrance genres.

The challenge was to develop a logo for JOOF Mantra, but to keep the JOOF Recordings logo, i.e. the word “JOOF” should remain unchanged.

JOOF Recordings logo

Before I started, I looked at the search results for the query “mantra logo”.

Search results for the query “mantra logo”

Mantra is associated with India, so most logos are related to it in one way or another. The most common choices are imitating the Hindi language, the Aum (Om) sign, a lotus and a meditating person. Despite this, I also wanted to link the logo to India in some way, but without using the typical clichés.

The search for an idea started with a study of the Hindi alphabet:

Here I found the similarity of the letter R with the letter र [ra] and took it as a basis for the future logo.

mantra-4.png.

Sketches:

I started drawing.

I didn’t like the word in this form. I work further — I change the construction of “A”, try to round the ends of letters, experiment with “M”, change the height of letters — I get a lot of variants:

I chose the most successful variant:

At the same time, I am working on another idea:

Here I have depicted the word “Mantra” in the form of a sound wave.

Increased the thickness of the lines, I’m watching the result:

Trying both variants on the basic JOOF logo:

The wavy variant does not give rest, I checked the idea on the Internet and found a similar solution from other companies:

I go back to the first variant and try to change the letters “M” and “N”:

I decided to make the letter “N” closer to uppercase, so that the word is perceived as Latin, and draw a new “N”:

I compare the variants:

mantra-16.png.

Definitely, the new “N” looks better. But now I don’t like the letter “A”. I decided to make it uppercase to match the rest of the letters. Drawing options:

Trying it out:

mantra-18.png.

I chose the classic rounded shape, but refused the serif at the final “A”. I increase the height of the letter so that it does not visually appear smaller than the other letters:

I try the result on the JOOF Recordings logo:

In this form, JOOF dominates a lot. Aligning the thickness of the letters:

Looking at the result:

Now I’m confused by the different heights. I cut off the legs of the mantra and shorten the serif of the “M”:

I try on both logos horizontally and vertically:

I like the result! Showing it to the client:

The client is delighted — he likes the logo very much.

I prepared a guide on how to use the logo and handed over all the materials.

Creating a website for the Digital Om Productions label

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 21:55:40 +0100

Digital Om Production — is a music label based in India and Nepal. The label releases contemporary electronic dance music in the styles of Progressive and Psychedelic Trance and also works as a booking agency for its artists.

The project was worked on together with a colleague. After communicating with the client, we clarified the task that the site should solve. Its goal is to help music fans buy music released by the label, as well as to introduce them to the artists. At the same time, for the musicians themselves, the site should become a “home page” with discographies, biographies and press kits.

We study the market, we look at the websites of other labels:

Other labels’ websites

The overall situation in the industry is sad: other labels’ websites are full of half-empty sections, unnecessary pages and terrible social plugins. We definitely don’t want that kind of thing. Instead, we offer the client to start small — only the basic and really necessary sections and functions, namely the release catalogue and artist roster.

We lay the foundation — we think over the structure of the future site, breaking the development into several interactions. The following scheme emerges:

Site layout

Instead of the home page, which is traditionally where the work starts, we started with the internal page of the music release — most likely, visitors will more often go to these pages via direct links than to the home page.

Let’s think: “before buying music, listeners will want to familiarise themselves with a fragment. So you need to be able to post samples”.

Instead of writing our audio player, which would have taken a lot of time, we decided to use the API of SoundCloud, the leader in cloud music storage. For the client, this option turned out to be convenient — the label actively uses SoundCloud, and its page has more than six thousand subscribers.

Let’s get down to the design. We make a dark colour scheme to match the music genre but dilute it with colourful album covers and bright buttons.

Pondering: “Okay, so there are big, brightly coloured buttons at the top, links to shops where music is sold. But what if you add an album to the site that hasn’t been released yet? What would be in place of the buttons?”.

