Help with colouring logo, please

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 15 Jul 2006 01:46

Hey
I'm designing a logo for an anniversary of the bowling alley I work at. It's going to be on big posters and tshirts. I'm having difficulty with colour, though. I don't really know how to make it look good with say, about 4 colours (for reasonable tshirt production). I wrote out this long message and accidentally pressed back and lost it all, but basically the curvy things are black lights and should be purple, and the horizontal parts of the bowling pins should be red or blue (preferably red (or orange...)).

If ANYONE could suggest some colours I could use for this, or better yet colour up my original and post it back here with your colour ideas, I would be forever grateful. I'm about ready to kill myself from the frustration of trying to use Adobe Illustrator (no paint bucket tool...you have NO idea how much of a pain filling in my thicker linework was...We're talking HOURS and DAYS of work...)

So any help whatsoever would be rocking. (please please please

)
Here is the uncoloured logo:

http://www.hackrifice.com/academy/060710-logo03.jpg
(Oh yeah and the things on the sides are disco balls)

Here is my very bad attempt at some quick colours. I messed up and the thinner lines should show up, but I'm not good with Photoshop anymore either :p It gives you an idea, though -- I kind of want more muted/matte/pastel tones...:
http://www.hackrifice.com/academy/06071 ... urtest.jpg

EDIT: Feedback on the logo itself would be cool too. This was such a pain to do completely in Illustrator. Things I would be concerned about are if it looks too amateur (all of my crappy imperfect lines (especially in the disco balls, I feel...though I specifically traced directly from a photo of one to make it look more real than geometrical...ahr!) ...blah blah blah...things like that. Does it just look crappy and half-assed? Can you even tell what everything is without my having to tell you? I may not change anything because it's really so frustrating, but suggestions and feedback would give me some rad perspective on this project.

Also, my boss told me to quote a price, and I was going to say $150. I think that is so reasonable. I would ideally like to say $200 (Canadian...) for all the hard work I put in and frustration, but I feel that's pushing it when I don't feel too confident in my work. What do you think about my quotation? Reasonable? Does anyone know what an average designer makes? Anyway, I am writing too much. Please write lots of things about everything, but mostly I am concerned about the colours at this point. I want everything done to show him on Sunday.

HooD · Post by **HooD** » 15 Jul 2006 05:11

Currently, none of the links are working.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 15 Jul 2006 11:36

Okay, links fixed; sorry.

Nathan · Post by **Nathan** » 15 Jul 2006 15:44

My ideas:

design:
-top of the center pin should be bold line like the rest of it?
-the bars around the pins are sort of hard to comprehend- i know that they should be there but it makes the pins look a bit strange
-I like the disco balls and the black lights

colors:
-pins should stay white- the tan and purple together looks funky
-add color to the rounded stripes on the pins would help
-disco balls need color for sure- if you use red, purple and black for the rest, green might add good contrast. maybe have shoots of red purple and green coming off from the balls
- add black to the sockets on the black lights

those are my tips. I'm certainly not a professional, but anything helps, right?

Also, you complained about the uneven lines, but i think they look fine. Somehow I've always imagined that type of line to be your style.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 15 Jul 2006 19:58

Oh, for the disco balls I meant the interior linework, not the outside; like you said the outside is my style, so I'm not concerned with it. I know what you mean about the things around the pins -- I agree, they should be rounded or something -- my brother said the same thing, but it was really hard to try to make everything really nicely curved in Illustrator.

Yeah, that helped a lot -- thanks so much Nathan

Oroza · Post by **Oroza** » 15 Jul 2006 21:02

I tried using paint bucket, but it wont work cause its not pure white, either way youd have to carefully trace the lines <a bitch!

Options:
-do it sloppy, and change the slogan to "10 yrs old and still cant color inside the lines"

-Make it a picture of 10 or however many employees there are) of you dudes infront of the alley holding a pin, "10 yrs, 10 pins, 10 pin heads"

- try collage, or hand drawing.

- have the rock hand symbol (with bowling glove) "10 years and still rockin' (& rollin')" (maybe a pic of someone hold a ball doing the rock symbol, preferably pathetic looking, head band helps) maybe a silouhette

- a pic of someone winning tourny with tears in their eyes "10 yrs of balling"

- "celebrating 10 yrs" and a tiny tim (esque) kid " shine ya ball govna?"

- "10 years of fingers in our holes"

- "why is the ball shiner funny?

- "why does everyone laugh when i shine their balls?"

I've got more....sorry, everything turns into a joke for me.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 16 Jul 2006 21:59

Well, it was my boss who came up with the slogan, so that's not going to change.

People at work also suggested brighter colours, and so after much more frustration, another 4-5 hours (Illustrator is a pain! Really!), and MUCH pain in my tendonitis(I'm sure)-ridden wrist I came up with this:

http://www.hackrifice.com/academy/06071 ... 4small.jpg

After looking at this for a while I am even more convinced that I liked my initial test colours ( http://www.hackrifice.com/academy/06071 ... urtest.jpg ) best. I will see what my boss thinks tomorrow. Everyone loved the finished uncoloured logo so far. (You can also see my initial sketch (cost $5 to scan!!!) from which I traced this in this directory: http://www.hackrifice.com/academy/ -- I even bloody invented a font, but then they wanted some more words added, and my hours of work went in the garbage only to make way for many more hours of work (trying to find a font because I refused to rewrite everything by hand...))

Thanks for the input you guys.
I'm going to ask for $200CAN -- does anyone have any input on that?

Oroza · Post by **Oroza** » 16 Jul 2006 22:10

trying different background colors can make a bigger difference than youd think, blue or yellow or green

200 doesnt seem that unreasonable, see how many hours you spent on it, maybe ask a pro designer how much they charge

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 17 Jul 2006 21:09

erik, i like your initial design best. i also agree, i think it would look better with the top of the head pin with a thick outline. also, i liked the twinkling stars of the first hand sketch. i do like the bright coloured design suggested by your coworkes better than the first coloured design.