Generally, logo is created from 3 basic elements, which are:

1. Name, referring to words or sound

2. Symbol, referring to shape or visual

3. Color, to emphasize the meaning of the symbol yet has the psychological effect

There are 7 types of logo:

1. Typographic

Logo which consist of word only

e.g.: Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba

2. Geometric Typography

Logo which consist of word (brand) and combined with geometrical shape such as square, circle, elipse.

e.g.: Dupont

3. Initial Letter

Logo which consist of one or more letters as an initial.

e.g.: Hewlett-Packard

4. Pictorial

Just like typographic logo (see no.1), but pictorial logo has stronger character since the typography was designed specially to create or design logo.

e.g.: Hard Rock Café, Coca Cola

5. Associative

Logo or symbol which has a direct associate with the product or main business core.

e.g.: Shell, 20th Century Fox

6. Allusive Logo

Logo that has indirect associate with the product or main business core.

e.g.: Mercedes Benz, Alitalia

7. Abstract

Logo that has an abstract symbol. This kind of logo is usually hard to understand, because the design comes from a very long process. In fact, it’s losing the basic form. Since the logo becomes an allusive/abstract symbol, everybody would have different perceptions about this kind of logo.

Personally, I love an allusive and abstract logo, because logo must be unique, simple and have a strong character. The basic idea could be anything as long as related to the company. It could be the product, main business core, the philosophy, the background, geographic, vision or mission, etc.

If you’re designing logo for fitness and spa center, leave the muscle and fitness equipment kind of image away. Start to think deeper about the purpose of being healthy and fit instead. What people get when they do exercise and spa (regularly)? The answer is “Their bodies will be healthy and so do their souls”. That’s the main purpose of doing fitness and spa, get healthy body and soul equally. It means that you can illustrate this with something equal or balance. The most common symbol to illustrate the balance is a “Ying-Yang” symbol. But you can not use this symbol as it is (that wouldn’t be unique, would it?!). Try to modify and make it related to the fitness/spa field. That would be another challenge for you as a designer…

I’m sure that the exploration of each business area to be exposed on logo is unlimited.

Seven Web Design Tips to Make your Site More Attractive

In this article, you are going to learn 7 important website design tips to make your site more attractive. So not only your website will attract many people, but it will also motivate them to stay for a long time.

1. Be Aware during Selection of the colours scheme:-

If your company has a logo or preferred colours on its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them – don’t change colours on every page. The most common colour schemes include:

- Red, yellow and white

- Blue and white

- Red, grey and white

- Blue, orange and white

- Yellow, grey and white.

- Onion shade, Tan, white

If you’re not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.

Always Select those colours which Attract the visitors, and the person revisit your site.

2. Page Backgrounds

Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, i.e. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Means if the page background is dark always use light colour for the writhing a text or if the light colour is used for the page background the always use dark colour for writing a text, like this colour scheme for the background everything is visible to the visitor. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.

3. (Page loading) site open within a minutes

All I’ve seen for the last 10 minutes is ‘page loading’, I think something might be wrong with my browser this is probably one of the biggest gripes a site visitor has. If your page takes more than a minute to load (on dial-up) and you have anything less than the meaning of life hidden within your content - something needs to be done. The average person does not have time they just go for another site without passed his time for these type of site those take time to open. So a good website takes less time for loading a site.

4. Appropriate page Size

Web pages are measured in pixels. Pixels are the unit of measurement for the screen. A Web page can literally be any size. Standard Web pages usually fit into a few sizes:

* W × H * 600 × 800 * 640 × 480 (Dream weaver default) * 1024 × 768 * 550 × 400 (Flash default)

The default Web page sizes provided in Web friendly applications and listed earlier are a great place to start. You will probably use a smaller, custom size for pop-up windows. The Web page size you choose is up to you. Remember to use actual space for the Web page effectively so that the content is in the proper proximity to the user's navigation patterns. Web page size affects the way users move around the Web pages and the Web portfolio site. One rule: Pick a size for all main screens and stick to it.

5. Logo

Create a simple logo to identity your website. Have a captivating tag line somewhere with the header, and write an About Us page which describes the uniqueness of your website. These will leave an impression for your visitors to remember your website.