We decided to make a dotted outline with the word “Forthcoming” on it. This inscription will be automatically displayed if the album release date is a future date, so the site manager will not have to change it manually.

To avoid “dead ends” on the site, link all pages of the site with each other with the benefit for visitors: from the album or compilation page you can get to the page of related artists or other releases; on the artist’s page, you can see all albums or compilations in which he participates.

While thinking about these little things, in the meantime, draw the rest of the pages and sections: main page, artists, contact information and others.

Don’t forget about the 404 error page (this is when the user accidentally gets to a non-existent page, for example, when he makes a mistake in writing the address): so that the user who came here would not be bored, we place a small story about what “Om” is.

We make separate layouts for the mobile version of the site:

We collect all the layouts, prepare a presentation and show it to the client:

The client likes everything very much. We get down to layout, programming, scripts, setting up the administration panel, in short — putting together a working website from pictures.

The owner of the label is a real music lover, so he is also very enthusiastic about the site, constantly suggesting new additions. However, most of these ideas are not on the site.

The site was done in 4 weeks. It is maintained and filled by the label’s staff.

Project members

Lead Designer
Tanya Sokolovskaya

Designer
Daniel Sokolovskiy

Developer and layout
Maksim Silnov

The process of working on the logo of the children’s shop “Tutupki”

Wed, 07 Oct 2015 16:08:28 +0100

Interesting name for a children’s clothing shop — Tutupki! Isn’t it? :-) I was surprised too, but as it turned out, the name has a history. The shop belongs to a married couple. The eldest daughter named her twin sisters Tutupki for the characteristic shape of their spouts when she saw them for the first time. When choosing a name for the shop, the owners decided to settle on this funny word.

The concept for the logo was determined at once — it should be three girls or some funny animals. The characters will also be printed on clothes, so they should be bright and detailed to please both children and their parents.

I got the idea to put the famous three monkeys “hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing” in the image of the girls. Only in our case, three girls do everything exactly the opposite — look carefully, hear everything and shout loudly. After all, babies do not like to sit quietly in place :-)

Thinking about animals, came up with the idea of a three-headed dragon that likes to shop. I started sketching.

First sketches

For clarity, I drew both versions and showed them to the client.

Monkey girls

Sister dragons

The client decided on the girls. I started to finalise it, having drawn another version of the girls, more mature.

The second variant of three girls

But I liked the first girls more.

I added clothes and decorated the letters.

Before — After

I showed the finalised version and wrote the inscription in Russian.

The rules and recommendations for using the logo are collected in the guidelines:

The final version of the logo

How I created an architect’s logo

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 15:44:46 +0100

Today I’m going to tell you about an interesting logo that I worked on for two months. This is quite a long time, but the client and I were satisfied with the result.

The client is Oz Minasov, an Israeli architect and interior designer. Oz works with both countryside and urban properties. Also, he is not limited to the country of residence and works with the whole world.

I started the work by looking through Oz’s portfolio, and almost immediately the idea for the logo appeared.

Searching for an idea

I combined the three axes of the interior corner of the room with the architectural drawing, thus emphasizing both architecture and interiors.

om-2.jpeg.
First sketches

I sketched the idea on paper and started to realise it.

First version of the logo

In the logo, one of the axes divides the letter O diagonally — the lower half of the letter is made as a drawing, while the upper half remains a letter. The other two axes formed a right angle into which the signature fits.

The logo turned out to be not simple, but dynamic — its axes can move apart, thus giving space to work on the style.

Example of using a logo in an advert

Presented the result of the work to the client, but were rejected. Such a logo did not suit Oz.

After talking to him, we came up with a new solution — to use a house in the sign and emphasise architecture. As a prototype of the idea, Oz sent photos of a designer’s house, which he liked very much.

Correia/Ragazzi Arquitectos

I started new sketches. This time I wanted to show the unity of architecture and nature.

I chose one of the sketches and started to realise it.

