Personal Logo (Crest)

I've finished my Fundamentals of Design I Personal Logo assignment -- at least I'm willing to leave it as "the best I can do for now". There are many flaws that I would try to correct if I did it over -- but that's not the current project.

It's more of a Personal Crest than a logo -- it's far too complicated to communicate as a logo. And, like all crests, it needs an explanation about the symbolism.

My crest is a lozenge shape for a woman, with four quadrants. The upper left signifies England -- I wanted to maintain the traditional 3 lions, but the direction of the middle one is reversed (looking elsewhere). The lower left is the US eagle -- but in a state of becoming. (If it looks more like a dove than an eagle, that's my lack of craft.) The upper right is the fleur de lis of the scholar -- but deconstructed. (I like the double symbolism of the fleur de lis also being the emblem of French kings, and French philosophers taking the lead with deconstruction.) And the bottom right is uniquely me --my initials, trying to escape the boundaries that I have set for myself.

Your comments are requested!

An exotic world

We spent this afternoon at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens -- a world-renown haven for epiphytes, and were awed by the display of orchids, ferns, and trees large and small.

The wind was too cold to sit for long under the Bo tree waiting for enlightenment -- something I surely need for the analysis process needed for a current writing project with Ulla. We wrote a "one week paper" for the 2008 DMI conference in Paris that made a good point, but more through intuition than rigorous research. Afterwards we started to do the background work while I was in Sweden during my sabbatical. But we left it unfinished when other duties called, and now we have another two year's worth of data. I've been trying to think of a "quick and dirty way" of reaching an end-point, but in my heart of hearts I know that is neither satisfying nor possible, and I'd better settle down and do the required work in a rigorous fashion. . .. Or go back to the Bo tree!

Midweek

(Relatively) cold and windy -- again. Breaking waves and a washed-up buoy were highlights of our daily beach walk -- plus more than 60 jellyfish (see pic in last Sunday's post) in a half-mile stretch. About half of them were big, others much smaller or perhaps just parts. No one is swimming these days, so there's no concern, just awe at the size and frequency.

Getting serious...

About learning the "designerly way" to talk about color -- I've spread out my color cards and use them like flash cards -- they have cryptic notations on the back giving the color, for example, R-T4 (I'd call it peach) or BG-LT (light blueish green).

I also try some spot checks -- what color is a zucchini? Or the beaks of the birds on the beach?

Sign of Spring

Z-Pie

Yes, zucchini. 3 pie rating -- "Too sweet and didn't taste like zucchini". Would you really want it to?

Sunday

'Nuff of design stuff. The everyday still exists: Waves, seagulls, and stranded jellyfish (better than a foot in diameter).

And design? After class today I'm back to the drawing board with my two logos -- good critique and suggestions by the instructor. As for color theory -- life will never be the same?