For this Illustrator Assignment, I wanted to create a simple and minimal logo for my personal brand, Dakota Lynne. As previously discussed, I am a fashion and lifestyle blogger and photographer, so I always try to incorporate simplistic elements of minimalism into my branding assets and projects that I create. In my photography, specifically, I am continually inspired by plants and nature, and try to include these elements in my work. Additionally, as my personal style and brand incorporates vintage and modern pieces combined, the use of varying serif and sans-serif fonts work together well to reflect this. In designing my logo, my aim was to end in a product that displayed all of these attributes combined. Through the use of hand-drawn designs, shapes, and serif and sans-serif text, my draft logo incorporates many stylistic components that work together to represent my personal brand well.
Influences and inspiration that attributed to the overall design of my logo were drawn from various places, including Pinterest, mainly. While my logo was not inspired by one particular work, many elements of the overall design were inspired by others’ work. The most effective creative process for me, personally, involves pinning all of my favorite images that I admire to a board on Pinterest, and then sketching out the elements of each design that I enjoy most. Through this, I’m able to draft a unique design that is 100% my own and most reflective of what my brand represents.
Considering this, for this particular project, I pinned images including minimal logos with natural, hand-drawn elements incorporated. To create my logo, I firstly hand-drew a couple of plant styles that I liked most on paper, as shown in my Illustrator Draft post, and imported them into Illustrator with Adobe Capture. This allowed my design to be directly converted into a vector shape, which I then altered and shaped with the eraser, direct selection, and paintbrush tools to create the final design. Next, in arranging the textual elements, I chose the two fonts that I use on my personal website to create both of the pieces. I wanted “DL” to be the primary visual element in the logo, however, I also wanted to spell out the abbreviation as well (“Dakota Lynne”), as most that view it will not know the meaning upon first glance. The two fonts I used are LTC Bodoni 175 and Brandon Grotesque, serif and sans-serif fonts respectively. I replicated the same hierarchy I use on my website for these elements, the smaller “Dakota Lynne” type employing the latter and the main element the former. Through arranging these as so, I was able to create balance through the focus of my logo (“DL”), the typed out initials (“Dakota Lynne”), and incorporation of the prominent stylistic element of my work altogether (the plants). All of these elements were designed around a simple circle, which presents a design that flows well and is pleasing to the eye – warping my plant piece and using the “Type Along a Path” tool allowed for the execution of this.
Overall, I encountered no major technical issues, as Illustrator is one of my preferred platforms in the Adobe suite and the tutorial assignments provided a plethora of new skills as well. However, one thing that consumed the most time during the design is the stroke size of my imported drawing. It took a little experimentation to come up with a stroke size and style that I liked most. Because the element was imported from Adobe Capture, the import size did not reflect the final design style that I wanted, and through trying different brushes and stroke sizes I was able to come up with the final piece, one that I’m pleased with.
To conclude, I’m satisfied with the construction and design of my personal logo. Through incorporating elements of text hierarchy, balance of elements, and hand-drawn designs, I believe that it accurately represents my personal brand well and will serve as a useful asset to my collection of assets for future projects. The design process was one of great consideration, and through pulling inspiration from Pinterest, I was able to collect pieces that ultimately inspired the final product – something that is entirely my own. Moving forward, I’m excited to ponder this design more and fine-tune it in the coming weeks to perfect its construction!
Fonts used in the logo:
Both obtained from the Adobe font library.
Dakota Lynne 