House in perspective

To the house on the cliff, I added a signature of the first name and the first letter of the surname to give an artistic touch and authorship. Below is the result:

Showed it to the client. He liked the idea of the signature, but the shape of the house was still to be worked on. Oz also asked to remove the black bold lines and simulate a pencil sketch, and to make the font part more elongated.

I decided to tackle the house first and sketched a new version:

However, we didn’t like it in this form and after discussing the details with the client, we gave up the idea of the sketch.

At the same time, we started working on the font and developed the font part based on the chosen typeface:

At this stage, Oz asked to work on a fully typographic version of the logo, without the house. Similar to the first and last name, I designed the signature “Architecture And Interior Design”.

I combined everything into a sign shaped like a building:

While I was working on the typeface, I came up with another idea for the house — to combine the pencil shading and the silhouette of the house.

Clinet liked this idea. We concluded that it would be great to use a house in the sign, which Oz would design himself. However, in the process, the client suddenly decided to completely change the concept of the logo, abandoning the house symbol.

Back to the sketches again. This time the work was on the symbol from OM’s initials.

Sketches with initials

I chose two ideas and started to realise them.

The first variant — ligature of O and M

The second variant — a sign based on M with A (from Architecture)

From the proposed variants the client chose the first one — the ligature of O and M. He liked very much that the sign contains not only initials but also traces the silhouette of a fish. I continued working on it. As a result, the sign underwent a small transformation.

Transformation of the sign

The next task was to put together the graphic part and the font part. Since the sign is rounded and wide, and the letters are elongated, together they did not look very harmonious. So I abandoned the first name in the logo and defused the letters in the surname. This helped get rid of the flaw.

om-19.jpeg.

I started colouring the sign. With a gradient, I strengthened the letter O.

Colour version and in grayscale

When the sign was ready, I began work on Oz’s business card. For it, I developed a text part in Hebrew to match the style of English writing.

I made two types of business cards and sent them to the client.

Information in Hebrew and English on one side and the logo on the back

Information in Hebrew and English on different sides

The client did not like the business cards in this form. He shared his new wishes — to make the sign more massive and the business cards black.

On black paper, it is preferable to print with metallic inks (gold, silver, bronze), so I have shown new variations in different colour schemes.

Back side

Front side

The client approved the logo and chose their favourite business card options.

I finalised the fonts — made them a bit bolder and presented the final version to the client.

Result of work

The character of the Duck House Agency

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 11:36:58 +0100

Last year I created a logo and style for Katya Keshchyan’s family holiday agency The Duck House. In this post, I will tell you about the process of working on an interesting feature of the style — the brand character.

According to the owner of the agency, the duck is a symbol of family cosiness, hence the unusual name of the agency. That’s why I started my work by looking for the image of a festive duck in the logo.

Image search

From the received variants Katya and I decided that the logo with a duck looks childish. That’s why we rejected the duck in the sign but invented a new role for it: as a character of the agency in the form of an independent element.

In the meantime, I continued working on the logo — I chose and finalised the font lettering. And in order not to deprive the sign of graphic elements, I added duck feet to it. The logo was approved quickly, so I continued working on the character.

Ready-made logo

Katya specified that she did not want a “rubber” duckling, but a cartoon character, and so the first sketches were born:

Sketches of the duck

I got “permission” for the sketches and started working out the details digitally.

“Digital duck and its evolution

I am finalising the third variant.

Costume change

At first, the duck looked a bit brutal because of its ‘shaved’ head :-) So I did her hair:

It was not easy to choose, but in the end, my client and I decided on the last option, adding a long braid to the fringes:

Final variant

This is how the duckling became a real girl!

Next, I designed three more additional positions for the character and added colour to the logo:

ud-9.jpeg.
Duckling variations

Character in life

Having finished the project, I follow it with pleasure: it is important for me that the work ‘lives’ and not just remain a picture in the portfolio.

