Summertime, and the livin’ is easy! Your dedicated Sun editors are currently scattered across the US (and beyond) enjoying a much needed reprieve from Cornell prelims and endless “Sunny” nights putting together Ithaca’s favorite morning Daily.
Despite these large distances, e-mails have been whizzing over the heartland as we take this break from publication to examine the basic elements of the sun and how to improve them. One fun little project I’ve been working on for the past couple days is a logo for a new blog covering developments in the departure of Provost Biddy Martin.
As Peter Parker learned in Spiderman, “with great power comes great responsibility!” Doubly so with Photoshop! My recent blog creations, while fun to make, and fun to giggle over, have been… somewhat less than professional looking. As the blog system begins to mature and the quality of the writing continues to improve, the design must follow suit. Our web department is in charge of the look and feel of cornellsun.com, but so far photoshop issues, like blog logos, have been delegated to us folks in the ol’ fashioned design department.
[img_assist|nid=30553|title=Current Blog Logos|desc=Current blog logos are photographic, and come in many sizes with no standard typography.|link=node|align=center|width=|height=0]
Carol and I sat down one evening before school ended, and worked out some new guidelines for the blog logos. We decided to strive to make the logos more iconic, with a standardized font, and similar dimensions. We also wished to restrict the number of colors.
The New Logo:
[img_assist|nid=30550|title=New Blog Logo|desc=The new blog logo is much skinnier. The text is more prominently featured in a standard, heavy font. The logo uses two basic colors, and is iconic, rather than photographic.|link=node|align=center|width=|height=0]
The Martin blog provided a perfect opportunity to implement the new strategy, even as the concepts were in their infancy. You shouldn’t expect the above logo to provide a rigid guideline for future entries, but you should expect it to point you towards where the logos are headed.
As with every endeavor we attempt, feedback is much appreciated! I’ve received a lot of really helpful e-mails on the info graphics post, and this summer you can expect some more work with those, incorporating many of your suggestions!