Logo design

The logo for my app is important, as it will be the first image that a potential user sees on the App Store. The app icon is usually a simplified, pictorial depiction of a brand's logo (http://www.cio.com/article/503569/iPhone_App_Logos_10_of_the_Best_and_Worst). I am going to start by designing a logo and to create a brand for the 'BirthYear' app and then I will design an app icon based on these elements.

Below are some images of standard Apple apps (that come pre-loaded onto most mobile devices) showing the difference between the iOS6 and iOS7 versions. This will help to ensure that the 'look and feel' of my app icon (and logo) fits within the aesthetic conventions of the latest operating system.

I have experimented with some different fonts in Photoshop to develop the text-based element of my logo. Below are the options I came up with. As mentioned in my sketchbook, I feel that a Sans-Serif typeface will fit better with the style of my app, as it is more  fitting with both iOS7 standards and social networking conventions.

Out of these options I am particularly drawn to the last one (PT Sans). It is more solid than most of the other options and it seems like a font that could be used in a social networking app or website. I am now going to try out some alternative layouts using this font (again in Photoshop) to try to find a good text composition for the main logo.

I liked the idea of merging the two words so that it appears as though it is one word, however some of the options I tried out didn't look quite right. I found that by lowering the second word and reducing its size slightly created the distinction that it is a separate word. This will hopefully work well with the 'timeline' asset added to the tail of the 'y' (as shown in my initial sketchbook-based designs).

 



































This Illustrator composition shows the development of the text elements into a full logo layout, matching some of the ideas in my sketchbook. I liked the bottom layout, as the timeline element looks better than in the other options - the upside-down one looks more like a ruler and the timeline in my app will look like the one above (with the time points facing upwards rather downwards).