Katya decided to bring the duck to life in a very original way and ordered wonderful brooches based on her image:

Master of brooches — Yulia Druzhinina

Brooch on Katya

Duck on a notebook

Duck on the press wall

Ah, yes! We had one more duck, but it was left out of the picture, as it turned out to be too ‘dreamy’ :-)

The dreamy duckling was left out of the picture

The process of creating a logo for a coach

Wed, 08 Jul 2015 14:19:14 +0100

Logo for personal and business coach Rodion Kopyal. At the beginning of the work, Rodion voiced his associative wishes for the future logo: growth, support, development, aspiration, finding a way, breakthrough, search for oneself, purpose, and spirituality. That’s why I started the development of the logo with a tree of associations.

As a result of my search, I got hold of a few basic concepts — tree, obstacle, development, harmony, friend and support. And on their basis, I started sketches.

I chose the concept of a tree with roots from the resulting variants and translated it into vector format.

The sign went through six stages of transformation:

in the first stage I used a pendulum instead of a tree trunk, which indicates the way through rocks, i.e. obstacles;
added a handshake in the role of friendship and support to the rocks;
realised that the petals didn’t fit in that way, so I gave them the shape of splinters and the tree the traditional look;
corrected the roots of the tree;
at the client’s request, I gave the petals the shape of jigsaw puzzles;
together we gave up puzzles and went back to splinter petals, but rounded them to make them look friendlier.

rk-3.jpeg.
Logo transformation

The result is a sign that combines everything we wanted to show: a tree as a symbol of growth and development; rocks as obstacles; a handshake — help and cooperation. We then picked a colour scheme for the sign and added the client’s name.

The text part of the logo is in Russian and Hebrew, as Rodion works in Israel.

The rules and recommendations for using the logo are collected in a guideline:

When nothing fits

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 22:36:21 +0100

Logo creation is a special process. Its result depends more on the client’s taste and aesthetic preferences than on formal characteristics or the tasks to be solved. Sometimes no option is suitable. I once had such a case: the client accepted only half of the work.

I was making a logo for jewellery designer Ekaterina Kogut. She creates delightful products from polymer clay, which earned her the nickname “Flower Fairy”.

Our joint work lasted almost three months. Having gone through several “floral” variants, we emphasize the individuality of the jewellery maker. This is how the variants with the silhouette of her profile appeared.

The direction is interesting. I went further and used a whole portrait. This is what came out:

Alas, in the process of searching, Katya decided to abandon graphic elements in the logo mark altogether and use only the font part as a watermark on the photos.

How the logo of The Word of Life literary project came into being

Mon, 25 May 2015 19:34:09 +0100

One of the latest works is a logo for the literary community “The Word of Life” in Israel, run by psychologist Lea Wedensky. The project is designed to develop a culture of self-expression, thinking and speech.

94-8.jpg.

At the beginning of the work on The Word of Life, we had a little mishap. The first discussions I had about the work to be done were not with the project manager but with his assistant. From him, we received an already existing graphic image of The Word of Life project together with wishes for the future logo.

The visual image of the project The Word of Life. Artist Masha Roitman

After working on the first sketch, we set up a general meeting, with Lea already present. It was there that we realised that we had been wrong. Her vision of the logo was completely different. Accordingly, our sketch “failed”.

The first sketch

By the way, I have a principle — to work directly with the person who makes the final decision on the project. If you don’t follow it, the result runs the risk of being far from the desired one, the project not being accepted, and the work starting all over again. It is good that this mishap became clear at the beginning of the work.

Having communicated with Lea, I got the exact wishes — the sign should be laconic, and reflect the person, letter and nature, i.e. the visual image of the project.

zs-3.jpeg.
The second sketch, which I continued to work on

I finalised the sign, practically without deviating from the sketch, and tried to make the font part “alive” by simulating writing with a pen. Below is the result:

By the way, in the finished logo, we also saw the shape of a pomegranate, and the pomegranate is a symbol of fertility in Israel. This finding especially pleased Lea :-)

The rules and guidelines for using the logo are collected in a guideline:

Hobby & Profi logo. See the elephant!

