Project 1 progress

2/13

So I've decided to make Wednesday as my weekly major blogging day. I've got a lot to tell you about!

First of all, logo creation has been a minor nightmare. The main issue I've been having is how do you conjure up positive images when you're thinking about human rights? I continually think of oppression and third world countries. Honestly other human rights arts film festivals around the world haven't done much better with their logo creation, if you click useful links at www.hraff.org.au, you'll see other human rights arts film festival logos. Honestly, none of them even tried to make a related logo (just plain text, aesthetic but nothing special), the only one that did in fact try was http://www.derhumalc.org.ar/main_en.htm and I can't help but find it rather cheesy. Obviously the current HRAFF logo has made a good attempt, and I would say it's the best out of the current bunch, but it doesn't really have the fun, despite having the edge.

But I guess everyone is having about the same problem as I am: how do you illustrate human rights, as an issue, as a positive thing?

Here are my initial attempts:
Nothing really came out of these iterations. I didn't mind the last one because honestly, it really didn't mean much and didn't get bogged down in the human rights thing, or the film analogy. It exhibits a unified design, and flows naturally. so I went with that and the product was this:






Still wasn't a fan of it. Just couldn't handle how much it looked like a Microsoft Office clipart decal. So I changed direction again and made yet another logo copysheet, and sadly this is where I'm currently at, waiting for something to pop out and slap me in the face and say "Look at me! I'm exactly what you want!"

After realising that the dove would be a good representation of universal peace, I decided to chop off that lovely wing type graphic and play with it. The top left iteration is the first result of that. I didn't mind it at first, it has an artsy kind of feel to it, and for some odd reason reminds me a lot of guitar hero graphics. If there were any decent images on the web of what I was talking about I'd link them, but for now you'll just have to trust me.

So I had a friend of mine look at the top left logo, and the feedback wasn't so good. He felt it was aggressive and dangerous, which honestly if it reminds me of guitar hero, it's probably true. From there the top right iteration came, which is much friendlier but I just don't really feel it. It probably needs some more reworking. I then decided to resimplify and go with the middle right and bottom logos, which sadly looked more like logos for a travel agency than for human rights. In a last desperate attempt to make a cool looking and fun human rights logo, I slapped that wing logo on a film square and that's currently where I'm up to with logo design. Time to advance with a colour palette and web layout, I'll come back to this when I've got more important things underway. I certainly think I've advanced but it's just not what I'm after yet.