It's more than improtant to be understood properly when requesting work, so I will post some essential definitions.
LOGO (logotype) - Short graphic form, used to identify a company. Think about famous brands - nike, apple, coca-cola, shell, toyota etc. What connects them all? SIMPLICITY. It must be simple, because logo should be readable when printed on business card (very small piece of paper
) or on a huge banner (on a bus). So don't expect mad gradients, complex drawings, blurred distortions or usage of photoshop filters (they don't look good scaled into tiny 1x1" space). Do expect it razor sharp in vector format (definition below) and in 3 varietes - Black&white dark (for stamp etc), B&W light (for printing on dark surfaces like company clothing and products) and color (on-screen, advertising). Definately expect your logo to carry a message. For more complex definition go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo
JERSEY DESIGN - most typical mistake here is requesting "logo for a jersey" and thinking about jersey design. In a graphics world it means that you need proper logo design (see LOGO definition) and positioning it on a jersey. If you want mad jersey design, please, don't put a word "logo" there, it's distracting.
DEADLINE - Essential ingredient of a proper request. Skilled designers have a disease called "tomorrow" [manana], catched doing "for yesterday" designs. They need to know how many days they can do anything else before drawing your requests.
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Another thing worth straightening once and for all is a difference between
RASTER and VECTOR format. You can see most significant difference below.
This is a reference picture (stroke from my avvy) in a raster format:
and here is effect of scaling:
Pretty lame. What you want is a infinite scaling feature in vector format:
This is what I meant by 'razor sharp'.
Another example here: (by '
ghostcell'):
When looking for a new team logo, make sure the design is in a vector type format. The reason for this is that vector's are images that can be scalable to any size and colors can be replaced, without loosing quality of the image. Vector's are usually made in Adobe Illustrator and are created by using the pen tool. Vectored designs at some point must be converted into a raster graphic (.jpg, .gif, .png,) which cannot be changed without loosing quality.
Example of a vector: (was uploaded as .jpg so lost quality)
xample of a raster graphic:
For basically all other info on vector vs. raster (concepts, formats etc) go
here. Don't forget to click on the 'next page'
Despite great scaling features, vector images are pretty simple. When you think about something photorealistic or really mad, then you need raster format, but make sure it's designed in proper resolution. And this brings another definition...
RESOLUTION - Only for raster formats, usually comes in DPI (dots per inch). What you see on your screen is a 72 DPI (despite your resolution in pixels, these are completely different things). What you see printed in a colorful magazine is usually 300 DPI (offset). What you see on a jersey (screen-print) is between 150-250 DPI. So when requesting work give dimensions (in inches) and resolution (I want a jersey/avvy/magazine ad). And be aware that higher resolutions then 72 DPI are heavy (a4 page in 300 DPI can weight over 50 mb) and resource-eating (designing such page in PS on medium machine is a real pain) so expect higher prices.
And last but not least, definition by fellow designer
drunktiger21, which is...
...SAVOIR VIVRE
If you are not serious about your request, don't expect even mid-level results.
Ex, with a request like this-
Eye wunt a logo 4 my teem. I gieb joo $$$$$$.
Maek it kewl.
Srs p0starz onle.
kay ty.
Someone will end up with this-
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I would like to add a little advice to this: If you are an immature folk then pretend that you aren't. Unless you want design from another immature folk, but they suck at CG. Good designers are very smug because of being blessed with talent, having commercial experience or both. Treat them with respect - you want them to create something beautiful for you.
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