6. Application of graphic designs

you must be careful in choosing for the appropriate design that will best represent your projects, and tell about your business. Create a design which coveys in a stylish way what it has to

7. Be aware about grammar and spell

Grammar is overrated [and the spill-checker too] Most web authoring and word processing software comes with a spell/grammar check utility - don’t let your hard earned money go to waste, use it. Some of the more common grammatical mistakes are misusing its, it’s, there, their, they’re, your, you’re, and noone (correct=no one). Proof reading your final product is also helpful. No one is infallible, that’s why pencils have erasers and computer programs have [ctrl+z].

Environmentally Friendly Print Design

The printing industry is notoriously bad for the environment, right? Noxious chemicals dripping into rivers, forests cut down to produce monumental amounts of useless direct mail, not to mention wasteful graphic designers twatting about in their 4x4's and SUVs, there is however an alternative...

Think about pdfs or html e-mails instead of Junkmail
The next time somebody suggests carpet bombing a town with a deluge of trifold a4 brochures, think about the money you would save getting a web designer or family friend with some design skill to put together a targeted html e-mail campaign or a visual pdf that can be sent out to people by e-mail. At the end of the day its all destined for the wastebin so you might as well try and save a tree along the way

Repair, Reuse, Recycle those designs
In the esteemed words of Bob the Builder, why chuck away something when it can be reused or recycled? The same dictum applies to graphic design. Instead of carelessly discarding a logo design you submitted for a client a couple of years ago, simply add a little blend in adobe photoshop or illustrator and re submit it for another customer.

How big are your design carbon footprints?
Within a short few years, the government will be insisting all companies and businesses track their individual carbon footprints in a token effort to reach out to green voters. What this means is essentially every time you flush the toilet, chuck away a scrap of paper or set fire to a mattress in your back garden, you are going to have to be accountable for your actions and plant a tree for your sins. Why not get ahead of the game now and buy up a large swath of prime rain forest in brazil and sell carbon credits to less responsible businesses?

Sustainable print materials
These days there is no reason to use pulped rain forest paper to produce your brochure designs and elegant business folders. Most printers will be able to source FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) approved paper for printing. Also vegetable based inks are now common place and not as bad as that might sound providing you are only looking for brown and green based design. Although yellow peppers and tomatoes could be used for more warmer colours

So there you have it, you could carry on throwing litter on the floor, burning your used car tyres and pouring poisonous printing chemicals into local ponds but think of the children, won't somebody think of the children. Wouldn't the world be that litter bit better if you didn't?

Understanding Digital Photography White Balance

In digital photography terms, and traditional, you will most likely hear the term “white balance” quite a lot. It’s an important meaning because many digital photography enthusiasts concentrate on the lenses and digital camera without first learning about how light works.

In a nutshell, “white balance” in digital photography relates to the ‘temperature’ of light. If you notice when doing your digital photography indoors, the photo will have a bluish colour through out the digital photo. Then if you take your digital photography outside you will notice the photo then has a warmer tone to it. This is your white balance feature on your digital camera working to adjust the image.
To give you a direct example of how white balance works in your digital photography think of this; have you ever noticed how your colour pictures come out a more bluish tone in the shade? The problem is that because light has temperature, the camera has to analyze this change in its own limited way compared to the human eye.

You can help reduce the blue by altering the setting on the camera or adding a warmer color filter such as yellow. Some colour filters have different shades or hues of the same colour. Each warmer colour filter moves towards a warmer feel and increases in density.

Your white balance in digital photography also works when you walk into an office building. The fluorescent light might be different from that of the doctor’s or a drug store? Well, you’re not imagining things! The reason is there are over 40 different ranges of fluorescent lights and the problem for us digital photographers is that each one has its own colour temperature. It’s not to be avoided, please no! It just means you need to be aware that all florescent lighting is not the same and that you’ll have to consider this when shooting under this type of light.

You can work well with white balance by switching indoor shots to an “outdoor” setting to eliminate the bluish tone in indoor shots. And alternatively you can set the white balance mode to “indoor” when you are outside to reduce some golden/yellow saturation in your outside digital photography shots.