Outhouse Studios Weblog

Transparency, Animation, Fun, Overdoing It

                      See                               Animated                 Examples

The final thing about the logo development process and how it relates to the creative process is about using tools. 

The fact is – learning how to do something – particularly when one gets to the point of feeling some success – is a great deal of fun. That stage of developing a technique or way of doing something which works is incredible.

There is a balance always in creating between doing what is fun and doing what is best for the piece.

The animation I created on the original logo came out exactly as I conceived … but it didn’t add a thing to my site – I put it on the above linking page – just because it is a record – like the thrown out Free download logo which also resides on that page. 

I am not a graphic arts expert. Creating images without any background (transparencies) was incredibly cool to me – so much that I was overdoing it – which is the same for animation – which I have done a whopping four times.

It is a lot of fun to create these things – irresistible even. This is what one should have while doing art work – creating music – approaching any sort of job one loves.  But one still needs to temper that fun with taste and perhaps discretion.  

On the other hand, even if you don’t resist the fun of a new technique or process; eventually one recognizes its overuse anyway.

See Also

• Overdoing It – by Anton Chekhov
  A very short story – and wonderful take on going too far
• Web Design Tips – Overdoing It
  Can’t vouch for site – but good example of what I mean in a similar form

Conception, Development, Change

Original Logo/Flag – Animated Version(not in use)

In January I wrote an article on a new logo and look for Outhouse Studios. However, since writing that three things happened.

First, there were some conception problems with the then chosen logo. At least one person I know didn’t read the notes coming out of the house as being music – and even the structure itself was rather truncated. Nevertheless, I had thought it clear enough and more indicative of what the website is about. See the more filled in animated version

Second, I recently attended a talk on branding and one of the things which came up was how logos should be held on to and held on to as long as a company can. It takes a long time to develop the relationship between logo and product – so don’t change your logo flippantly.

My site and logo have only been around a couple years – I never really viewed my logo as much as a logo as a flag or emblem – marking the page and setting a tone. But the truth is, I like that tone better than the replacement logo. So I changed it back.

There is more to the logo story and a connection to the creative process – but will have to be continued over the next couple days in the next couple of articles.

See Also

• Full Steam Marketing – Brand Communications
  Salinas group who spoke – site shows impressive creative ideas
• Branding and Usability
  Good explanation and insight into branding
• Brand New Branding – Marketing Trends Magazine
  Branding and the Web – experts discuss the changes