The Postcard Project

 

        This project called for four thumbnails, a portrait of oneself, and a company logo.

        In the first thumbnail, the plan was to have an ink splatter, almost like water color in the background to be a darker backdrop to write on with the body copy and header being in white. The graphic underneath the name but above the header was something drawn before seeing how terrible of a graphic it was, leading into multiple attempts in developing a logo instead of filling the illustrator requirement with an ugly graphic. In the second thumbnail, the idea was to have more space for the name and header in case they were turned into a logo. The drawings to the left are just some doodles to mimic things someone might doodle inside a notebook as they do creative writing or some sort of writing in general. In the third thumbnail, the concept of having correcting edits to the left of the body copy, giving little pointers to sort of help signify that it is about an author or writer. Maybe even highlight the parts that are supposed to be edited based on the left margin? Finally, in the fourth thumbnail there is the body copy separated with the portrait in the middle. Possibly have the graphic in this situation be something that boarders and boxes in the body copy like notebook pages.

        The objective of this company is to showcase "John Ovak" as the brand itself, since it's not necessarily a company but just a freelance writer trying to promote themselves. Being a freelance writer, just like a company, there is a mission however it's a lot more abstract than a simple mission statement that lists objectives and morals. The objective is to write, to continue writing, and to keep getting better at it. Branding and public image for a writer is simply just their name, occasionally what they look like, but the name is what sticks the most. How that name is presented is more important than the name itself, however the writing is what is above everything. However, with a logo a writer has already taken the first step at increasing interest in themselves before a reader has even started reading. Being a writer, the biggest clichés that are used in logos are quills and ink bottles. There are hundreds of personalized logos for writers and they all follow the same pattern. Now these three logos, even though they aren't exactly the biggest clichés, still use some popular ideas that many other logos use. The whole ink splatter and paintbrush look isn't as overused as the quill and ink bottle, even the fountain pen is more overused than these. Yet they just aren't original enough. These logos are just first attempts but not final ideas just yet so don't worry. However if one of the three was to be chosen with a few tweaks, the second logo with the white letters "J O" is simple but strong in the sense that it doesn't rely on the paintbrush stroke that is cliché for writers and artists. Though the background is still a grayscale version of water color splashes, which is also a cliché. So maybe if it had something else as a graphic to put behind the "J O" that is original, it would be even stronger.

        Update: This morning, after taking another look at the strengths of previous logos, this is what was created as a blend of all the ideas together.

    

        Further Update: These pictures are two of the postcard options fleshed out in InDesign to see if they are up to the task of being turned in or not. They still need some minor adjustments, mainly with the text and how it wraps around the portrait, but that's for another day. (Yes it is minion pro, no it will not stay like this, just too tired to choose a font tonight.)