Mon, 27 Apr 2015 18:55:00 +0100

Today I’m going to tell you about a fun logo for the Hobby & Profi shop.

The shop sells goods for baking and candy bars. The main wish of its owners was that the logo should be stylish and associated with quality and fashionable baking supplies.

Having discussed the details, I started working with sketches of ideas.

Some of the ideas

Then I selected the most successful variants in my opinion and digitised them.

The variants I showed to the client

I show all ideas only in black and white, as colour is often confusing. And even a very successful variant can be rejected because the client didn’t like the chosen colour.

So, the owners of Hobby & Profi really liked both options, but there was a big “BUT”. In the course of discussions, it became clear that in the future the shop would be expanded. As a result, it will become a market not only for confectioners but also for any kind of creativity and handmade goods.

Having considered the new information, I went on with my work and started new sketches.

This is how three more ideas came about.

One of the previous variants I reworked and, imagined a shop with all kinds of goods, made it in the form of a kibitka.

In another variant, I decided to combine different kinds of creativity, which resulted in a logo in the form of an emblem.

And the third option is my favourite. I was looking for an image that would reveal the phrase “made with my own hands”. I twisted and turned my hands until I saw that the silhouette of a hand in the sign “Cool!” resembled an elephant.

Thus was born an elephant made by hands

The client really liked the new options but loved the elephant the most, as I expected. It was love at first sight :-)

Now that I had the basic idea, I finalised the graphic and font part of the logo and selected colours for it.

I decided to colour the elephant by the method of elimination. First of all, I removed shades of grey, blue and pink, as these are the most popular colours for painted elephants. Then I excluded shades of green and violet — the elephant looked painful. Also, red colours made our elephant aggressive.

As a result, I stopped at sunny yellow — it made the elephant cheerful and positive. For contrast, I chose a muted blue with a turquoise shade for the font part.

Now the Hobby & Profi shop has a great logo and its cheerful elephant.

The rules and guidelines for the logo are collected in a guideline:

89-4.jpg.

A pattern was also developed that changes with the seasons:

Logo for musician Psytellite

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 22:51:48 +0100

Psytellite is a musician and DJ. His creative pseudonym is formed from two English words: “Psy” (Psychedelic Trance music) and “satellite”. Designed for him a logo symbolising the flight of a satellite over the planet’s orbit.

About the Process

These were the first variations to appear:

But the client didn’t like them, so he asked me to pay special attention to the font. I continued the work:

Liked the option with the satellite above the sphere. Continued working on this variant:

Looking for a suitable font solution:

Like the first option, we decided to refine it.

The most difficult part was working on the sphere with the letter Y. I’m sending you the work in progress:

The client asks to try to correct the Y according to his sketch:

Sending him variants with explanations:

In the first variant, the arc is flat (from the circle), and you can draw a Y from it, but then you get a big distance between the arc and the letters.

In the second variant, I lowered the arc below, and deformed it to reduce the distance, together with the arc deformed and Y and the letter T became quite cramped.

In the third case, I left the arc at the desired height but raised a little leg Y, it is now at the base became more straight, allowing me to breathe T, but at the same time lost the circumference, although it also lost in the second case, there is formed an oval, and in the third variant is already a “baton”.

As variant four, it would be possible to glue Y above the centre of the sphere, then keep its circumference, and the distance between it and the letters is not so big. But in this case, Y becomes under a strong inclination, unlike the rest of the letters, and there is a hole between it and T, and psy is separated from tellite.

I’m sending out a few more variations for comparison:

The client decided to stop at the first one and sketched another sketch with wishes:

I’m finalising the logo with the wishes and putting together a guideline.

A spread from the guidelines about colour and logo

A spread about the rules of using the logo